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Iraqi leaders sign interim constitution { March 7 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
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Iraqi leaders sign interim constitution
By James Drummond in Baghdad and James Harding in Washington
Published: March 7 2004 12:04 | Last Updated: March 8 2004 11:06
Iraq's interim Governing Council signed the country's temporary constitution on Monday after Shia representatives held weekend meetings with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's leading Shia cleric.
But minutes before the signing ceremony loud explosions were heard across central Baghdad. The US army was unable to confirm the extent of the explosions, however witnesses reported that one of the blasts was caused by a rocket which landed on a house. No one was injured.
The US military and Iraqi security forces were already placed on high alert, with fears that militants may try to disrupt the signing ceremony.
All 25 members of the Governing Council, including the Council president Mohammad Bahr al-Uloom, signed the interim constitution, with the US civil administrator Paul Bremer and other western officials looking on.
The council was able to reach an agreement on the interim constitution after Mr Sistani, who does not speak in public, had backed down from demands for an expanded presidency to reflect the Shia majority in Iraq and from objections to a provision for an effective Kurdish veto of a new constitution.
Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, a member of the Governing Council who visited Mr Sistani on Sunday, said: "We think Sistani does not want to provoke a crisis in the country but, to the contrary, wishes to facilitate our work."
On Friday, five Shia politicians on the US-appointed council, including Mr Rubaie, refused to sign the temporary law although it had been unanimously agreed earlier in the week after two months of negotiations.
The Shia demands directly challenged safeguards obtained by Kurdish politicians to preserve elements of their 12-year autonomy in northern Iraq.
Officials in the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority insisted over the weekend that they were leaving last-minute negotiations to the 25 IGC members and that the delay was part of the rough and tumble of democratic politics.
The Shia politicians also wanted to bolster their credibility on the Iraqi street after last week's brutal bombings of two shrines, which killed more than 180 people.
If the law, the centre-piece of US postwar policy, is signed on Monday it is due to take effect on June 30 and run through to the end of 2005.
Most of the law's political provisions kick in once elections have been held. This means that structures for the interim period between June and the end of the year or early next, as specified in the law, have not yet been agreed.
Dan Senor, Mr Bremer's spokesman, said on Saturday that the CPA was awaiting "additional input" from the United Nations as it examined how to handle the interim period.
"No single option is in the lead," Mr Senor said, when asked if the US was considering expanding the Governing Council or trying to organise a large-scale meeting of Iraqi notables.
Separately, a delegation of 50 lawyers, investigators and prosecutors are being sent from the Department of Justice in Washington to Baghdad in order to help assemble the case against Saddam Hussein.
The group - which will be called the Regime Crimes Adviser's Office - will report to Mr Bremer.
Their task is to lay the groundwork for the war crimes trials of Mr Hussein and other former members of his regime, but the trials themselves will be conducted by Iraqis.
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