Roundup: Iraqis hope Sunni constitutional boycott really over

Sunni Arab writers of Iraq's constitution have returned to the committee tasked with writing the country's permanent charter, but many Iraqis doubt that the nightmare of the Sunni boycott has really gone away.

Iraqi politicians described as fragile an agreement between the Iraqi government and the Sunni members of the constitution committee.

Last week, three Sunni members Mejbil al-Sheikh Issa, Aziz Ibrahim and Dhamin Hassan al-Ubaidi were gunned down in central Baghdad. They were among the 17 Sunni Arab members in the 71-member committee tasked with drafting a permanent constitution by Aug. 15.

On Monday, Iraq's Sunni Arab constitution writers agreed to rejoin the drafting discussions again in the run-up to the country's new charter after their demands were met.

The Sunnis had demanded a through investigation into the killings, improvement of protections for Sunnis and a greater Sunni role in composing the charter, as they have believed the government and the militias of some governmental parties were responsible for the assassination.

Adnan Al Janabi, a prominent Sunni member representing the Ayad Allawi's bloc, complained that the absence of the Sunni members opened the door for other parties in the committee to "pass some previously planned issues."

Non-confidence crisis prevailed the Iraqi political scene, which was reflected in the announcement of Salih Al Mutlak, one of the prominent Sunni figures taking part in writing the constitution, " We do not trust the government or its intentions."

However, the Sunni Arabs showed their readiness to take part in the political process, saying their boycott of the parliamentary elections in January was a "mistake".

For their part, the Shiite and Kurds who won most of the seats in the National Assembly (parliament) were forced to accept the membership of 25 Sunni figures, who are not members of the parliament, to be added to the two Sunni MPs who represent Sunnis in the committee.

Some accused unidentified parties of deliberately hampering the drafting process to let the present Shiite-dominated government stay at the power longer time, as new government supposed to be elected by the end of the year as planned by the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL).

The Americans were at the field, when they practiced pressures on the government to include Sunni Arabs in constitution drafting process as well as the whole political process to ease the country's insurgency, which was widely thought to be supported by Sunnis.

Since the ousting of the Saddam Hussein regime in April, 2003, many Sunni Arabs have felt marginalized by a US-shaped political order that has favoured Shiite and Kurdish parties at the expense of a community that has traditionally ruled Iraq.

Although the government emphasized many times that the constitution would be ready in time, some in Washington expressed fear that the process of writing the constitution is slow.

The Bush administration was keen to shed lights on the significance of the constitution in establishing what he described as "safe and democratic Iraq".

Many Iraqis hope that the differing parties would agree to a constitution that would rid the country from the dark memories.

However, consensus still needed for many complicated and controversial issues before it would be possible to say that the constitution would be finalized on time and that the nightmare of the boycott would not come back again.

Source: Xinhua