Shiites May Demand Lifting of Limits on Their Power

March 10, 2004
By JOHN F. BURNS

BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 9 — Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders kept up the pressure on Tuesday for changes in the interim constitution they signed on Monday, hinting that they may entangle the next phase of the American political timetable here, choosing a transitional government, by continuing their push for fewer constraints on the powers of the country's Shiite majority.

One of several Shiite leaders who voiced his discontent on Tuesday was Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, widely regarded as the most powerful of the contending Shiite clerical groups. Mr. Hakim is backed by a powerful militia known as the Badr Brigade, which was an Iran-based insurgency group during Saddam Hussein's years in power. He is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the Iranian-born cleric who has emerged as the Shiites' behind-the-scenes kingmaker.

At a news conference in a mansion beside the Tigris River that was formerly the home of Tariq Aziz, a Hussein aide who surrendered to the Americans last year, Mr. Hakim spoke of the interim constitution as a watershed for Iraq in moving beyond the "dictatorship" of Mr. Hussein. But the undercurrent of much else he said was that the new charter must be changed to remove impediments to the powers of the Shiite majority, and that the push for this may be renewed in the negotiations over a transitional government.

"In this law, we can see that there is an absence of the people's will," he said.

Another prominent Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Taqi al-Modaresi, put the matter more bluntly. In a statement, he said the interim constitution's provision for a decentralized federal system, a move the Americans have said is crucial to preventing the rise of another dictator but which is unpopular with Shiite leaders, would be "a time bomb that will spark a civil war in Iraq if it goes off."

The continuing discontent suggested that the interim constitution, hailed as the first big step toward installing an elected government by the end of 2005, could prove to have been a half-step at best. The disputes go to the core issue in Iraq, how the inevitability of Shiite majority rule can be made palatable to the Sunni minority that has been dominant here since the 1920's, and to other groups, principally the Kurds.

Shiite restiveness has focused on provisions intended to protect minorities. One requires a three-fourths majority in the national assembly to be elected late this year or early next for any change in the interim constitution, as well as a unanimous vote by the three-man presidency council, which is certain to contain at least one, and possibly two, non-Shiites. Another, aimed at protecting Kurds, provides that the adoption of a permanent constitution in 2005 could be blocked by two-thirds of the voters in three Iraqi governorates, a formula that Shiites say could give veto power to fewer than one million voters in this nation of 25 million.

Now, the challenge for the American occupation authority will be to persuade the 25 leaders on the Iraqi Governing Council who were corralled into adopting the interim constitution to move forward to a formula for the transitional government, not back to the disputes over the provisions that protect minorities against constitutional revisions. That dispute has already roiled for months, and threatened to derail the interim constitution in the last days before its adoption.

On Friday, the first date set for the signing, it had to be abandoned, when Shiite leaders refused to sign at the last minute. After weekend consultations in Najaf with Ayatollah Sistani, the Shiite leaders agreed to sign the charter, only to issue new calls for the document to be revised as soon as the ceremony ended.

The continuation of those pressures on Tuesday suggested that L. Paul Bremer III, head of the American occupation authority, would find old disputes he hoped were settled dogging him each step of the way as he seeks agreement on the transitional government.

Time is short for those negotiations. American officials acknowledged Tuesday that they have no clear formula for how the transitional government that is to assume power on June 30 should be constructed. Once in office, the transitional leaders will run the country until elections, to be held by Jan. 31 next year, produce a national assembly that will approve a permanent constitution.

Mr. Bremer's spokesman, Dan Senor, said at a news conference on Tuesday that the Americans have "no clear option" for choosing a transitional government. The original American plan was to choose the transitional authority through a system of regional caucuses, but that was scrapped after it was rejected by Ayatollah Sistani, who demanded something the Americans said was impracticable, elections before June 30 that would have assured a strong Shiite majority.

The American position now, Mr. Senor said, was to encourage the governing council members to come forward with their own proposal, and to seek help in the process from the United Nations. The possibilities most widely mooted among American officials are retaining the governing council as it is with its wide mix of ethnic, religious and secular leaders, or to widen the body by drawing in a wider cross-section of Iraqis.

Mr. Bremer turned Tuesday to an issue on which Iraqis have a broader consensus, placing Mr. Hussein on trial. The American met at what used to be Mr. Hussein's Republican Palace with 50 American justice department officials who are to prepare for Mr. Hussein's eventual trial. Mr. Senor said the Americans came as advisers to the Iraqi tribunal set up by the governing council to try Mr. Hussein and his accomplices, not to dictate terms to the Iraqis. "This will be their trial," he said.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy operations director for the American command, said one issue to be settled is whether Mr. Hussein and officials from his government will be transferred to Iraqi custody after June 30.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company