Enligt ett telegram i DN vill Donald Rumsfeld snabba på skrivandet av Iraks konstitution.
Det är dags att sätta fart med Iraks nya konstitution, sade USA:s försvarsminister Donald Rumsfeld när han besökte Bagdad på onsdagen.
– Vi vill inte ha några förseningar, sade han.
En parlamentarisk kommitté arbetar för att få klart konstitutionsförslaget till på måndag. Den 15 augusti är det tänkt att parlamentet ska debattera och rösta om det. I oktober ska en folkomröstning hållas.
Om kommittén inte lyckas få klart förslaget i tid måste den be om ett halvårs uppskov.
International Herald Tribune har mer:
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged Iraqi political leaders Wednesday to settle their differences and agree on a new constitution quickly, and to exert more influence on Syria and Iran to force them to end support for the insurgency here.
Speaking to reporters en route to an unannounced visit here, Rumsfeld laid out a remarkably blunt prescription for what Iraqi leaders must do in the coming weeks and months to ensure that a stable, secure and popularly elected government survives, and to allow American troops to begin to withdraw.
First and foremost, Rumsfeld told reporters, was the need to stick to a political timetable that calls for Iraqi officials to write a constitution by Aug. 15.
“We don’t want any delays,” Rumsfeld said. “They’re simply going to have to make the compromises necessary and get on with it.” He added, “That’s what politics is about.” Any delay in the process would be “very harmful to the momentum that’s necessary,” he said. “We have troops on the ground. People get killed.”
Problemet är att detta inte är vilket politiskt beslut som helst. Dokumentet som tas fram är det som ska styra politiken för lång tid framöver, och sådant ska inte hastas fram. En dålig konstitution är inte mycket värt, för den kommer inte att följas, och det förslag som är aktuellt just nu är inget vidare. Dels lovar den sådant som den irakiska staten inte har möjlighet att garantera, dels är den fortfarande alltför inriktad på olika etniciteter och religiösa grupperingar och sist men inte minst måste man nog ställa sig skeptisk om en grund i islamsk lag är så lämplig. Det är vad som finns just nu, och hastas konstitutionen fram lär det inte bli många förbättringar.
Nathan Brown som översatt konstitutionsförslaget till engelska har skrivit en läsvärd policy outlook för Carnegie Endowment for International Peace räkning. Han tar bland annat upp tidsschemat, problem med processen och varför konstitutionen inte löser Iraks politiska problem.
The drafting process has already encountered two of the major fault lines in Iraqi politics: a KurdishArab division that has grown over the past half-century and a Sunni–Shiite split that has been more recently politicized but suddenly shows signs of dramatically worsening. Although makeshift solutions have allowed the process to go forward, the constitutional committee is increasing the site where the two problems are linked, with very serious consequences for the constitution. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how the constitution can bridge the tremendous gaps within a few weeks. It is far more likely that the draft will either be delayed or merely paper over the deepening divisions in Iraqi society.
Uppdatering: Se också den här artikeln i The Times som tar upp det Fareed Zakaria kallar illiberal demokrati.
Many women in Iraq, especially in the Shia south, are increasingly concerned that Islamic parties are imposing their strict religious ways on women who once enjoyed some of the most liberal rights in the region.
Leaked drafts of Iraq’s forthcoming constitution bear out fears that restrictions on their rights may soon be enshrined in the law. The latest copy of the charter, due to be finalised in three weeks, revealed wording that could roll back a 1959 secular law that enshrined women’s equality.
[…]
Under some rigid interpretations of Islamic law, a husband can divorce his wife merely by stating three times in front of her that their union is terminated. Women’s testimony in court is also given less weight than men’s, at a time when rights groups say domestic violence is rising rapidly. Obtaining convictions in rape cases would be particularly difficult, analysts say.
[…]
“These are the dark days we are going through,” Yennar Mohammad, the head of the Baghdad-based Organisation of Women’s Freedom in Iraq, said. “Imagine you have a committee where half the constitution writers are Islamist groups and some of them are nationalist groups with a tribal mentality. We are looking at a committee, or selected misogynist group, that have only one thing in common . . . that they want to keep women in an inferior status in this society.”
A serious concern for Ms Mohammed is the possibility of young girls being married off. She said: “Under Islam, when the Prophet married his last wife, she was nine years old. In the United States they give a name to this kind of sexual union. Under Islam this is legal and anyone can do it.”