Posted on 03/08/2004 3:05:56 AM PST by William McKinley
Iraq's United States-appointed Governing Council have gathered to sign an interim constitution crucial to US plans to hand sovereignty back to Iraqis, after Shiite Muslim politicians withdrew their objections.
Sources close to the council's deliberations say it has passed a resolution to sign the constitution.
The signing of the constitution has been delayed twice.
The first delay was caused by bomb attacks on Shiites last Tuesday, which killed at least 181 people.
Then last-minute doubts among Shiites forced the abandonment of a high-profile ceremony on Friday.
Representatives of the five groups that backed out on Friday spent the weekend in the holy city of Najaf talking with top clerics, including Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who wields immense influence over Iraq's Shiite majority.
They announced yesterday that Ayatollah Sistani still has deep reservations about the document but has given them the go ahead to sign it, in the interests of advancing political transition.
Others present say the cleric would have liked to push for changes, but felt the furthest he could go was to make his objections clear and leave it up to the politicians to do what they felt necessary.
Under the US timetable, an Iraqi Government is to take over sovereignty on June 30 and elections for a transitional assembly are to be held by the end of January next year.
The main point of dispute had been a clause in the constitution that may allow Iraq's Kurdish minority to veto a planned permanent constitution if it does not enshrine their right to autonomy in three northern provinces.
The Kurds, who have ruled three provinces of northern Iraq since wresting them from Saddam Hussein's control after the 1991 Gulf war, had said that if the clause was not included they would not sign.
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Today: March 08, 2004 at 5:20:39 PST
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -
The Iraqi Governing Council signed an interim constitution on Monday. The 25-page document, or Transitional Administrative Law, was published in Arabic and English. Here is a summary, which was released by the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority:
The Transitional Administrative Law will be the Supreme Law of Iraq, during the transitional period. It will expire once a government is elected under a permanent constitution and take office. This will happen no later than December 31, 2005. The transitional period will consist of two phases:
Phase I: On 30 June 2004, an Iraqi Interim Government will be vested with full sovereignty, and the Coalition Provisional Authority will dissolve. This Iraqi government will be formed through a process of widespread consultation with the Iraqi people and will govern according to the Transitional Administrative Law and an annex to be issued before the beginning of the transitional period.
Phase II: The Iraqi Transitional Government will take office after elections for the National Assembly. These elections will take place as soon as possible, but no later than 31 January 2005.
The Fundamental Principles of the Law include the following:
The system of government in Iraq will be republican, federal, democratic, and pluralistic. Federalism will be based on geography, history, and the separation of powers and not on ethnicity or sect.
The Iraqi Armed Forces will fall under the control of Iraq's civilian political leadership.
Islam will be the official religion of the State and will be considered a source of legislation. The Law will respect the Islamic identity of the majority of the Iraqi people and guarantee the freedom of religious belief and practice.
Arabic and Kurdish will be the official languages of Iraq.
The people of Iraq are sovereign and free. All Iraqis are equal in their rights and without regard to gender, nationality, religion, or ethnic origin and they are equal before the law. Those unjustly deprived of their citizenship by previous Iraqi regimes will have the right to reclaim their citizenship. The government will respect the rights of the people, including the rights:
To freedom of thought, conscience, and expression;
To assemble peaceably and to associate and organize freely;
To justice; to a fair, speedy, and open trial and to the presumption of innocence;
To vote, according to law, in free, fair, competitive and periodic elections;
To file grievances against officials when these rights have been violated.
The Transitional Iraqi Government will contain checks, balances, and the separation of powers. The federal government will have the exclusive right to exercise sovereign power in a number of critical areas, including the management and control of the following:
National security policy; independent militias shall be prohibited,
Foreign policy, diplomatic representation, and border control,
National fiscal, monetary and commercial policy,
National resources; revenues from which must be spent on the needs of all of Iraq's regions in an equitable manner.
The Transitional Legislative Authority will be vested in a National Assembly, which will pass laws and help select and oversee the work of the executive authority. The National Assembly will be freely elected by the people of Iraq, under an electoral system designed to achieve representation of women of at least one-quarter of its members, as well as fair representation of all of Iraq's communities.
The Transitional Executive Authority will consist of the Presidency and the Council of Ministers, including the Prime Minister.
The Presidency Council will consist of the President and two Deputy Presidents, and will be elected by the National Assembly as a group. The Presidency Council will represent the sovereignty of Iraq, may veto laws, and make appointments. All decisions of the Presidency Council will be taken unanimously.
The Presidency Council will nominate the Prime Minister and, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, will also nominate the Council of Ministers. All ministers will need to be confirmed in a vote of confidence by the National Assembly.
The Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers will oversee the day-to-day management of the government.
The Federal Judicial Authority will be independent. A Federal Supreme Court will be created to hear judicial appeals and to ensure that all laws in Iraq are consistent with the Transitional Administrative Law. It will consist of nine members, who will be appointed by the Presidency Council upon the recommendation of an impartial Higher Juridical Council.
Federalism and local government will ensure a unified Iraq and prevent the concentration of power in the central government that enabled decades of tyranny and oppression. This will encourage the exercise of local authority in which all citizens are able to participate actively in political life.
The Kurdistan Regional Government will be recognized as an official regional government within a unified Iraq, and will continue to exercise many of the functions it currently exercises. Groups of governorates elsewhere in Iraq will be permitted to form regions, and take on additional authorities.
The governorates will have Governors and Governorate Councils, in addition to municipal, local, and city councils as appropriate.
All authorities not reserved to the Federal Government may be exercised as appropriate by the governorates and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Elections for Governorate Councils throughout Iraq, and also for the Kurdistan National Assembly will be held at the same time as elections for the National Assembly, no later than 31 January 2005.
Iraq's security will be defended by Iraqi Armed Forces, working together with the Coalition. Consistent with Iraq's sovereign status, the Iraqi Armed Forces will play a leading role as a partner in the multinational force helping to bring security to Iraq in the transitional period. The Iraqi Transitional Government will also have the authority to negotiate a security agreement with Coalition forces.
The National Assembly will be responsible for drafting the permanent constitution.
After consulting with the Iraqi people and completing a draft, the proposed constitution will be submitted to the public in a referendum, which will occur no later than 15 October 2005. If the constitution is adopted, elections for a new government under the constitution will be held, and the new government will take office no later than 31 December 2005.
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Yay !!! It took Iraq MUCH less time than it did the U.S. to come up
with a Constitution after we won our freedom from Great Britain !!Way to go, everybody involved !!
We are winning ~ the bad guys are losing ~ trolls, terrorists, democrats and the mainstream media are sad ~ very sad!
 A member of the Iraqi Governing Council holds the signed Iraqi interim constitution in Baghdad on March 8, 2004. Iraq (news - web sites)'s Governing Council signed an interim constitution Monday, a key step toward a planned hand over of sovereignty by U.S.-led occupation forces to Iraqis on June 30. REUTERS/Peter Andrews |
Raja Habib Al-Khuzaai, one of the only two women members of the Iraqi Governing Council, signs the new Iraqi interim constitution during a historic signing ceremony Monday March 8, 2004 in Baghdad, Iraq (news - web sites). The signing came after the council members finally resolved a political impasse sparked by objections from the country's most powerful cleric. The signing was a key step in U.S. plans to hand over power to the Iraqis. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
(And their Commander in Chief, of course. ;o)
I hope that 10 years from now, I will be reading about the great success story of the Iraqi representative democracy.
Whoo hoo!
We will remember and thank all who sacrificed for the freedom of the Iraqi people.
More celebrating here, including the DoD versions, and a copy of the "Bill of Rights"....and more fireworks, lol! It is a great day!
Iraqi Council Signs Interim Constitution ~ 
~ Happy Independence Day, Iraq! God bless our troops!
~ God bless America! ~ 
~ Yahoo News | 3/08/04 | Hamza Hendawi
8 Iraqi Governing Council Signs Interim Constitution ~ DoD-AFPS | 3/08/04 | Donna Miles
I'll let you know when we find out for sure.
They opened the evening news with a story about violence in Haiti. I think the constitution-signing in Iraq should have been the lead item in both the AM and PM. This is a supremely newsworthy event in my opinion.
Small sidenote -- I noticed that Corry Flintoff pronounced "nuclear" as "nucular" when doing a story on the Nuclear Regulatory Agency.
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