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Shiites pushing for federalism in iraq { October 12 2006 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200860.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/12/AR2006101200860.html
Shiites Accused of Using Dirty Tricks
By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
The Associated Press
Thursday, October 12, 2006; 2:29 PM
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Sunni politicians accused Shiite lawmakers Thursday of using dirty tricks to push through a new law on federalism, a landmark measure that will transform Iraq by allowing Shiites to form a self-rule mini-state in the south.
The dispute reflects the controversy over federalism, which leaders of Iraq's majority Shiites support but which Sunnis deeply oppose, fearing it will tear the country to pieces and fuel sectarian violence.
The passage of the bill has deepened feelings among some Sunni Arabs that their voices are being ignored in the political process, where Shiite parties dominate the government and parliament.
The vote on the law Wednesday was marred by a boycott by the Sunni bloc of lawmakers, along with several Shiite parties, who also reject some specifics of the bill.
The boycott delayed the vote for several hours as supporters tried to convince lawmakers to attend and scrambled to achieve a quorum _ 138 of the 275 legislators. The session was closed to the public, and after repeated counts it was announced that 140 lawmakers attended. The measure was passed unanimously by a show of hands, with no count of the vote.
One of the main Sunni parties, however, accused the Shiites of fudging the numbers, saying quorum had not been reached.
"The session was confused and turbulent. They claimed they met the quorum but they did not. There were no more than 126 lawmakers," said Mohammed al-Daimi of the National Dialogue Council.
"We will raise an appeal against the process and seek an investigation into the vote," he said.
The federalism law sets up a system allowing provinces to form autonomous regions that would hold considerable self-rule powers, a right given to them under the constitution adopted last year in a national referendum despite opposition by most Sunnis.
Some Shiites want to create an autonomous zone in their heartland in the south, much like the self-ruling Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
But Sunni Arabs fear that will split Iraq into sectarian mini-states, giving Shiite and Kurds control over oil riches in the south and north, and leaving Sunnis in an impoverished central zone without resources.
Some Shiite parties _ including the faction of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr _ also oppose the measures for nationalist reasons or because they worry that the largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq will gain on a lock on power in any southern mini-state.
The law included a provision that no regions can be formed for 18 months, a concession to Sunni concerns. But critics fear that any steps toward federalism now could wreck Sunnis' faith in the political process and push them toward violence, if they feel that is the only way to stop what they see as the dismemberment of Iraq.
"This resolution is a catastrophe for Iraq ... (It) will push Iraqis to kill each other instead of reconciling with each other," said the Dialogue Front's leader Saleh al-Mutlaq.
"There will be disputes over resources, wealth and borders between provinces," he said.
The number of lawmakers who attended Wednesday's session could not be independently confirmed, and doing so is made more difficult since parliament has sometimes cut corners in procedure. When the voting took place, all hands were raised in favor, so they were not counted.
The headcount for quorum is done by parliament employees _ each one counts a bloc, to which they are often sympathetic. Employees gave the Associated Press differing accounts: Shiite ones said 140 lawmakers were present, while Sunni ones said only 133. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Whatever the outcome, the wrangling underlined Iraq's sectarian bitterness, with both sides demonizing the other _ sharpened by three years of violence by the Sunni insurgency and the brutal wave of killings this year blamed on Shiite and Sunni death squads.
Triumphant with the bill's passage, the Shiite SCIRI leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim dismissed Sunni opponents of federalism as "Saddamists, Baathists and Takfiris (Islamic radicals)."
Al-Mutlaq, of the Sunni Dialogue Front, meanwhile, said the votes of the Shiite lawmakers shouldn't be counted anyway, suggesting they were really loyal only to mainly Shiite Iran.
"They hold Persian citizenship ... and so don't have legitimacy to be parliament members according to Iraqi constitution," he said.
© 2006 The Associated Press
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