Iraqs
Draft Constitution:A Recipe
For Neo-Colonial Rule
By James Cogan
31 August 2005
World
Socialist Web
The
constitution that was endorsed by Iraqs presidential council on
Sunday, and is to be put to a referendum by October 15, is an outrage
against the Iraqi people. From beginning to end, it has been written
to advance US imperialist ambitions in the Middle East, notably long-term
control over Iraqs oil reserves and permanent military bases in
the country.
For months, the
Bush administration has sought to portray the constitutional negotiations
as a democratic process involving representatives of Iraqs ethnic
and religious factions. It would, according to Washington, assist in
curbing the insurgency that has raged since the March 2003 US-led invasion
and create conditions for a staged withdrawal of American troops.
The end result is
a sordid pact between the US government, Kurdish nationalist parties
and two Shiite Muslim fundamentalist organisationsDaawa
and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)that
will dramatically intensify the armed resistance and could plunge Iraq
into a bloody civil war. The final draft has been rejected by every
significant representative of the countrys Sunni Arab community
and has not been endorsed by the Shiite movement led by cleric Moqtada
al-Sadr. Aspects of the document are bitterly opposed by ethnic Turkomen
in Iraqs north, Christians, secular organisations and women.
If it were ratified,
the constitution would overturn the secular character of the Iraqi state
and establish the basis for the wholesale erosion in womens rights
and religious freedom. Guarantees of equality under the law are directly
contradicted by the second article of the constitution, declaring Islam
the official state religion and a source of law, and that no law
can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam.
The Supreme Court that will interpret the constitution will include
individuals appointed because of their expertise in Islamic lawin
other words, clerics.
Articles such as
the ones banning arbitrary detention and the handing over of Iraqi nationals
to foreign bodies or authorities are worthless under conditions
of a US military occupation and regular declarations of martial law.
Thousands of Iraqis suspected of being insurgents have been rounded
up and held in US and government-run prisons without charges or trial
dates.
Behind the window-dressing
of such formal guarantees of civil and political liberties, the real
agenda stands out. The Kurdish and Shiite parties have agreed to a document
that sanctions the privatisation of the state-owned oil industry and
the free market restructuring of the economy. Article 25 declares the
state shall guarantee the reforming of the Iraqi economy according to
modern economic bases, in a way that ensures complete investment of
its resources, diversifying its sources and encouraging and developing
the private sector. Article 110 (2) of the constitution declares
Iraqs energy resources will be developed relying on the
most modern techniques of market principles and encouraging investment.
In exchange for
permitting the US plunder of the Iraqi economy, the constitution will
allow the Kurdish and Shiite fundamentalist elites to gain control over
much of the revenue generated by the oil industry, through the establishment
of federal regions in the areas under their authority.
In northern Iraq,
the three provinces already under the sway of the Kurdish nationalists
are codified as a federal state, with the potential to expand its territory
to include the rich oil fields around the city of Kirkuk. In the main
oil-producing area of southern Iraq, which has a majority Shiite population,
SCIRI is looking to establish a region that absorbs as much as half
the countrys territory.
The central government
in Baghdad will have the power to administer only the oil and
gas extracted from current fields, in cooperation with the regions.
The regional states are delegated authority over all new oil fields
and therefore control over the negotiation of exploration contracts
and the bulk of revenues derived from future production.
Federalism and the
de-facto partitioning of the country have been the focus of the opposition
by both Sunni organisations and Sadrs Shiite movement, which is
primarily based in Baghdad. A federal structure thoroughly compromises
the interests of this section of the Iraqi ruling elite. It would leave
the resource-poor provinces of central and western Iraq, where the majority
of Sunni Muslims live, dependent on the largesse of the oil-rich regions.
At the same time,
the federal system will facilitate the long-term domination of the weak
central government by the Kurdish and Shiite parties that won the majority
of the seats in the January 30 election. The regional governmentsnot
Baghdadwill have jurisdiction over internal security and the power
to establish internal security forces... such as police, security
and regional guards. The flow of oil revenues into their coffers
makes it inevitable that the Kurdish and Shiite elite will preside over
what will be little more than one-party mini-states, with their political
opponents facing systematic repression.
Washingtons
desire for at least some degree of Sunni endorsement of the constitution
led to a personal call by Bush to SCIRI leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim last
Wednesday and frantic last-minute diplomacy by the US ambassador in
Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad. The US insisted that the constitution be modified
to remove the articles spelling out the mechanics of how a region would
be formed and to give the government elected in December six months
to put them in place.
Governments and
organisations across the Middle East have expressed concern over the
danger that Iraq is lurching toward a sectarian civil war and possible
fragmentation. The Turkish government, which has threatened military
intervention to prevent the emergence of a separate Kurdish state in
northern Iraq, warned during the week that it was the closely
monitoring the drafting of the constitution. The Saudi foreign
minister stated he hoped the document would guarantee Iraqi national
unity and Arab and Islamic identity. The Sunni Muslim Organisation
of the Islamic Conference labelled a constitution that was not supported
by all Iraqis a threat to lasting peace, stability and democracy.
While certain modifications
were made to the document, the Sunni and Sadrist demands that the entire
issue of federalism be postponed were rejected by the government parties,
and eventually by US officials.
The central US demand
throughout the entire constitutional process has been that there can
be no delay in forming an internationally-recognised Iraqi government
by the end of this year. The Bush administration is guided by utterly
pragmatic and reckless considerations. It wants a regime that has the
power to carry through a sell-off of the oil industry and to sign agreements
sanctioning the permanent US military bases that are being built in
key areas of the country. After months of horse-trading, the deal with
the Kurdish and Shiite factions has emerged as the most viable way of
transforming Iraq into an American client state.
The control of the
Baghdad government by the Shia-Kurd bloc also dovetails with US military
plans to withdraw forces from certain areas of Iraq and hand over responsibility
to Iraqi military units. Tens of thousands of Kurdish peshmerga and
Shiite fundamentalist militia, loyal to their respective parties, have
already enlisted into the army, police and paramilitary units. They
are being accused of extra-judicial killings, arrests and intimidation
of opponents of the occupation.
In the long-term,
the collaboration of the Iraqi factions will potentially permit the
sending home of some US troops to placate the growing demands in the
US for a withdrawal. It will also facilitate new interventions and wars
by US imperialism elsewhere.
Over the next period,
the US military will be able to concentrate its forces in the Sunni
provinces where the constitution is most opposed and where the armed
resistance is centred. The constitution can be defeated if two-thirds
of voters in just three provinces vote No in the referendum.
Sunni Arabs and Shiite supporters of al-Sadr make up an overwhelming
majority of the population in at least five central and western provinces,
including Baghdad.
The opposition to
the constitution is already developing into a campaign to register Sunnis
so as to vote down the constitution. The Association of Muslim Scholars,
the association of Sunni clerics which called for a boycott of the January
election, is supporting participation in the referendum. It has condemned
the constitutional drafting as a political process which had been
led by the occupiers and their collaborators. Over 100,000 Sadr
supporters demonstrated last Friday in Baghdad and other cities in opposition
to a federal constitution.
If a genuine democratic
ballot were able to take place on October 15 and the constitution voted
down, the implications would sharply escalate the political crisis confronting
the US occupation. Under existing guidelines, new elections would have
to be called and another attempt made to draft the constitution. The
conflicting interests and ambitions of rival factions of the Iraqi elite
are such that the entire process would collapse into a political impasse,
communal recriminations and civil war.
The same could take
place if the constitution is ratified. The logic of the Bush administrations
neocolonial policy in Iraq is leading inexorably to an escalation of
violence by the US military and its allies against mounting political
opposition and armed resistance.