Post by Moses on May 16, 2005 8:46:43 GMT -5
Mon, May. 16, 2005
Rice urges Sunni role in Iraqi constitution
U.S. OFFICIAL ALSO ACCUSES SYRIA OF `STANDING IN THE WAY' OF PEACE
Mercury News Wire Services
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Iraq on Sunday to urge its new Shiite-dominated government to greatly increase the involvement of Sunni Arabs in writing the Iraqi constitution, amid growing administration alarm that a chance to draw the dispossessed Sunni minority into Iraq's new democracy is slipping away.
On a trip that underscored Washington's urgency, Rice carried a clear message: Shiite political leaders should respond rapidly and effectively to any sign that wavering elements of the Sunni Arab insurgency may be ready to turn to peace.
``The insurgency is very violent,'' Rice said, ``but you defeat insurgencies not just militarily.''
She also brought a stark warning for neighboring Syria, accusing it of ``standing in the way of the Iraqi people's desire for peace.''
The warning followed a week of fighting by a 1,000-strong Marine battle group along the Syrian border. Commanders said that they had killed at least 125 insurgents but that groups of insurgents had also fled to safe haven in Syria. ``Syria is badly out of step in the region,'' Rice said.
The anxious atmosphere surrounding Rice's journey was compounded Sunday by a further wave of the violence that has shaken the new government, which took office 13 days ago. Iraqi officials announced the discovery of 46 bodies at sites in and near Baghdad. There were also three suicide bombings around the country, and three drive-by shootings in Baghdad; one shooting killed a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shiite cleric.
``The ones who killed these people want to create a civil war,'' Saleem Mohammed, 35, who owns a grocery store in Baghdad's Sadr City, told Knight Ridder.
Mohammed and other angry residents called for government forces to turn security over to the Mahdi Army, the militia led by the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is popular among poor Iraqis.
``I can't believe the government is still incapable of securing the country,'' said Mona Qassim, 20, the wife of a Mahdi militiaman. ``These terrorists want to kill all Iraqis. They kill Sunnis and put them in Shiite neighborhoods. They kill Shiites and put them in Sunni neighborhoods.''
Rice said that Iraqi forces were progressing toward securing their own country and containing an insurgency trying to thwart the new government.
``The strategy for the transfer of responsibility to the Iraqi security forces is to equip and train the Iraqi security forces as quickly as possible,'' Rice said. ``Our promise to the Iraqi leadership is the multinational forces are here to help Iraq defend itself until it can defend itself. We want that to be as soon as possible, I assure you.''
The secretary of state's journey -- on a C-17 military transport aircraft, with shorter hops inside Iraq aboard helicopter gunships -- included a stopover in northern Iraq to talk to Massoud Barzani, the powerful Kurdish leader. Kurds are the Shiites' principal partners in the new government.
From there, she flew on to Baghdad, for meetings in the heavily fortified ``green zone'' command complex that included Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, U.S. military leaders and aides to Jaafari, including the deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi and Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi.
In an interview after the talks, Rice said she had specifically cautioned the Iraqis that de-Baathification -- the process Shiite hard-liners favor of purging the government and the new armed forces of all who served at senior levels under Saddam Hussein -- should not be so severe as to impede the creation of an ``inclusive'' government.
She said she also made clear that the Bush administration was deeply concerned that the parliamentary committee drafting the new Iraqi constitution had only two Sunni Arabs among its 55 members.
With the 12-hour visit, Rice became the highest-ranking American official to visit Iraq since the January elections. The vote, which drew millions of Iraqis to the polls, was seen as a major boost to the American plan to build a Western-style democracy here.
But that political momentum was largely squandered in the three months of negotiating and maneuvering it took for the new government to emerge, and a brief lull in violence has given way to one of the war's bloodiest passages, with at least 70 car bombings and nearly 500 people killed over the past two weeks.
Separately, a Senate investigation has concluded that top Kremlin operatives, ultra-nationalist Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky and a Houston oil company reaped millions of dollars in profits under the U.N. oil-for-food program by selling oil that Saddam allowed them to buy at a deep discount.
The New York Times, Knight Ridder and the Washington Post contributed to this report.
© 2005 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
www.mercurynews.com
Rice urges Sunni role in Iraqi constitution
U.S. OFFICIAL ALSO ACCUSES SYRIA OF `STANDING IN THE WAY' OF PEACE
Mercury News Wire Services
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Iraq on Sunday to urge its new Shiite-dominated government to greatly increase the involvement of Sunni Arabs in writing the Iraqi constitution, amid growing administration alarm that a chance to draw the dispossessed Sunni minority into Iraq's new democracy is slipping away.
On a trip that underscored Washington's urgency, Rice carried a clear message: Shiite political leaders should respond rapidly and effectively to any sign that wavering elements of the Sunni Arab insurgency may be ready to turn to peace.
``The insurgency is very violent,'' Rice said, ``but you defeat insurgencies not just militarily.''
She also brought a stark warning for neighboring Syria, accusing it of ``standing in the way of the Iraqi people's desire for peace.''
The warning followed a week of fighting by a 1,000-strong Marine battle group along the Syrian border. Commanders said that they had killed at least 125 insurgents but that groups of insurgents had also fled to safe haven in Syria. ``Syria is badly out of step in the region,'' Rice said.
The anxious atmosphere surrounding Rice's journey was compounded Sunday by a further wave of the violence that has shaken the new government, which took office 13 days ago. Iraqi officials announced the discovery of 46 bodies at sites in and near Baghdad. There were also three suicide bombings around the country, and three drive-by shootings in Baghdad; one shooting killed a representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the country's most revered Shiite cleric.
``The ones who killed these people want to create a civil war,'' Saleem Mohammed, 35, who owns a grocery store in Baghdad's Sadr City, told Knight Ridder.
Mohammed and other angry residents called for government forces to turn security over to the Mahdi Army, the militia led by the militant Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who is popular among poor Iraqis.
``I can't believe the government is still incapable of securing the country,'' said Mona Qassim, 20, the wife of a Mahdi militiaman. ``These terrorists want to kill all Iraqis. They kill Sunnis and put them in Shiite neighborhoods. They kill Shiites and put them in Sunni neighborhoods.''
Rice said that Iraqi forces were progressing toward securing their own country and containing an insurgency trying to thwart the new government.
``The strategy for the transfer of responsibility to the Iraqi security forces is to equip and train the Iraqi security forces as quickly as possible,'' Rice said. ``Our promise to the Iraqi leadership is the multinational forces are here to help Iraq defend itself until it can defend itself. We want that to be as soon as possible, I assure you.''
The secretary of state's journey -- on a C-17 military transport aircraft, with shorter hops inside Iraq aboard helicopter gunships -- included a stopover in northern Iraq to talk to Massoud Barzani, the powerful Kurdish leader. Kurds are the Shiites' principal partners in the new government.
From there, she flew on to Baghdad, for meetings in the heavily fortified ``green zone'' command complex that included Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, U.S. military leaders and aides to Jaafari, including the deputy prime minister Ahmad Chalabi and Defense Minister Sadoun al-Dulaimi.
In an interview after the talks, Rice said she had specifically cautioned the Iraqis that de-Baathification -- the process Shiite hard-liners favor of purging the government and the new armed forces of all who served at senior levels under Saddam Hussein -- should not be so severe as to impede the creation of an ``inclusive'' government.
She said she also made clear that the Bush administration was deeply concerned that the parliamentary committee drafting the new Iraqi constitution had only two Sunni Arabs among its 55 members.
With the 12-hour visit, Rice became the highest-ranking American official to visit Iraq since the January elections. The vote, which drew millions of Iraqis to the polls, was seen as a major boost to the American plan to build a Western-style democracy here.
But that political momentum was largely squandered in the three months of negotiating and maneuvering it took for the new government to emerge, and a brief lull in violence has given way to one of the war's bloodiest passages, with at least 70 car bombings and nearly 500 people killed over the past two weeks.
Separately, a Senate investigation has concluded that top Kremlin operatives, ultra-nationalist Russian politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky and a Houston oil company reaped millions of dollars in profits under the U.N. oil-for-food program by selling oil that Saddam allowed them to buy at a deep discount.
The New York Times, Knight Ridder and the Washington Post contributed to this report.
© 2005 MercuryNews.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
www.mercurynews.com
