News 2005

Iraq's President Expects Constitution by August
April 8, 2005

By Mariam Karouny:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's new president, veteran Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, said Friday that lawmakers will meet a mid-August deadline for writing a constitution despite weeks of delay in forming a government.

"Drafting the constitution will be done on time," Talabani told Reuters in his first interview since being named president.

Once a government is formed, writing a constitution is the next key political step on the road to new elections by end-2005.

Ten weeks after Iraq's Jan. 30 elections, a new government has yet to be formed due to haggling among political blocs. But progress was made this week with Talabani becoming president and Shi'ite leader Ibrahim Jaafari named prime minister.

The government's top priority would be bringing stability to Iraq and fighting the insurgency,
Talabani said.

"The first thing we are thinking of doing after forming a national unity government is to build stability and security and to terminate terrorism," he said, adding that some insurgents may be offered an amnesty if their crimes were not too serious.

"We need to make a distinction between misled Iraqis, those who believe that they are carrying weapons to liberate Iraq from what they call occupation, and criminal gangs that came from outside and wants to wage a deadly war on the Iraqi people, killing women and children in mosques and churches," he said.

Criminals and foreign fighters would be isolated and hunted down, Talabani said. "As for the others, we might enter in dialogue with them and call on them to join the Iraqi democratic process and issue a pardon for them," he said.

BREAKTHROUGH FOR KURDS

The election of Talabani has shown the new political clout of the Kurds, who have ruled an autonomous enclave in northern Iraq since breaking away from Saddam Hussein's rule in 1991.

Talabani said he had long dreamed that a Kurd would one day be president of Iraq -- but never thought it would be him:

"I never dreamt of taking any position. I was hoping for a democratic and federal Iraq, but I never cared for positions. I expected that one day when Iraq becomes a country where citizens are equal that a Kurd would be a president, and why not?"

He said that as a young man he had modest aspirations. "All I wanted was to be a university teacher," Talabani said.

Talabani's Kurdish coalition came second in the polls, behind a Shi'ite alliance. Iraq's Sunni Arabs, who dominated the country during Saddam Hussein's rule, have been left with minimal representation in parliament because few voted.

Shi'ite and Kurdish leaders say they will ensure that Sunni Arabs are included in government.

"Our Sunni Arabs brothers made a big mistake when they boycotted the elections," Talabani said. "But they are an important group and we cannot ignore them and therefore they must take part in the democratic process."

Talabani said he would meet Sunni Arab leaders to try to persuade them to rejoin the political process. He said he would also work to get Sunni Arab prisoners released from jails if they were not accused of specific crimes or insurgent attacks.

Talabani also vowed to strive to ensure that human rights would be respected and Iraq would never return to dictatorship.

"We must provide all kinds of freedom, personal and economic, to all Iraqis. I will fight for that,"
he said.

"What happened during dictatorship must not happen again, and we should do whatever it takes to prevent any of the crimes that happened before from happening again."

Asked if he had a message for his predecessor Saddam, Talabani said he would remind the ousted dictator about a letter that Talabani had sent to him before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

"I told you in my last letter, answering a threatening letter you sent me, that you should resign and hand over authority to an interim government that would run the country and supervise elections to save yourself and your people," Talabani said.

"It is too bad you didn't listen to me," he said. "Every human must take responsibility for his actions."

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