Shiites press for changes in Iraq pact

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraq's most powerful Shiite leaders kept up the pressure on Tuesday for changes in the interim constitution they signed on Monday, hinting that they may entangle the next phase of the U.S. political timetable here, choosing a transitional government, by continuing their push for fewer constraints on the powers of the country's Shiite majority.

One of several Shiite leaders who voiced his discontent on Tuesday was Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, widely regarded as the most powerful of the contending Shiite clerical groups. Hakim is backed by a powerful militia known as the Badr Brigade that was an Iran-based insurgency group during Saddam Hussein's years in power. He is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani, the Iranian-born cleric who has emerged as the Shiites' behind-the-scenes kingmaker.

At a news conference, Hakim spoke of the interim constitution as a watershed for Iraq in moving beyond the "dictatorship" of Saddam. But the undercurrent of much else he said was that the new charter must be changed to remove impediments to the powers of the Shiite majority, and that the push for this may be renewed in the negotiations over a transitional government.

"In this law, we can see that there is an absence of the people's will," he said.

Another prominent Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi al- Modaresi, put the matter more bluntly. In a statement, he said the interim constitution's provision for a decentralized federal system, a move the Americans have said is crucial to preventing the rise of another dictator but which is unpopular with Shiite leaders, would be "a time bomb that will spark a civil war in Iraq if it goes off."

The continuing discontent suggested that the interim constitution, hailed as the first big step toward installing an elected government by the end of 2005, could prove to have been a half-step at best. The disputes go to the core issue in Iraq -- how the inevitability of Shiite majority rule can be made palatable to the Sunni minority that has been dominant here since the 1920s, and to other groups, principally the Kurds.

Shiite restiveness has focused on provisions designed to protect minorities. One requires a three-fourths majority in the national assembly to be elected late this year or early next for any change in the interim constitution, as well as a unanimous vote by the three- man presidency council, which is certain to contain at least one, and possibly two, non-Shiites. Another, aimed at protecting Kurds, provides that the adoption of a permanent constitution in 2005 could be blocked by two-thirds of the voters in three Iraqi governorates, a formula that Shiites say could give veto power to fewer than 1 million voters in this nation of 25 million.

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