Iraqi politican killed

MIL-IRAQ-ASSASSINATION
IRBIL, Aug 18 (KUNA) -- An official of the Iraqi Turkmen Eli party was killed at the hands of unknown gunmen in Kirkuk, north of here, on Thursday, police sources said.Unidentified gunmen ambushed the convoy of the official earlier today unleashed fire instantly killing the deputy commander of the Turkment Eli party, member of the Turmen Front in Iraq, a police source said.(end) sbr.bzKUNA 182123 Aug 05NNNN

IRAQ'D Delayed Production

New Republic - Washington,D.C.,USA
by Spencer Ackerman Post date 08.18.05
... In June, the Post reported that Kurdish forces have "disappeared" about 180 Arabs and Turkmen from Kirkuk over the past year, leading American diplomats to ...

The Issues that Delayed Approving the Iraqi Constitution Draft

Kirkuk:The Kurds desire the application of Article 58 of the state administration code for the interim period (the temporary constitution currently in force), which states the normalization of conditions in Kirkuk, through returning the Kurds, Turkmen and others, whom Saddam's regime has displaced them by force, confiscated their property and replaced them by Arabs, who were brought form the south and center, within the process of Arabization that included other regions of Iraqi Kurdistan. The Shiaas and some Sunnis object to this request. The Shiite coalition desires to postpone solving the issue o Kirkuk until after approving the permanent constitution, which contradicts with what the Shiaas and Kurds have agreed upon, before the creation of the government.

Would the Permanent Constitution Solve the Problem of Regime in Iraq?

3. Ethnic division and conceptual confusion between nationalism and religion: The constitution has coined that the Arabs and Kurds are "two major races", and has coined "basic races for the Turkmen, Chaldeans, Assyrians, Armenians, Shabaks and Persians." Then it moved to the Yezidi and Sabaen Mandaen religions (Article 3). It can be stated that the Iraqi people consist of two major races "Arabs and Kurds", in addition to other racial, and linguistic and religious races, then stating them by name. The constitution guarantees their rights, pursuant to the UN Convention for the Protection of National Minorities for 1992, and the International Convention on Human Rights, on basis of full parity, equality and citizenship......

Toward a Constitution? An overview of the Iraqi case - 1st Part - 2nd Part -

"Unfortunately, and like many other strategies to date, this approach has also set different groups in the country against each other. As Walid Charara wrote in his analytical piece in Le Monde Diplomatique in July 2005, the US has supervised the reconstruction of Iraq’s political system on the basis of community and ethnic representation. In the process, it has stirred tensions between different interests. "
"Many Iraqis, certainly the Sunnis, appear adamant that those Kurdish borders should not include the oil fields of Kirkuk."

Iraqi Turkmen Underlines Undemocratic Aspects of the New Iraqi Constitution Draft

UNPO
Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation
SOITM
Iraqi Turkmen HumanRights Research Foundation
Report
Date: Augustus 16, 2005Our: H/16-05/L/3
Subject: Undemocratic aspects of the new Iraqi constitution draft

After the constitution

By Bruce Fein
August 16, 2005
....Iraq's centrifugal forces are a thousand-fold greater than the fissures that earlier bedeviled the United States. Iraqi Kurds covet an independent state. They fight for a constitution that would acknowledge a right to secede and dominate oil-rich Kirkuk at the Turkmen and Arabs' expense. They deplore Islamic law. They have enjoyed 14 years of de facto independence. Power is never surrendered in the Middle East voluntarily. Arabs and Kurds have caused Turkmen to suffer terribly since Iraq's founding. Legal protections have been more honored in the breach than in the observance. Turkmen have been marginalized in drafting the constitutional and in the incumbent government. They are disinclined to accept second-class status in Kirkuk, where Turkmen have historically predominated. .....

No final agreement on Iraq constitution draft

DPA
Baghdad, Aug 14 (DPA) Iraq's constitution writing committee Sunday worked to come to a final agreement on a draft document as Kurds took to the streets to urge their representatives to ensure their demands were met in the new document.Iraqi National Assembly Speaker Hajim al-Hassani's said in a press release Sunday that no final agreement had been made on the constitution as the 71-member drafting committee continued to put in long hours to meet the Monday deadline for submitting the document to parliament.Several hundred Kurds took to the streets in protests to urge the committee to integrate into the draft their demands for federalism and the inclusion of several cities - including oil-rich Kirkuk - in an area under their control.