Iraqi president says Sunnis get more representation on constitution committee

BAGHDAD, Iraq — More Sunni Muslim Arabs will be appointed to join elected lawmakers in drafting Iraq's new constitution, President Jalal Talabani said Thursday, a day after the Sunnis threatened to boycott the process.

Meanwhile, 19 security guards for a North Carolina-based company were detained for three days in a military jail by U.S. Marines following an alleged shooting spree May 28, and some of the contractors complained they were abused while in custody.

The Sunnis, who complained about their lack of representation, will be given up to 25 seats, Talabani said. His announcement seemed to meet demands made a day earlier by top Sunni leaders for 27 seats on the 55-member committee.

"We have decided to add about 20 to 25 members from Sunnis in the committee, which will draft the constitution with full rights like other members who were elected by the parliament," Talabani said.

"This will be done very soon and we are discussing to finalize the making of this decision," he added.

But a Sunni legislator on the committee said that although an agreement had been reached on Sunni Arabs joining an expanded and parallel committee, no deal had been struck on their number.

Adnan al-Janabi, one of two Sunni Arabs on the committee, told The Associated Press that Sunni groups have agreed to join the 55 legislators in an expanded body whose decisions would be made by consensus. The decisions would then be referred to the 55-member committee for endorsement before going to the 275-seat National Assembly.

Al-Janabi, who has led contacts with the Sunni Arabs about their representation, said there has been no agreement on the number of representatives to be involved in the process, but added that parliament, in a goodwill gesture, would issue a resolution "recognizing and supporting" the expanded committee.

The agreement on the Sunni Arabs joining an expanded body, rather than the constitutional committee, means that they have dropped demands for voting rights equal to those of the 55 legislators.

Several committee members say the number of the Sunni Arabs on the committee should be equal to that of the Kurds — 15 — since each of the two communities account for up to 20 percent of the population. They also believe that expanding the body with a large number of Sunni Arabs could delay the decision-making process when they have only two months to draft the document.