Future of Iraq not certain 1 year later

Saturday marked the one-year anniversary of the second Iraq war. Protesters around the world turned out en masse to denounce the continued occupation of Iraq by coalition forces. In an effort to sway public opinion, Secretary of State Colin Powell traveled to Iraq to highlight the progress since bombs first fell on Baghdad.\nThe largest measure of success Powell pointed out was the recent adoption of the interim Iraqi constitution. March 8, the Iraqi Governing Council signed the document dictating the conduct of the Iraqi government until a permanent constitution replaces it in late 2005, according to The Associated Press. The interim constitution will take effect June 30.\nFeisal Istrabadi, 41, was the principal legal drafter of the interim constitution. Istrabadi works as a private-practice lawyer in Indiana and Illinois. He became involved in the process through one of his clients. Doctor Adnan Pachachi, the former foreign minister of Iraq and a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, employs Istrabadi as a legal affairs advisor.\n"It was a very intensive and rewarding experience," Istrabadi said.\nThe constitution recognizes Islam as the official religion of the state and allows the government to call upon it for legislation. Still, it guarantees free religious practice to all Iraqi citizens, according to the BBC Web site.\nSome of the main problems were addressing Kurdish interests and the role of Islam in the future government, Istrabadi said. The document tries to narrow the divide between the Kurdish and Arab ethnic groups.\n"(The document) recognizes that there is a regional government in Northern Iraq that had had de facto independence for 12 years," Istrabadi said. "The document attempts, during the interim period, to reintegrate that portion of Iraq into a unified Iraqi state."\nFor Istrabadi, the most important part of the three-month project happened March 8.\n"The biggest success is that the document was eventually agreed to by 25 out of 25 members of the governing council without a single dissenting vote," he said.\nThe final vote was unanimous, but members of the governing council expressed reservations about the interim constitution. Some Shi'ite members made the most noticeable complaints, which ultimately delayed adopting the document.\nStill, Istrabadi is quick to point out that these complaints came from only five members of the council. Hence, they were a minority within both the 13 member Shi'ite party and the governing council as a whole, Istrabadi said.\nJohn Walbridge, a professor for the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures department, expressed concern with the outcome of the interim constitution. Without addressing the aforementioned problems, the document will not affect much change in Iraq, Walbridge said.\n"It is an interim law to make Iraq officially an independent country again, but it hasn't solved any of the fundamental political issues," Walbridge said. "All it has really done is put off those problems so we can say the country is independent, which of course it won't be in any real sense."\nBut addressing those issues is not the purpose of the non-elected interim government or the interim constitution, said NELC Professor Zaineb Istrabadi, the sister of Feisal Istrabadi. She argued their sole purpose is to prepare for the elections later this year or in early 2005.\n"It makes common sense that an elected government would deal with the problems of the people." Zaineb said. "In other words, you need representatives to talk about the problems of the people and not appointed or self-appointed leadership."\n-- Contact staff writer Cameron Thibos at cthibos@indiana.edu.