Iraq Sends Draft Charter to U.N. for Printing

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq's National Assembly sent the final draft of the country's new constitution to the United Nations on Thursday for printing and distribution, setting the stage for a referendum that Sunni Arab leaders have vowed to defeat.

The handover came after weeks of failed negotiations to win Sunni Arab support for the charter, which Shiite and Kurdish negotiators completed over their objections. Five million copies are to be printed and distributed to Iraqi families before the Oct. 15 vote.

"The drafting is finished. The debate now belongs to the Iraqi people," said the assembly's speaker, a Shiite.

Sunni Arabs, who make up about 20 percent of the population but dominated Iraq under Saddam Hussein, fear the constitution's federal structure — which lets regions form self-governing blocs — will leave them stranded in the center and west, cut off from the oil wealth of the Kurdish north and Shiite south.

The Sunnis' weapon is the referendum's own rule: the constitution fails if two-thirds of voters in any three provinces reject it. Sunni-led groups have launched a registration and boycott-defying "vote no" campaign in the four provinces where they hold a majority.

American and Iraqi officials have pressed hard for Sunni participation anyway, calculating that a charter rejected at the polls is better than a Sunni community that abandons politics entirely for the insurgency.

"The constitution is not a sectarian document," a U.S. spokesman said. "But the real answer is October 15 — the Iraqis will decide."

The campaign unfolds against the deadliest week in months. Sunni extremists led by al-Qaida in Iraq declared war on Shiites after Wednesday's bombings killed 160 in Baghdad — violence both sides expect to worsen as the vote approaches.

The United Nations, which advised on the draft, will print the copies but has declined to endorse the text. "It is their document," a U.N. official said, "and their decision."