Sunni Arabs seek UN guarantees on Iraq referendum

yahoo/reuters: Sunni Arab negotiators have asked the United Nations for guarantees to ensure a fair referendum on Iraq's draft constitution on October 15, a member of the Sunni delegation said on Tuesday.

Hussein al Falluji said the delegation told the UN Special Envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, that Sunni Arabs were frustrated, and rejected the constitution in its present form.

"We met Ashraf Qazi last night at his request," negotiator Falluji said. "We told him that we, as Sunni Arabs, reject the constitution, we do not want it," he told Reuters.

Falluji said that Qazi had stressed the importance of moving on with the political process. But the Sunni delegation insisted on rejecting the constitution, while urging the UN to monitor the referendum process.

"We want real assurances that the referendum process is going to be fair without any forgery or manipulation," he said.

"If the Iraqi people say 'Yes', then we want to believe that it was the Iraqi people's choice, and if they say 'No', we don't want others to doubt it." Read more