9.3 |
July 2004 to May 2005
and very
excluded … not just because of the attacks on Fallujah, but because
of
their
exclusion from the process – what they saw as the government not
paying
enough
attention to their particular concerns.”250
461.
On 3 February,
Mr Chaplin wrote to Mr Crompton setting out a
“snapshot”
of progress
in drafting the new Iraqi Constitution and thoughts about the role
the UK
462.
Mr Chaplin
reminded Mr Crompton that they said that the TNA’s core task, as
set
out in
Articles 60 and 61 of the Transitional Administrative Law, was
to:
“… prepare
a draft of a permanent Constitution, following public debate,
by
15 August
and to present it to the Iraqi people in a referendum by 15 October
2005.
Our
assumption is that the intervening period is for further debate and
explanation,
not for
amendment. There is scope to extend the drafting process by six
months
by a
majority vote in the TNA, but little indication of what the steps
of that drafting
process
should be. Presumably this will be decided when the TNA draws up
its
own internal
procedures and structures …”
463.
On the UK role
in the process, Mr Chaplin wrote that it should
include:
•
encouraging
the UN to take a leading role in co-ordinating the form of
the
Constitution
and the drafting process with the TNA;
•
encouraging
broad political involvement and contributions from civil society;
and
•
exploring
practical support such as funding the production of useful
material.
464.
Mr Chaplin
suggested that “it would be good to do some rapid internal
thinking,
or
commission others to think about the pros and cons of certain
constitutional options
in the
Iraqi context” although any UK advocacy of a specific proposal
would need to
be “discreet”.
465.
On 7 February,
in response to a Parliamentary Question from Mr Bob
Spink,
Mr Hoon
said that the additional 220 troops for Muthanna which he had
announced on
27 January
would be found by re-deploying other UK forces in
MND(SE).252
Mr
Hoon
said that
the total number of UK troops in Iraq was 8,150 and was expected to
fall to
around
7,900 by March.
466.
Ms Aldred and
her team in the Cabinet Office co-ordinated a strategy paper for
the
9 February
meeting of the Ad Hoc Ministerial Group on Iraq which focused on
how to
achieve
coalition objectives in post-election Iraq.253
250
Public
hearing, 7 December 2009, pages 20-21.
251
Letter
Chaplin to Crompton, 3 February 2005, ‘Iraq: Helping to Draft the
New Constitution’.
252
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 7
February 2005, columns 1168-1169.
253
Paper
Cabinet Office, 7 February 2005, ‘Iraq Strategy for
2005’.
469