The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
“The legacy
will be imperfect, but we should not be too defensive. The
challenge
was great,
and the achievements are considerable. If we can contain
the
politicisation
of the IPS from getting out of control, get the multilateral
agencies more
engaged,
and plan now on some longer-term priorities, we can leave knowing
that
southern
Iraq has the capability of realising its massive economic potential
for the
whole
country. We should be able to leave with the goodwill of the
majority of the
population
in southern Iraq (there would come a point when that is less
certain).
But we need
to prepare the ground now to lower UK public and
international
expectations
of what we are leaving behind.”
151.
The
Constitutional Commission presented the text of the draft
Constitution to
152.
Mr Patey
described the document that had been produced as “an
admirable
document
which contains much we should applaud”.74
Its “key
achievements” were
“protection
of fundamental rights including minorities and women” and it came
closer to
meeting
Sunni concerns than the draft as it stood on 15
August.
153.
The immediate
Sunni reaction to the text was reported by Mr Patey to be
“muted
… with many
still considering their position”.75
But a “key
positive” was that “almost all
are
encouraging participation in the referendum thus acknowledging that
influence is
won more
effectively by voting than by violence”.
154.
In the period
after the Constitutional Commission announced that it had
reached
agreement
on the draft text, the US encouraged further discussion between
parties
aimed at
increasing Sunni Arab support for the Constitution.76
155.
Sir Nigel
Sheinwald told the Inquiry that Mr Blair’s aspirations for the
Iraqi
Constitution
were:
“… that it
should get agreed and the referendum should go ahead and it should
have
a very
broad base of support in the population; that we should keep to the
timetable,
we should
keep the show going, we shouldn’t get derailed by the violence
which of
course
continued, intensified …”77
156.
Mr Asquith
told the Inquiry that the UK’s objectives for the Constitution
were:
“To lay the
basis for a representative democracy which kept the country
together;
which
didn’t build in sectarian advantages or ethnic advantages; and
which didn’t
create a
form of federalism which was going to increase the risk of the
country
73 Allawi
AA. The
Occupation of Iraq: winning the war, losing the
peace. Yale
University Press, 2007.
74
eGram
12004/05 Baghdad to FCO London, 28 August 2005, ‘Iraq:
Constitution; Worth Waiting For’.
75
eGram
12058/05 Baghdad to FCO London, 30 August 2005, ‘Iraq:
Constitution: Further Reaction from
Sunni Arabs
and Others’.
76
Deeks AS
& Burton MD. Iraq’s Constitution: A Drafting History.
Cornell
International Law Journal,
Volume 40
(2007).
77
Private
hearing, 3 September 2010, page 73.
514