TOKYO, March 11 Kyodo choiceed e...

TOKYO, March 11 Kyodo

choiceed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

INTERIM CHARTER A MAJOR FIRST gradation (The Nation, Bangkok)

With the adoption of an interim constitution upon Monday, Iraq took a fundamental pace in transforming itself from a repressive dictatorship into a representative democracy.

The main question now is whether Iraqis can subordinate their internal differences and use this opportunity to stir ahead and allow a recent unified nation to emerge.

The signs for a like reason far are encouraging. While numerous thorny issues were deferr the document was forged in a spirit of compromise between the country's different ethnic clusters which augurs well for the time when Iraqis will take satiated control of the political process

The interim constitution, which will remain in tenor until a permanent document is approved in late 2005 contains a 13-article bill of rights, stakes out a federal structure for the nation and the shape of a that will be parliament and presidency. It is, in short, a portrait of the strange Iraq - a place to be steered not by the despotic whims of the same man, but by the domination of law.

To be certain there are criticisms of the document that trunk from the fierce competition among the main ethnic form into groupss - Kurds, Shiites and Sunni Arabs - to gain leverage ahead of the June 30 transfer of power to Iraqis by way of the U.S.-led coalition.

Today Iraq is far from settl - Monday's signing solemnity was preceded by a week of renewed violence aimed at Iraqi civilians and at the police force.

Post-Saddam (Hussein) Iraq is again at a crossroads and its persons must decide whether to allow sectarian politics to prevail and bring the nation's unity at risk, or to terminate ranks and continue toward pluralistic behavior Democracy demands the participation of each citizen and also the acknowledgement of match citizen's rights, no matter what ethnicity, sex or religion. This is a brave modern world for most Iraqis, and the Middle East as a whole.

(March 11)

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kyodo of the present days International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group