June 29, 05

TOKYO (UPI) -- A team of Iraqi parliamentarians let by Yonadam Kanna, chair of the Reconstruction and Public Services Committee of the Iraqi National Assembly, have just completed a visit to Japan.

In meetings, unprecedented for a parliamentary delegation, the team met with the Japanese prime minister, foreign minister, key members of Parliament and business leaders.

"We are very encouraged and hopeful that Japan's pledge of $5 billion for Iraq will make a critical difference in moving our nation forward," said Kanna.

"The real problem is an urgent need for implementation and verification of reconstruction in the country," he continued.

"We have many projects, for example in my constituency, which as an Assyrian Christian in the Nineveh Plain and Northern part of Iraq. In historic Assyria, massive amounts of funds have been allocated, but our people still live like in the Middle Ages, without water, roads, electricity and telephone service."

"Reconstruction aid is allocated for our areas, but unfortunately local Government is not functioning in many areas. And with the security situation as it is, little if any help is reaching our Assyrian Christian villages," said Kanna.

Reflecting a view that the real reconstruction problem in Iraq is a lack of verification on the ground and implementation of projects, the five day visit of the Iraqi MPs renewed a historic Iraq-Japan relationship that dates back to the days of the Silk Road when much of the culture of the Middle East flowed to China and Japan.

More recently, major Japanese corporations operated in Iraq working with the oil industry until it all ended with the previous Gulf War.

"We are committed to ensuring Japan's aid is used in the most fair and comprehensive way and are doing all we can to make sure it can be verified on the ground," said Tsukasa Uemura, former Japanese charge de affairs in Baghdad and now head of the Economic Assistance Bureau in Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Japan's $5 billion pledge for Iraqi reconstruction is second only to the United States and the European Union.

While great concern has been expressed about the upcoming writing of the Iraqi constitution and in particular Article 7 which reads: "Islam is the official religion of the State," Kanna is also one of the only non-Muslim members of the Constitutional Committee. 

"The Constitution is being written much in the spirit of the current Transitional Administrative Law. I am confident that we will be able to achieve a secular, open and democratic Constitution that will be fair to all Iraqis. Further, I believe that this is what all Iraqis want," he said.

A telling sign of whether Kanna's views will hold are the current realities in the Middle East, which has seen the non-Muslim population of the area go from nearly 20 percent to now under 2 percent as the radicalization of previously tolerant Muslim regimes have caused massive emigration of non-Muslims.

Estimates of as much as 100,000 non-Muslims leaving Iraq, most of them Assyrian Christians who are the indigenous people of the country are worrying many analysts.

The Japanese government, which has a strong, secular Constitution written by the United States nearly 60 years ago when it too was defeated and then occupied by U.S. forces, many believe, can be a balancing influence in Iraq gently nudging for a similar situation in Iraq.

Kanna believes the Iraqi people and government are committed to democracy, the rule of law and a secular constitution. The facts on the ground where aid is routinely, according to a recent EU document, not provided to non-Muslims and a de-facto "ethnic cleansing" would seem to indicate otherwise.

What is not in doubt is that the future of Iraq rests, not in the hands of the Iraqis themselves, but in the international community. In particular the major donors the United States, the EU and Japan and their ability to leverage their support for fair and verifiable reconstruction and a secular constitution that eliminates the much reviled Article 7, which states that "Islam is the Official Religion of the State."

Many ask a very simple, but telling question. "Was a war fought to depose Saddam Hussein only to create The Islamic republic of Iraq against the clear wishes of the people and a constitution that states that Islam is the official religion of the state?"

The sign of whether Iraq will succeed or not can be measured very clearly on two fronts. First, whether the Assyrian Christians, the "Canary in the Mine" of Iraq will remain and whether an Iraqi constitution can be produced, as recommended by the previous Constitutional Committee that includes no references to religion or ideology.

By Ken Joseph, Jr.