IRAQ’S new parliament opened yesterday to the boom of mortar fire and fiery debate over ethnic identity — and closed again as the newly elected politicians returned to their backroom haggling over the make-up of the government.

The parties’ failure to agree a government meant that there was little of the euphoria that marked the momentous elections of January 31. In fact, there was little for the 275 deputies to do but meet, declare the session open, listen to speeches from various dignitaries and take their oath of office.

Yet even that descended into farce after a squabble over whether the legislators should be made to swear the oath in Kurdish as well as Arabic.

Despite the purely ceremonial nature of proceedings, deputies hailed it as an historic event. It was the first elected assembly in more than half a century, one noted. Yet Iraq’s bloody past and present loomed large over the proceedings. The date selected for the opening of the parliament was the anniversary of Saddam Hussein’s gassing of the Kurds at Halabja in 1998, in which 5,000 men, women and children died.

Despite calls for the meeting to be held outside the heavily protected Green Zone, to demonstrate parliament’s independence from its American protectors, the threat was such that the deputies had no choice but to meet there in a vast convention centre. As they took their seats mortar rounds reverberated through the building.

Because the rival political factions had failed even to agree on a candidate for Speaker, the proceedings were chaired by the oldest member present, Sheikh Dhari al-Fayidh, 82. He paid tribute to all “the martyrs who died for this country”, including what he called “the victims of the north”.

“Kurdistan, Kurdistan,” came an angry cry from the floor. “Sorry,” the Sheikh muttered. “Kurdistan.” The meeting was encouraging at least in its nods to free speech. A glance across the assembly floor revealed the diversity of Iraq. There were 79 women, 11 with heads uncovered, the rest split between headscarves and black flowing abayas; 11 Shia turbans, 22 yashmaks, one Kurdish tribal headwrap and a sea of Western suits.

But there were fewer than 20 of the Sunnis, who dominated the regime in Saddam’s day and whose main parties boycotted the election. Reconciling the needs and demands of this diverse gathering has been the root cause of the delay over reaching a deal on government.

The demand from one deputy that the assembly take their oath in Kurdish was too much even for the Kurdish leader, Jalal Talabani. “The Kurds understand Arabic but the Arabs don’t understand Kurdish,” he said.

“You can’t say an oath when you don’t know what you are saying.”

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