VISIT TO UMM QASR BY ORHA DIRECTOR AND SENIOR STAFF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001212

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/NGA, NEA/ARP, IO/UNP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/02/2013
TAGS: EAID ASEC MOPS PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: VISIT TO UMM QASR BY ORHA DIRECTOR AND SENIOR STAFF

Classified By: AMBASSADOR RICHARD H. JONES; REASON: 1.5 (A)


1. (C) SUMMARY: ORHA Director Lt. Gen. Jay Garner (ret.),
accompanied by ORHA senior staff, visited the liberated Iraqi
port city of Umm Qasr on April 1. The ORHA team met with
the commanding officers of the British forces holding both
the port facilities and the town. The port and associated
rail line are in relatively good shape; the town is in a
highly degraded condition, due more to grinding poverty and
recent looting than to military action. British officers
reported success in standing up the port's freight-handling
facilities and restoring electric power and drinking water to
the town. The entire local administrative and government
apparatus in Umm Qasr has dissolved, as local Baath officials
have fled the town to avoid revenge and retaliation by
citizens venting their fury. The inhabitants suspect that
coalition forces will not in fact stay the course, fear that
the Baathist regime will survive in the end, and are
consequently terrified of retaliation from the regime's
security forces, should they opt to cooperate with coalition
forces. There has been no violence between Sunni and Shi'ite
believers in the town, and both mosques are functioning
normally. ORHA leadership is considering deploying a team to
Umm Qasr within a week to begin operations inside liberated
Iraq. END SUMMARY.

2. (U) The Road to Umm Qasr: ORHA Director Garner and members
of his senior staff visited the liberated Iraqi town of Umm
Qasr (population: 20,000) on the Shatt al-Arab on April 1,
in the company of British General Albert Whitley. British
General Timothy Cross, a member of the ORHA senior staff,
took part in the trip, as well as State Department Officer
Michael Gfoeller and British Foreign Office representative
Simon Elvy. The trip from Kuwait City to the border was
uneventful, as was the border crossing. Numerous military
vehicles were in evidence, including coalition convoys
guarded by heavy machine guns. The obviously peaceful border
zone was full of large herds of sheep and camels accompanied
by Beduin herdsmen.

3. (U) Progress in the Port: The ORHA team was briefed by
three senior British officers: the commander of joint force
logistics for Umm Qasr, Brigadier General Sean Cowlam, the
commander of the 17th Port and Maritime Regiment, Lt. Col.
Paul Ash, and the comMander of the Royal Marines in Umm Qasr,
Col. Steven Cox. According to them, British forces have
succeeded in clearing most of the port area of mines. The
entire area, including both the old and new ports and the
town, are firmly in coalition hands. In the old port, berths
5 through 10 have been repaired, as have all berths in the
new port. A superficial examination of the new port revealed
an apparently operational facility, currently hosting a large
coalition military presence. The Shatt al-Arab channel,
however, is silting up, since dredging operations have been
reduced sharply since the start of the war. Before the war,
it took eight dredging vessels working 24-hours a day to keep
the channel clear; only two dredgers are in service now.
Coalition forces are planning to bring in more from Kuwait.
The local rail line lis undamaged, according to coalition
officers.

4. (U) Water and Electricity Restored: Coalition officers
reported that they restored electricity to 75 percent of the
town two days ago. The power comes from a local generator
bank. The voltage, normally 220 volts, is at present only 180
volts. The local population therefore has light, but cannot
operate such devices as air conditioners or electric motors.
A 2.5 kilometer pipeline has been run from Kuwait to a point
just inside the city and the Iraqi border, to a location in
the old UN compound. Tanker trucks are filled there with
drinking water, at no charge. The truck drivers then sell
the water to city residents for 25 Iraqi dinars per liter.
This arrangement has mitigated the formerly extreme lack of
water in the town. That said, water is "liquid gold" in Umm
Qasr, according to the British forces there, and the drinking
water terminal at the UN compound is heavily fortified to
prevent rioting. It is surrounded by a 12-foot fence topped
by razor wire and guarded by heavy machine guns in sandbag
emplacements and numerous troops. Iraqis in ragged clothing
could be observed just beyond the fence, holding empty water
cans.

5. (U) The Local Administration Melts Away: State officer and
Foreign Office representative Elvy spoke with two local
inhabitants, both middle class professionals, who have
stepped forward along with several other residents to
cooperate with the British forces. They explained that the
entire government administrative apparatus in Umm Qasr
dissolved as soon as the coalition forces moved in. The
entire 40-man police force deserted, both officers and
rank-and-file policemen, and at present there are no local
police in the town. The rest of the government
administration collapsed as well. Nearly all Baath officials
in Umm Qasr fled to Basra to avoid falling prey to acts of
revenge by the citizenry.

6. (U) Omnipresent Poverty: The town in fact seemed full of
impoverished people wandering aimlessly. There was no
organized market in evidence, although individuals could be
observed selling drinking water by the side of the road.
There were many beggars, mostly children. Though obviously
poor, the population did appear adequately fed. There is no
shortage of grain locally, though meat and milk are in short
supply. Asked by ORHA staffers what level of salary would
enable a local person to survive in an austere fashion, they
replied that $50 per month is the minimum, while $100 per
month would allow a more comfortable existence, if hardly an
affluent one. They stressed the fact that the local economy
is at a standstill and will remain so until the port reopens.

7. (C) Terror of the Regime: The local citizens with whom
ORHA officials spoke said that coalition forces should expect
similar scenarios to develop as further towns are secured.
The hatred of the local population for Baathist officials is
so extreme that they will try to take vengeance on them, once
the party's power has been broken. The regime is striking
back, they noted, by deploying members of many different
security agencies: the Saddam Fedayeen, the Security Forces,
the Special Security Forces, etc. Members of these forces
can infiltrate themselves easily into coalition-held
territory, the local residents said, since they operate in
civilian attire. Such elements operating out of Basra have
free access to Umm Qasr, they noted. "The road to Basra is
open," one resident said. A resident who has cooperated
actively with coalition forces reported that he has received
death threats, and in fact he appeared deeply terrified by
the possibility that he would soon be killed in retaliation
for cooperating with the coalition.

8. (C) The local residents added that the population of Umm
Qasr is largely unwilling to cooperate openly with the
coalition because they are gripped by terror. People doubt
that the US and the coalition have the staying power to
achieve a final victory over the Baathist regime, and they
fear that Saddam will somehow survive in the end and return
to take vengeance on them if they work with us. This fear
can be reduced only once coalition forces take Basra, and it
can be eliminated only after Baghdad has fallen, they said.
Nevertheless, the British forces have succeeded in hiring
120 local men to work in the port, at rates of pay varying
from $3 to $5 per day. Some 60 men reportedly refused to
work in the port because they were warned not to by the Iraqi
security services.

9. (C) Comment: It is impossible to overstate the extent to
which the local population in Umm Qasr still fears the
regime. The terror felt by local residents reminded the
State officer present, who served several tours in Eastern
Europe and the former Soviet Union, of the deep fear Soviet
citizens once had of the KGB. Overcoming this psychological
obstacle to re-establishing normal governance in Umm Qasr
will require several things, further progress on the
battlefield chief among them. Once Basra is firmly in
coalition hands, people in Umm Qasr and other towns and
cities across Iraq will probably take heart and begin to
believe that the regime will actually fall this time, and
their readiness to work with us may well rise then. The
implementation of relief and recovery operations will also
boost confidence. The local inhabitants with whom ORHA staff
spoke may represent hope for the future. They and others
like them will gradually emerge to take over the reins of
governance, Deo volente. While inexperienced, many of them
will be largely untainted by the Baathist regime. The
challenge will be to work with such people and the surviving
elements of the bureaucracy to re-establish order and lay a
foundation for a democratic future in Iraq.
JONES