IRAQ: TOKYO DONORS' MEETING

UNCLAS THE HAGUE 002453 SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/ODF/DE MARCELLUS AND EB/UBI/HOLLIDAY E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID ECON EFIN PREL NL SUBJECT: IRAQ: TOKYO DONORS' MEETING REF: SECSTATE 196084 ¶1. We delivered reftel demarche and nonpaper on 14 September to Adri van Loopik, head of the Gulf States Division of the Dutch MFA's North Africa and Middle East department, as well as Willemein Kallenberg, Iraq desk officer. They had no substantive response at that time. ¶2. On September 22, Joris Beerda, staffer in the Peace Building and Governance division of the Development Ministry informed econoff that the GONL will be represented at the Tokyo conference by their ambassador to Japan H. Jacobs and his political counselor J. Heidsma. An EU-Council secretariat staffer will also attend with the Dutch SIPDIS delegation. ¶3. On the topic of Dutch plans for future Iraq assistance, Beerda said his government is considering contributing two million euros for Iraqi elections next year, and that one million euros will be allocated to the UN protection force in Baghdad. The Netherlands will pledge a further 500 thousand euros to UNSECOORD. Beyond that, Beerda said his government had no long term assistance plan for Iraq. ¶4. The Dutch pledged 9.4 million euros at Madrid. Of this, five of the six million euros intended for the trust fund have been disbursed. The remaining 3.4 million euros for economic assistance have not been released because of the security situation. Among other Dutch funds pledged, four of the five million euros for humanitarian assistance have been released, with the final one million euros scheduled for release by the end of 2004. Finally, to date the Netherlands has spent approximately 52 million euros maintaining its marine battalion in Al Mutthana, and has disbursed another two million euros on security sector reform related programs the province. SOBEL