SECTARIAN TENSIONS RUNNING HIGH IN MADA'IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 001824 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/30/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PINR IZ SUBJECT: SECTARIAN TENSIONS RUNNING HIGH IN MADA'IN DISTRICT OF BAGHDAD BAGHDAD 00001824 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: PRT Baghdad Acting Deputy Team Leader LTC Otto Busher for Reasons 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: In several meetings with PRT staff over the last three weeks, residents of Mada'in, a predominantly Sunni district in southeast Baghdad, have expressed fears that rising tensions over Shia militia control of fuel stations and an important mosque in the area could provoke a violent response from the local Sunni community or from external Sunni militia groups. Provincial leadership is not unified in its response to the situation, with some in the province downplaying concerns about the volatility of the area. END SUMMARY. -------------- JAM Moves In... There Goes the Neighborhood -------------- 2.(C) PRT staff have received a number of reports over the past three weeks from members of the Baghdad Regional Council as well as from several Provincial Council members including the chairman regarding the security situation in Mada'in, a large qada southeast of central Baghdad. Mada'in's population is predominantly Sunni although there are several sizeable Shia communities in the area as well. According to Kadhem Al-Shamary, chairman of the Baghdad Regional Council, members of all three principal tribes in Mada'in have raised concerns over the arrivals of armed fighters from the Nahrwan, Wahda, and Jisr Diyala neighborhoods of the city over the past two months. Over the past two weeks Regional and Qada council members discussed with PRT staff the apparent seizure of primary fuel distribution stations in Mada'in by Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM). Although reports vary as to whether the JAM took the fuel stations by force or convinced the operators to hand over the stations, council members agree that the JAM now directly controls access to the pumps at the central fuel stations in the qada. -------------- --- Police Seem Helpless at Best, Complicit at Worst -------------- --- 3.(C) In conversations with PRT members since early May, Regional Council members have suggested that local Iraqi police are often complicit in militia activity in Mada'in. Regional Council Chairman Kadhem Al-Shamary, a resident of the Salman Pak neighborhood of Mada'in, described to PRT staff on 17 May how local police regularly coordinate roadblocks and checkpoints with members of JAM in order to trap and seize targeted individuals, many of whom disappear. Al-Shamary also reports that local police have allowed JAM to maintain independent checkpoints throughout the qada. Council members also believe the governor's agent for the qada, Fadel Barah, is complicit, and that he is receiving payment in exchange for his laissez-faire approach to local security issues. Although Regional Council Members and residents of the Salman Pak district believe that local Iraqi Army commander General Hassan is relatively free of sectarian bias or corruption, he is newly arrived in the area and is already rumored to be seeking reassignment. Both the Regional Council Chairman and Deputy Chairman believe that one of General Hassan's deputies, Captain Saeed Alim, is less reliable, with alleged ties to both local JAM activities as well as to MOI Special Forces commander Mahda Azzawi, another widely mistrusted figure in the district. (NOTE: Ongoing MND-B Coalition patrols have not seen or reported either the reported situations with gas stations, the police actions, or the alleged JAM check points. END NOTE.) -------------- --- The Salman Al-Farsi Mosque - Waiting for a Spark -------------- --- 4.(C) The most serious concern described by Regional and Provincial Council representatives throughout the last month is the potential for an attack on Salman al-Farsi mosque in the Salman Pak neighborhood. The site, containing the mosque and the grave of Salman al-Farsi, a contemporary of the Prophet, has been under the management of the Sunni waqf for most of the last 250 years, though important to both Shia and Sunni believers. Shortly after the bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra, the JAM took control of the Salman BAGHDAD 00001824 002.2 OF 002 al-Farsi mosque, evicting the site's Sunni administrators in favor of a Shia manager. The area's mostly Sunni population is not happy about the JAM taking control of the holy site away from the Sunnis waqf, and Regional Council representatives suggest that local discontent is being expressed through violent reprisals allegedly resulting in several deaths daily. Regional Council Chairman Al-Shamary told PRT staff on 17 May that, although Shia, he cannot condone what is happening with the mosque. He went on to state that an offshoot of the Shariah court in Sadr City has been established in the mosque and that JAM is also using the site as a detention facility. 5.(C) PRT staff has met on several occasions over the past three weeks with Provincial Council Chairman Mueen Hameed and Baghdad Governor Hussein Al-Tahan to discuss possible resolutions to this situation. Chairman Mueen agrees that the situation is extremely dangerous, saying that he has information that 80-90 militia members were inside guarding the mosque as of 20 May. He believes that the situation can only be resolved if Sunni and Shia religious leadership take a primary role, but says that his letters and calls to the Sunni and Shia waqfs on this issue have gone unanswered. He also explained to PRT staff that part of the difficulty in resolving the situation is that many Shia believe that the mosque had been used by Sunni insurgents for detention and torture prior to 2006. Therefore, in the mind of many Shia, there was 'just cause' for JAM's actions, especially in the wake of the Samarra bombing. As an interim solution, Mueen suggests that Iraqi Army (not MOI) forces be used to provide security for the site, stating that, "The mosque is an important place that should be safe and accessible for everyone." At a May 21 meeting, Governor Al-Tahan appeared less concerned about the issue, stating that, "if the US is so worried about the situation, they should send in their troops and clear the place out," and has not proposed any initiatives from within his office. -------------- Comment -------------- 6.(C) Apart from the Governor, all sides view the situation as potentially explosive. MND-B has also sought Chairman Mueen,s assistance in facilitating a non-violent solution to the problem and agree that he is working toward this end. PRT and Embassy staff will engage with religious officials from both the Shia and Sunni establishment to seek a non-violent resolution to the situation. Post will also reach out through those with better access to the Sadrists, including UNAMI and other Shia political party leadership. KHALILZAD