BASRAH NOTABLES SIGN DECLARATION OF SUPPORT FOR RULE OF LAW

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BASRAH 000125 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 7/27/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER IZ SUBJECT: BASRAH NOTABLES SIGN DECLARATION OF SUPPORT FOR RULE OF LAW REF: BASRAH 109 BASRAH 00000125 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Mark Marrano, Deputy Regional Coordinator, REO Basrah, DOS. REASON: 1.4 (b) ¶1. (C) Summary. An influential moderate cleric, Sayed Abdul Ali al-Musawi, met with Deputy Regional Coordinator (DRC) July 24 and reported that 32 political and militia leaders and military and police commanders have issued a declaration calling for support of rule of law in Basrah. Al Musawi, prompted by the recent intimidation of his community, convened a conference at the al-Musawi mosque in Basrah on July 15 for the purpose of finding ways to reverse the deteriorating security conditions. In addition to issuing the declaration, the conference participants formed a council to oversee their proposed steps to strengthen rule of law and reduce violence. End summary. SEPARATION OF POLICE AND POLITICS ¶2. (C) The document, a copy of which al-Musawi gave to the DRC, calls for an end to assassinations, stealing, kidnapping, and driving people from their homes. For those who have fled Basrah to escape violence, the declaration calls for help to enable them to return. It further demands an end to defamatory attacks in the media on personal reputations and lays out specific steps to ensure that security forces carry out their duties in a professional manner. The steps are 1) eliminate political interference in police work, 2) seize unlicensed weapons from individuals and groups, 3) strengthen cooperation between police and judges, 4) impound improperly registered vehicles, 5) require would-be demonstrators to obtain police approval before staging protests, 6) ban political meetings in the offices of security units, 7) end the use of police cars and other government-owned vehicles by political parties, and 8) stop threats to policemen trying to carry out their duties. The declaration further stipulates that police obtain arrest warrants from judges before making arrests, that they follow human rights principles laid out in the Constitution and that the ranks of police be purged of bad elements. ¶3. (C) The declaration was signed by Basrah Governor Mohammed al-Wa'eli, an official from the Ministry of Interior in Baghdad, senior police and army commanders in Basrah, the chief of the Supreme Shia Council, leaders of regional and national political parties active in Basrah, and representatives from two militia groups, one of them the Office of the Martyr Sadr (OMS),headed by Moqtada al-Sadr. The council, to be headquartered in the al-Musawi mosque, will work to generate consensus among various groups to induce greater social calm and crush groups bent on violence, according to al-Musawi. He made it clear that the council is not a political party and that he will not become involved in party politics. ¶4. (C) Al-Musawi made a surprising statement that the security situation in Basrah has improved in the past two weeks, citing as evidence the return of about 100 Sunni families, who had fled the city because of sectarian violence. When asked by the DRC to comment on the recent surge in rocket and mortar attacks on the compound of the Coalition Forces, he indicated that it is a reaction against the British detention of a local militia commander on July 16. In his view, the attacks are the work of an OMS splinter group consisting of 500 members who are supported by Iran and deaf to political messages of the OMS hierarchy. He added that the OMS leadership is open to engaging in the political process and that the council, by generating consensus, can be an effective instrument to eliminate the die-hard fighters. TRIBAL CHIEF SUPPORTS AL-MUSAWI INITIATIVE ¶5. (C) On July 25, a day after the al-Musawi visit, the head of the large Bani Amer tribe in Basrah, Sheikh Amer al-Faeez, called on DRC and endorsed al-Musawi's effort to make peace before attending a meeting of the council later that day. Sheikh Amer, a signatory to the declaration and a member of the council, sat on the national governing council in Baghdad during the period of the Coalition Provisional Authority. He requested that the United States voice its support in the media for the al-Musawi initiative. By coopting the participation of the militia chiefs, Amer indicated that there is hope that the small groups engaging in the violence can be brought under control. Following the council meeting, Sheikh Amer reported that decisions were taken to establish contact with Islamic authorities in Najaf, send envoys to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the national legislature in Baghdad, and draft legislative recommendations for the Basrah Provincial Council on law enforcement. ¶6. (C) In Sheikh Amer's view, the security of Basrah is undermined by British troops patrolling the city and detaining thousands of suspected criminals and fighters. He recommended BASRAH 00000125 002.2 OF 002 that British troops redeploy outside the city and that Coalition authorities release most of the detainees for whom no evidence has been produced. He indicated that the law enacted during the period of the Provisional Authority empowering Coalition troops to enter private homes without search warrants antagonizes the local populace and propels jobless young men into militias. Sheikh Amer declared that all the Coalition efforts to help rebuild the physical and social infrastructure of Basrah will not produce any beneficial effects for the people of Basrah, so long as the security situation is not stabilized. (7) (C) Comment. The publication of the declaration on supporting rule of law and the formation of a council to enforce it is the latest action by Sayed Musawi (see reftel),a well-known moderate, to bring down violence. It is difficult to lend much credence to the initiative as it comes at a time that other indicators such as continued assassinations and police involvement in the violence point toward a continuing deterioration of social order. End Comment. MARRANO