WE WERE TORTURED BEFORE -- NOW IT IS MUCH WORSE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BASRAH 000035 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/18/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PTER KISL IZ SUBJECT: WE WERE TORTURED BEFORE -- NOW IT IS MUCH WORSE REF: BASRAH 158 BASRAH 00000035 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: KEN GROSS, REGIONAL COORDINATOR, REO BASRAH, DEPARTMENT OF STATE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) CLASSIFIED BY: KEN GROSS, REGIONAL COORDINATOR, REO BASRAH, DEPARTMENT OF STATE. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (C) Summary: On March 14, the Regional Coordinator (RC) and Deputy Regional Coordinator (DRC) met with Khalid Al Mullah, a prominent Sunni sheikh and imam in Basrah. Sheikh Khalid said that he considered the Coalition friends and liberators, not occupiers. All violent acts should be condemned in his opinion, regardless of the religion of the perpetrator. He said his primary goal was to combat the image of Sunnis as terrorists. Unfortunately, he said, the situation in southern Iraq had worsened considerably for the Sunni population in the past three years, and "thousands" of Sunnis were leaving Basrah for other countries. End Summary. Condemning Terrorism -------------- ¶2. (C) On March 14, the RC and DRC met with Sheikh Khalid Al Mullah, a prominent Sunni sheikh and imam in Basrah. Sheik Khalid's mosque congregation is "small," in his words, numbering about 500 people, yet he said that he has become a well-known figure in Basrah for his speaking out against terrorism, including Sunni terrorists, and for his public support of the Coalition as friends and liberators. He said he condemned the murder of U.S. citizen Tom Fox, and the bombings in Madrid and London. He placed a computer disk on the office table and stated that here was proof that he had publicly denounced Zarqawi as a terrorist. ¶3. (C) For his outspokenness against Sunnis who committed terrorist acts and his public support of the Coalition, Sheikh Khalid said that he had drawn criticism from senior Sunni leaders. His name was crossed off the list of Sunnis invited to go to the hajj this year, and he believed it was because of his public support for the Coalition. He said that he had received numerous threats, which he attributed to his condemnation of Sunni terrorists. He chuckled, saying that he had only one bodyguard, who had only one old gun that did not even function, to protect him. ¶4. (C) As an Islamic scholar, he believed that all acts of terrorism and violence are forbidden by the Koran. Shia imams in Basrah, including Al Mousawi, sympathized with him and lent their support to him, he said. Public attendance at his Friday sermons had increased recently, and public audiences applauded his denunciation of Zarqawi as a terrorist. ¶5. (C) The worst thing, Sheikh Khalid said, is that Iraqi Sunnis were developing a reputation as terrorists. He described how Jordanian security agents confiscated his passport during a trip to Jordan last October, and how he had to return to Iraq after a few days without the medical treatment he had been seeking. He believed this happened because all Iraqi Sunnis are being treated as potential terrorists. He worried that the Shia population in the south would exact retribution on Sunnis for acts of violence carried out by Sunni terrorists in Baghdad. "If Sunni leaders in Baghdad do not change their political agenda, we will be the ones who will pay for it," he predicted. Before, We were Tortured - Now It Is Much Worse -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) The situation of Sunnis in Basrah has deteriorated recently, Sheikh Khalid said. "Before, we were tortured, but now it is much worse." Under Saddam, Sunnis in southern Iraq drew the ire of the Shia majority population. Now that Saddam and his Sunni regime have been replaced, Sunnis in southern Iraq are both blamed for Saddam's regime of terror and have no protection. He pointed out that out of the 41 seats on the Basrah Provincial Council (BPC),none of them are held by Sunnis. Employment opportunities for Sunnis are non-existent. Sunnis are subjected to random detentions in Basrah, and men in police uniforms have assassinated Sunni scholars. ¶7. (C) He identified the militia-infiltrated Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) of the Iraqi police as behind the assassination of a Sunni sheikh last year. Iranian intelligence agents, he said, moved freely in Basrah and carried out revenge killings for wrongs done during the Iran-Iraq war. He said that he believed BASRAH 00000035 002.2 OF 002 the recent upsurge in murders in Basrah were attributable to extortion plots first and foremost and that the decision to have someone killed was made at a high level and the order passed down to the perpetrators, who most likely did not know the reasons for the killing. Sunnis were being specifically targeted, he said, because the Shia-controlled government wanted to cleanse the south of 100 percent of the Sunni population. ¶8. (C) As a result of the worsening situation for Sunnis over the past three years, Sheikh Khalid stated that "thousands" of Sunnis are seeking to leave Iraq. He said that his wife's brother, a Sunni religious scholar, had been murdered last month, and his family had fled to Syria. He himself recently returned from a trip to the United Arab Emirates where he was seeking employment and was considering emigrating. The job fell through, and he returned to Iraq. Iranian Influence in Basrah -------------- ¶9. (C) On the subject of Iranian influence in Basrah, Sheikh Khalid clasped his hands together and said, "You can have lunch in Basrah and dinner in Iran, they are so close." He said that he believed Iran's goal was to allow Iraq to become destabilized so that it could not threaten Iranian security, and he expressed hope that the United States would act to restrain Iranian influence in Iraq (see reftel). Jafari's Nomination -------------- ¶10. (C) On Ibrahim Jafari, Sheikh Khalid said that he was not surprised that Jafari had been nominated again as Prime Minister, and that he was not opposed to Jafari. Jafari could succeed, he said, if he "got busy" and tackled the issue of employment. Jafari's biggest mistake in the past had been isolating certain groups in Iraq and allowing a culture of violence to foment. ¶11. Summary: While the majority of the Basrah public is listening to Sheikh Khalid's voice of reason and appreciates his message of peace and tolerance, it is clear that conditions for Sunnis in Basrah province are worsening considerably. It is likely that Sunnis will continue to emigrate from the area, which will exacerbate the problem of winning a seat for Sunnis on the BPC by a democratic vote. The results of the provincial election likely will determine if the Sunni population continues to eke out an existence in Basrah province or gives up entirely. End Summary. GROSS