ANOTHER ANTI-ISG DEMONSTRATION AT REO - KIRKUK

UNCLAS KIRKUK 000179 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/I - KHOURY-KINCAID E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PINR PGOV PBTS IZ SUBJECT: ANOTHER ANTI-ISG DEMONSTRATION AT REO - KIRKUK REF: KIRKUK 74 SENSTIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDNGLY. ¶1. (U) On December 19, a group of about 100-150 demonstrators from the Turcoman People's Women Union assembled in front of the REO to express discontent with provisions of the Iraq Study Group (ISG) report. The Women Union is an affiliate of the Turcoman Brotherhood Party (led by Walid Sharika, a member of the National Council of Representaives Article 140 Committee), itself a member of the Kurdistan Coalition List. The demonstration was scripted along the lines of last week's demonstration (reftel),and representatives from the group invited into the REO presented similar complaints ("rejection" of paras. 26, 27, 28 and 31 of the ISG report relating to the constitution, allocation of regional resources, Kirkuk final status, and reconciliation with Baathists). ¶2. (SBU) The demonstrators' representatives spoke at length on the perils of dialog with Baathists. Answering REO Regional Director's query about whether these views also indicated a rejection of Prime Minister Maliki's recent speech on allowing former Baath members into the Army, the Turcoman said they "fully supported" Maliki's efforts at reconciliation. To them, the key difference between Maliki's actions and their reading of the ISG reconciliation recomendations was that Maliki drew the line in accepting dialog with people with "blood on their hands." ¶3. (SBU) COMMENT: Since last week's high level demarche to the REO by the Provincial Council (reftel),it seems Kurdistan Coalition List members and affiliates of all stripes have been tripping over each other to publicly propagate the same anti-ISG message, using cut-and-pasted talking points. There have been manifestos sent to us by a Kurdish-affiliated journalist syndicate, a student union and coming up in the next week: a group being organized from here to demonstrate in al-Sulaymaniyah. In all cases we have reminded that the ISG report is not U.S. policy. END COMMENT. SCOTT