SUNNI POLITICIANS SAY HAWIJAH PRIME FOR COALITION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000059

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, NCT, ROL COORDINATOR, USAID, IRMO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/10/2016
TAGS: PGOV KISL PINS PINR PTER IZ
SUBJECT: SUNNI POLITICIANS SAY HAWIJAH PRIME FOR COALITION
INTERVENTION

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CLASSIFIED BY: Michael Oreste, Deputy PRT Team Leader, PRT
Kirkuk, DoS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (C) SUMMARY. Two members of the Iraqi Republican Gathering
separately stressed the need to expand Coalition outreach to
Sunni Arabs in Hawijah - a Sunni Arab city southwest of Kirkuk.
They admitted the city was a Ba'athist stronghold, but claimed
it had few foreign fighters, and recommended that the Coalition
reach out to Hawijah's Ba'athist community rather than the
city's corruptible tribal shaykhs. One contact estimated that
there were 1000 former army officers and 250 former police
officers that remain unemployed and angry. They argued that the
Coalition should work towards employing or re-instating
dismissed officers. They also stressed the need for better
intelligence in the area to identify terrorists. END SUMMARY.


HAWIJAH - A CALL FOR COALITION INTERVENTION
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2. (C) Hawijah, a Sunni Arab city southwest of Kirkuk, has two
main tribes - Ubayd and Jabur - and each of the five Sunni Arabs
on the Kirkuk provincial council is from one of these two
tribes. IPAO's recently held separate meetings with Iraqi
Republican Gathering (IRG) leaders in Kirkuk, Ahmed Hammed
al-Ubaydi, head of IRG's Kirkuk office, and Rakan Said Ali
Radwan al-Jabburi, IRG Kirkuk Provincial Council member. Both
contacts stressed the need to expand outreach to other Sunni
Arabs. Ubaydi admitted that Hawijah was a Ba'athist stronghold
but claimed it had only a few foreign fighters. Jabburi
believed that terrorism was increasing in the area over the
course of the last year. They recommended that the Coalition
reach out to Hawijah's Ba'athist community rather than the
city's corruptible tribal shaykhs. (Comment. This is an
interesting suggestion coming from members of the city's two key
tribes. We speculate that Jabburi and Ubaydi may have an axe to
grind with their tribal leaders for not receiving a fair share
of past Coalition funds dispersed to their shaykhs. End
Comment.)


3. (C) Jabburi estimated that Hawijah held 1000 former army
officers and 250 former police officers that, although highly
educated and qualified, were left idle and unemployed. He noted
that "Kurds label all Sunnis as Ba'athists and terrorists" and
that Sunnis could not obtain positions in Kirkuk. Ubaydi
suggested that the Coalition needed to arrest the "four
Ba'athist leaders who control Hawijah," but they should work
towards employing or re-instating dismissed military officers,
who remain unemployed and angry. Hawijah Ba'athists were not
organized, but retained fundamental Ba'athist ideology,
including the goal of one great Arab nation, an anti-American
stance, and a sense of entitlement as the "true" administrators
in Baghdad. The time to act was now because there were no
powerful parties in Hawijah. Jabburi stressed the need for
better intelligence in the area to identify terrorists.


SUNNI ARAB POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT
--------------


4. (C) The IRG, led by Sa'ad al-Janabi, is aligned with Ayad
Allawi's Iraqi list and was promoting a nationalistic rather
than religious character for Iraq, according to our
interlocutors. The party was working to oppose the Unified
Iraqi Alliance and to improve the central government's
functionality and ability to deliver on civil projects. The IRG
in Kirkuk was focused primarily on galvanizing local Sunnis to
become involved in the political process. Ubaydi implied his
party's efforts in northern Iraq had motivated a large number of
Sunni Arabs to vote in the December 2005 national elections.


5. (C) Following the Al Askariyah mosque attack in Samarra,
the IRG sent memos to the Badr Organization and Sadrists to
confirm its rejection of the terrorist attack. Sunni Arabs in
the Tikrit and Kirkuk areas expressed their support to the Shia
Arabs and even wanted to participate in their peaceful
negotiations, according to Ubaydi. He also praised the local
police for their role in stymieing reactionary attacks and
facilitating peaceful demonstrations. Ubaydi said he hoped that
Iraqis in other regions would look to the Kirkuk province's
example in handling ethnic and sectarian sensitivities.


BIOGRAPHIC NOTE
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6. (SBU) Ubaydi was born in Kirkuk city in 1959. A Sunni
Arab, he joined the IRG after Operation Iraqi Freedom and
currently heads the IRG's main office in Kirkuk. Ubaydi is a
member of the Arab Consultative Council in Kirkuk province. He
earned a bachelor's degree in military science from Baghdad
University in 1981 and a law degree from Kirkuk University in

2003. Ubaydi was a military officer in Saddam Husayn's regime,
but it removed him from his post following the 1991 Gulf War on
accusations of demonstrating against the war. Jabburi has a
Bachelors degree in chemistry and used to be employed in the
petro-chemical industry. The IRG has five seats on the Kirkuk
Provincial Council-more than any other Sunni group-but does not
hold a provincial leadership post.
ORESTE