(C) PROVINCIAL LEADERSHIP LOSING SUPPORT, LOSING INTEREST

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000068 SIPDIS SIPDIS BAGHDAD FOR POL, NCT E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/23/2016 TAGS: PGOV IZ SUBJECT: (C) PROVINCIAL LEADERSHIP LOSING SUPPORT, LOSING INTEREST REF: (A) KIRKUK 47; (B) KIRKUK 38; (C) KIRKUK 18; (D) 05 KIRKUK 223; (E) 05 KIRKUK 200; (F) 05 BAGHDAD 2925 KIRKUK 00000068 001.2 OF 002 CLASSIFIED BY: Scott Dean, Regional Coordinator (Acting),REO Kirkuk, Department of State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (U) This is a SET Tikrit cable. ¶2. (C) SUMMARY. The citizens of Salah Ad Din province by and large support neither the Provincial Council Chairman nor the Governor. Instead, they are calling for a strong leader who will find jobs, improve the security situation, reduce corruption, and improve services. Both the governor and the PC Chair seem ready to move on to other jobs after the next elections. END SUMMARY. ¶3. (C) Over the past six weeks, SET Officer in Tikrit has been querying citizens about the provincial leadership. Conversations generally centered on the Provincial Council, but several focused on the Governor, Hamad Hamud Shukti Al-Qaisy and the Provincial Council Chairman, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad Osman Al Jabouri. The reaction among citizens is consistent: they want strong leadership. This seems to mean finding jobs, improving the security situation, reducing corruption, and improving services. ¶4. (C) Sheikh Sami Ali Bashir Al Dulaymi tells SET Officer that he and his tribe live in the desert, west of Tikrit. He says his 10,000 tribe members have seen no increase in services in the last three years, and see no plans for any future increase. He said the PC was very weak and did not accept its responsibility to represent the people of the province. Sheik Khanan of the Shamer Tribe said the Governor was a friend of his, but could not manage the province. He needed to step aside to let others bring progress to the province. ¶5. (C) At a recent PC meeting, Awatif Salah Muhammad from Tikrit accused the PC, especially the leadership, of acting like the mafia. She said they were more interested in taking money from construction projects than in managing the province. This got a lot of attention: two members offered to resign on the spot. At the same meeting, Khalaf Muhammad Salah from Al Alem suggested the PC renovate the meeting room to remove the theater seating and install an oval table with microphones for each member. He said this would give everyone the chance to be heard, not just the PC Chairman. In a separate meeting with SET Officer, Khalaf said the Governor and PC Chairman were holding the province back. Khalaf said that, if he were to become PC Chairman, he would remove them both the very day he took over. Khalaf is very disappointed in the Provincial Council Chairman; they are both in the same political party, the Iraqi National Gathering, and Khalaf was a big proponent of Rashid's run to become PC Chair. ¶6. (C) Sheikh Thamir Sultan Ahmed Al Tikriti, a former MGen. in the IA, said he had had very high hopes for the PC last year, but with the current leadership, he had lost hope in improving the services his people receive. ¶7. (C) When SET officer speaks to less prominent citizens, the theme continues quite clearly: the need for strong leadership, VERY strong leadership. They do not feel they have it in Salah Ad Din. Comments often run like: -We need the Americans to write our constitution and give it to us; -We need the Americans to select our Prime Minister; -We need our SET officer to replace our PC Chairman; -We need our SET officer to make the Governor... (NOTE. fill in one of many needs END NOTE.); -We need the U.S. to correct the IECI mistakes and hold a new election; -We need the U.S. to force the DeBa'athification Committee to return our University professors. ¶8. (C) COMMENT. The Governor has made huge steps forward over the last year. He is, in fact, leading by example. He speaks out against the AIF, he advocates for Salah Ad Din construction projects, and he has started visiting ministers in Baghdad to discuss Salah Ad Din's needs. However, the population is looking for a strong, demanding leader to correct the poor state of affairs in the province. If Khalif is to be believed, many PC members are dissatisfied with the PC Chairman, perhaps as many as half. Khalif talks with us and with other PC members individually about the need for a new chairman. He has not addressed this publicly, and has not spoken to the PC Chairman or the Governor about his concerns. KIRKUK 00000068 002.2 OF 002 ¶9. (C) That said, both the governor and the PC chair seem ready to move on to other jobs. The Governor wants to graduate to bigger issues, perhaps even become an ambassador to a country like Morocco or Jordan. He has solved several very tense issues, but still is not seen as the strong leader that the people of Salah Ad Din want. The PC Chairman is expecting the PC elections to be held in June; he seems to be biding his time until those elections so that he can pass the baton, with all of its problems, to the next man. ORESTE