CHALABI AIDE RELAYS POPULAR COMMITTEE COMPLAINTS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 001697 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/23/2017 TAGS: PGOV PINS PINR IZ SUBJECT: CHALABI AIDE RELAYS POPULAR COMMITTEE COMPLAINTS Classified By: Deputy Political Counselor Charles O. Blaha for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D). ¶1. (C) Summary: An aide to Ahmad Chalabi, chairman of popular mobilization for the Baghdad Security Plan (BSP),gave PRToff a summary May 19 of the weekly meeting of representatives from popular committees from across the city. Popular committee members meet with Chalabi,s staff weekly to discuss problems with security and services in their areas. The aide, Wameed Al-Mekhlibe, also said that lawyers visiting the Ministry of Defense (MOD) detention facility at Muthanna Airbase found that detainees were being abused and held illegally. End summary. ¶2. (C) An aide to Ahmad Chalabi, chairman of popular mobilization for the Baghdad Security Plan (BSP),gave PRToff a readout May 19 of the weekly meeting of representatives from popular committees from across the city. Popular committee members meet with Chalabi,s staff weekly to discuss problems with security and services in their areas. Complaints About Security -------------- ¶3. (C) Popular committee members from the Haifa Street area in Karkh (west Baghdad) said internally displaced people (IDPs) in their area are afraid to return to their homes because of ongoing militia activity and daily mass arrests in the areas from which they fled. Members also asked Chalabi,s staff to help them find a way to effectively address alleged abuses by Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) elements working in their area. ¶4. (C) Popular committee members from Adhamiya (north Baghdad) complained about deteriorating security conditions in the Kasra and Al-Magreb Street areas and said they have not received fuel shipments for several days. They also said armed elements at the end of Al-Maghreb Street at the intersection leading toward the Adhamiya Corniche that attack residents daily and they claimed that ISF do nothing. ¶5. (C) Popular committee members from Husseiniya (north Baghdad) said that dozens of displaced families have recently arrived from Saba Al-Bour and Abu Ghraib. Members said these families will not return to their homes because of ongoing security problems in those areas. Members also said hundreds of displaced families have recently arrived from Diyala province and that more families keep arriving due to increasing violence and lack of assistance for IDPs in Diyala. (Comment: Provincial Council members of the committee for migration and displacement report that IDP families are concentrated in makeshift camps with few services in the Husseiniya area. End comment.) Members added that health centers in Husseiniya report that about nine percent of residents in the area are sick from drinking unclean water and said that schools are in need of repairs. ¶6. (C) Popular committee members from Karada (east Baghdad) said their areas are experiencing security problems due to spillover of armed activity from Dora. They said that poor quality checkpoints in the area where the two neighborhoods meet are part of the problem. ¶7. (C) Popular committee members from the Palestine Street area (east Baghdad) complained that the abundance of checkpoints in the area has created traffic jams and that these checkpoints do increase security because ISF do not adequately inspect passing vehicles. Residents complained that the police "do nothing but help move injured people to the hospital in the aftermath of explosions and shoot at cars to clear the way for themselves in traffic jams." Members also said there are more than 250 IDP families from Al-Fadl, Sheikh Omar, Dora, Haifa Street, Ameriya and Ghazalia. Members said these families are based in Mahallas 502-507 and have not received any assistance from anyone. ¶8. (C) Popular committee members from Mansour (west Baghdad) complained that the security situation in their area has deteriorated in the past week. They said there has been an increase in killings in the area and added that residents find about five corpses per day on Abu Jaafar Mansour Street. They said they have no electricity and telephone connections are cut off. Complaints About Services -------------- ¶9. (C) Popular committee members from Adel (west Baghdad) said chronic fuel shortages, poor health services, sewage overflows, and random arrests without judicial orders are ongoing problems in their area. They added that running water and electricity are cut off for days at a time. Members said the number of IDPs settling in the area is BAGHDAD 00001697 002 OF 002 increasing and that IDPs are not receiving any assistance. ¶10. (C) Popular committee members from Kadhamiya (northwest Baghdad) said U.S. forces announced last week by megaphone that water and electricity will be cut off unless militias are kicked out of the area. Members said residents are afraid there will soon be clashes between JAM and U.S. forces. They also complained that side streets in the area have not been paved. ¶11. (C) Popular committee members from Amel (in south Baghdad,s Rashid district) said they wanted to see checkpoints on the Amel Bridge jointly manned by the Iraqi Army and the National Police. They also complained that electricity has been cut off completely for five months. ¶12. (C) Popular committee members from the Jumhuriya area of Rusafa (east Baghdad) complained of sewage overflows and delays in fuel deliveries to the area. They also said that many residents are not receiving their Public Distribution System rations and complained that chronic electricity cuts are contributing to unemployment in the area because businesses cannot operate without power. Members also said ISF have not addressed the ongoing problem of sniper fire in the Kowalat area. ¶13. (C) Regarding efforts by Chalabi,s lawyers to inspect detention facilities, Al-Mekhlibe said that lawyers inspected the MOD detention facility at Muthanna airport and found evidence of detainee abuse, detainees being held without legal arrest orders and past release dates, and the presence of two juveniles. ¶14. (C) MNF-I Comment: MNF-I cannot substantiate reporting in this cable. End comment. CROCKER