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

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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