Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07BAGHDAD2217
2007-07-04 11:43:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baghdad
Cable title:  

BAGHDAD'S CHANGING BOUNDARIES

Tags:  PGOV PINS PINR ASEC KDEM IZ 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO3097
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #2217/01 1851143
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 041143Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2037
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 002217 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/06/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINS PINR ASEC KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: BAGHDAD'S CHANGING BOUNDARIES

REF: A) BAGHDAD 1588 B) BAGHDAD 2040 C) BAGHDAD 2044

Classified By: ACTING POLCOUNS ROBERT GILCHRIST FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND
(D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 002217

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/06/2017
TAGS: PGOV PINS PINR ASEC KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: BAGHDAD'S CHANGING BOUNDARIES

REF: A) BAGHDAD 1588 B) BAGHDAD 2040 C) BAGHDAD 2044

Classified By: ACTING POLCOUNS ROBERT GILCHRIST FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND
(D).


1. (C) SUMMARY: The Baghdad Governor and Provincial Council
(PC) initiated a plan to adjust the city's district
boundaries in early May; this plan may exacerbate sectarian
tensions if new districts reflect and entrench the recent
displacement of people in the city, away from mixed areas and
into closed sectarian enclaves. Or it may decrease sectarian
violence by diminishing sectarian competition for local and
national resources. According to Mazin Makiya, Chairman of
the Provincial Council Strategic Planning Committee, the plan
is designed to respond to population shifts that have
occurred during the past 30 years. Through an adjustment
process requiring many months, the Governor and the PC also
seek to combine the contending borders of administrative,
service, and political districts into a single system. Post
and Baghdad PRT will continue to investigate the evolving
plans to change Baghdad's boundaries, and the impact of those
plans on sectarian conflict in the province. This is the
third in a series of cables (Refs B, C) from Post and Baghdad
PRT that examine the influence of the structure of Baghdad
governance on sectarian tension. END SUMMARY.

--------------
AN EXERCISE IN URBAN PLANNING
--------------


2. (C) Members of the Baghdad Provincial Council (PC)
initiated a review of the province's administrative
boundaries in early May. According to Makiya, PC members
recognize that the process of redrawing district boundaries
requires careful thought and planning. Makiya told PRToff
that city leaders have not changed district boundaries since
the 1970s, despite decades of rampant population growth
without proper urban planning. The PC thus launched with the
Governor's office a joint plan to re-draw Baghdad's
boundaries. The plan involves an assessment phase, a review
phase, and an implementation phase. The PC Strategic
Planning Committee began the assessment phase by tasking

local leaders to survey their communities and report areas of
recent population growth. When complete, this plan will be
reviewed by the Governor, the Amanat, and officials from the
Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works (MMPW). The
Provincial Council will then vote on the final plan, and
oversee its implementation. Makiya said the PC has not set a
timetable for this process; it could take several months or a
year to complete.

--------------
CHANGING BAGHDAD'S ADMINISTRATIVE BOUNDARIES
--------------


3. (SBU) The plan seeks first to adjust the boundaries of
administrative districts. Through a survey of local leaders,
the PC aims to determine how many areas to re-classify as
nahias (neighborhoods) or qadas (city bouroughs). A village
graduates to nahia status when it crosses a population
threshold. Nahia status qualifies a former village for
additional services and resources, initially distributed
through a newly appointed 'muldeer nahia' (akin to deputy
ward boss). A nahia, in turn, attains qada status when its
population increases a sufficient amount. Qadas acquire a
qa'im makam to distribute their increased services and
resources. The PC also plans to redraw the borders of some
existing nahias and qadas, in accordance with the growth and
movement of populations.

--------------
CHANGING BAGHDAD'S SERVICE BOUNDARIES
--------------


4. (SBU) Between 2003 and 2006, four District Advisory
Councils (DACs) asked the Provincial Council (PC) to
institute a new Amanat service district to serve each of
their areas. The PC voted in favor of all of the requests,
and the Amanat approved them. The Amanat then established a
new office within each existing service district, splitting
them into two parts: the old Amanat office served one part of
the district, and the new office served the other part. This
process split Sadr City, Rasheed, Kadhamiya, and Adhamiya
into two separate service districts. Recently, the
Provincial Council and the Amanat moved to divide 9 Nissan
and Karadah as well.

-------------- --------------
NOT (YET) CHANGING BAGHDAD'S POLITICAL BOUNDARIES
-------------- --------------


5. (C) The CPA initially designed the council system to
ensure that each service district had a corresponding

BAGHDAD 00002217 002 OF 003


political district. The existing and proposed changes,
however, bring the total number of service districts in
central Baghdad to 15, while the number of political
districts remains at nine. Moreover, the new service
districts of the Amanat do not align with Baghdad's
Administrative boundaries. According to Makiya, the
assessment launched by the Strategic Planning Committee seeks
to identify these many inconsistencies and to propose a plan
to rectify them. Makiya said that the Governor and the PC
ultimately seek to combine the borders of administrative,
service and political districts into a single boundary
system.

-------------- ---
COMMENT: CAUSES FOR CONCERN ABOUT RE-DISTRICTING
-------------- ---


6. (C) Makiya has assumed a leadership role in the process
of re-districting Baghdad. He is a proven moderate
technocrat (see Ref A for biographical information). During
a conversation with PRToff May 5, he responded to a direct
question about possible Shia gains from the process with a
strong denial of any sectarian agenda in re-drawing Baghdad's
district boundaries. He claimed that he would refuse to take
part in re-districting if it involved a sectarian agenda.
His independent credentials lend credibility to this
assertion.


7. (C) Nonetheless, sectarian strife has already influenced
the re-districting process. Some DACs requested a new Amanat
office because sectarian violence prevented the delivery of
essential services to large portions of their district. The
old Amanat office in Adhamiya, for instance, currently serves
the south side of the district, which has become
predominantly Sunni since the major populations shifts that
commenced in March 2006. Over time, sectarian violence
diminished the Amanat's capacity to serve the north side of
the district, which has become predominantly Shia, from their
office located in the south side of the district. Noting
this change, the Shia who dominate the Adhamiya DAC requested
and received a new Amanat office in the north part of the
district. By contrast, Sadr City appears to have split into
two service districts for practical reasons; two Amanat
offices can more efficiently provide services to Sadr City's
approximately two million residents than could one office.



8. (C) Because they dominate the PC and outnumber Sunnis in
Baghdad, Shia parties currently control the re-districting
process (Reftel B). They have the power to gerrymander new
districts to ensure as many Shia-majority districts as
possible. This outcome could significantly exacerbate
sectarian tensions by creating a 'separate but unequal'
system of government, wherein the majority group
systematically deprives minorities of access to city services
and resources. Amanat officials who can hire and fire new
workers also wield considerable patronage power.


9. (C) Regardless of the intentions of those leading the
re-districting process, new service districts will likely
reflect the increasing segregation of the city along
sectarian lines. The creation of new districts may thus help
to entrench the recent displacement of people in the city,
away from mixed areas and into closed sectarian enclaves.
Moreover, segregated districts will deprive local leaders
from different sects of an increasingly rare forum for
peacefully resolving conflicts -- the mixed-sect District
Advisory Council (DAC). In the Adhamiya DAC, for instance,
the Shia Chairman and the Sunni Deputy Chairman currently
work together to find common ground for the people of their
district. If new districts create segregated political
groupings, formal political structures will lose their power
to facilitate reconciliation.

--------------
COMMENT: REASONS TO SUPPORT RE-DISTRICTING
--------------


10. (C) It is also possible that re-districting will
decrease sectarian violence by diminishing sectarian
competition for local and national resources. It may make
local government more receptive to local needs by removing
the complication of sectarian strife, and may diminish
movement between different sectarian areas to either provide
or receive essential services. These factors may improve the
effectiveness of local government, thereby increasing
confidence in the city government. In the case of the
Adhamiya DAC, the creation of a new Amanat office in the Shia
neighborhood of Shula permits those residents to deal
directly with their service office without crossing into the
Sunni neighborhood where the DAC hall is located.


11. (C) In addition, by concentrating the power of

BAGHDAD 00002217 003 OF 003


minorities into smaller districts where they will form the
majority and therefore control local political entities,
re-districting may also empower non-Shia political leaders to
lobby more effectively for resources from the Provincial
Council and Council of Representatives than they can,
currently, as minority representatives within Shia-majority
DACs.


12. (C) Local governance in Baghdad is hindered by a lack of
clarity in administrative boundaries and confused
jurisdictions of various governmental institutions. Rampant
population growth, regardless of sectarian make-up,
necessitates some sort of urban planning. In light of their
professionalism and openness, at this point the Baghdad PC
seems to be moving in a positive direction with this
initiative. Post and Baghdad PRT will continue to
investigate this evolving plan to change Baghdad's
boundaries, and any potential impact of this initiative on
either lessening or aggravating the sectarian conflict we see
in Baghdad.
CROCKER