ARTICLE 140 MEMBERS TO ATTEND FIRST HIGH COMMITTEE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 002689

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR INR

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2017
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: ARTICLE 140 MEMBERS TO ATTEND FIRST HIGH COMMITTEE
MEETING IN MONTHS

Classified By: Political Counselor Matt Tueller for Reasons 1.4 (b,d)

This is a joint Kirkuk Provincial Reconstruction Team
(PRT)/Embassy Baghdad message.


1. (C) Summary and comment: The Article 140 Committee will
meet for the first time in six months on August 13. Its
newly appointed Chairman, Minister of Science and Technology
Raid Jahid Fahmi, plans to concentrate on administrative
processes to make progress on implementation, leaving the
divisive political issues - for now - to Iraq's leadership
and the people affected. Kirkuk-based Article 140 committee
members also plan to focus primarily on administrative issues
in the near term, particularly normalization-related
procedures on compensation, wafadeen transfers and property
disputes. Given that this is the first full committee
meeting since February, Post expects participants will use it
to share information and plan for the next meeting rather
than make breakthrough progress on seminal issues such as
disputed borders, a census and referendum modalities. At the
same time, the newly active committee presents an opportunity
to re-energize Article 140 implementation at a time when
Kurds are using their frustration with a lack of Article 140
movement to impede progress on other key Iraqi issues such as
the oil law and constitutional review. End Summary and
Comment.

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New Chairman Appointed;
Meeting Called for August 13
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2. (C) Minister of Science and Technology Raid Jahid Fahmi
(Sunni, Communist Party/Iraqiyya Party) told us August 6 that
the Council of Ministers unanimously approved his nomination
to head the Article 140 Committee (Note: the previous
chairman resigned in March and the committee as a whole has
not met since then. End Note). Fahmi said his principal
goal is to separate the Committee,s administrative work from
political issues, which must be resolved by Iraq,s
leadership and the people affected. He has been meeting with
representatives from the Turkmen, Kurdish, and Arab
communities based in Baghdad to hear their concerns. He
intends to travel to Kirkuk in the near future and identified
as an immediate priority the need to determine what is
preventing compensation payments to those Arabs who qualify
under the decrees approved by the Council of Ministers in
March.


3. (C) He acknowledged that the only active members of the
Article 140 Committee in Baghdad have been the Kurdish
representatives and that because of this, the Committee,s
actions and legitimacy are questioned. For this reason, he
said, he has reached out to the other members and encouraged
them to reengage in the process. Fahmi has called for a full
Committee meeting on August 13, the first such meeting in
several months. He said the PM had authorized him to name
new members to the Committee, but Fahmi first wants to give
the current members a chance to resume full participation.
With respect to the United Nations, Fahmi said he would
welcome technical assistance but cautioned against
"internationalizing" Kirkuk and Article 140.


4. (C) When asked about disputed territories in Ninewa and
Diyala provinces, Fahmi said he wants the Committee to focus
on Kirkuk and will recommend that boundary issues in the
disputed territories be resolved after Kirkuk. On the
referendum,s timing, he agreed that the December deadline
stipulated in the constitution is not feasible. He noted,
however, the "biggest problem" in resolving Kirkuk stems from
a lack of trust between all parties. The Kurds, he said, do
not believe the GOI has made a good faith effort to implement
Article 140 and will therefore not agree publicly to a delay
until clear progress is made on compensation requests,
property disputes, and a census.


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Kirkuk-Based Committee Members Attending Committee
Meeting Have Varying Priorities/Expectations
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5. (C) Asked about his aims for the August 13 Article 140
committee meeting, Tahseen Kahiya (Kirkuk Provincial Council
member, Shia Turkman) told us August 5 that his priorities
involved improving normalization processes and settling the
boundary issue. On normalization, he wants better
clarification on the transfer of identity and registration of
the wafadeen (i.e., Arabs moved to Kirkuk under Saddam-era
Arabization programs),particularly in terms of facilitating

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the movement of wafadeen to their receiving provinces. He
suggested that a decree from the Prime Minister ordering
receiving provinces to assist wafadeen and/or establishing
"welcome committees" in those provinces would be good steps.
Kahiya noted another normalization priority as ensuring the
timely and fair distribution of compensation to returnees,
including perhaps establishing a sub-committee to facilitate
payments and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance. He
said he plans to bring the first tranche of 300 complete and
vetted wafadeen applications to the August 13 meeting in
Baghdad to the committee for compensation. He was skeptical,
however, that he would have the opportunity to present them
at this first meeting in six months and thought it might have
to wait for the next scheduled meeting. Kahiya also
complained that something needed to be done about the current
displaced Kurds living at the Kirkuk stadium.


6. (C) Babakir Sadiq (Kirkuk Provincial Council, Kurd PUK)
outlined a different priority -- solving land disputes. He
said he is frustrated with what he perceives as the slow
progress of the Committee for the Resolution of Real Property
Disputes (CRRPD). He told us August 5 that he would
recommend that the Committee ask the Council of
Representatives (CoR) to rescind nine property-related
Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) decisions to speed up the
return of land to its rightful owners. Sadiq would also like
to see disputed boundaries resolved. He said he hoped the
new Chairman would be active in establishing direct contact
with the Prime Minister to spur progress on Article 140
implementation.


7. (C) Like Tahseen Kahiya, Mohammed Khalil (Kirkuk
Provincial Council member, Sunni Arab) said August 7 that he
wanted to use the meeting to discuss improving normalization
processes, particularly moving ahead on compensation and
fixing glitches in the transfer of wafadeen. He mentioned
cases where, for instance, a wafadeen patriarch applied for
transfer but his sons and their families did not want to
return. However, because the sons were listed in the
patriarch's identity documents, they were included on the
transfer nevertheless. Khalil also recommended that the
transfer of ration cards take place last in the process to
avoid having ration cards moved to the original province
before the wafadeen have completed normalization and
physically moved back.


8. (U) Bio Note: Minister of Science and Technology Raid
Jahid Fahmi (Sunni - Communist Party/Iraqqiya) was appointed
Chairman of the Article 140 Committee on July 31, 2007 by the
Prime Minister. According to his biography, he was born
October 15, 1950 in Baghdad. Fahmi graduated from London
University with a bachelor's and master's in economics in

1977. From 1977 to 1979, he worked as a lecturer at
Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad and as an economic
research assistant at the Iraqi Ministry of Trade. From 1979
to 1983, he held several positions in Kuwait, including
teaching at Kuwait University and working at the Industrial
Bank of Kuwait. Following his PhD in economics at the
Sorbonne in 1984, he worked at several French companies until

1990. From 1990 to 2005, he taught economics and management
in French institutes. He became Iraqi Minister of Science
and Technology in 2006. Published in several languages, he
speaks English, French and Arabic. He is married with four
children.
CROCKER