PRT KIRKUK: ARTICLE 140 COMMITTEE MEMBER MOHAMMED

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000538

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/13/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: PRT KIRKUK: ARTICLE 140 COMMITTEE MEMBER MOHAMMED
KHALIL PROTESTS ARAB RELOCATION PLAN

REF: BAGHDAD 431

Classified By: PRT Leader Jim Bigus for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

This is a PRT Kirkuk reporting cable


1. (C) SUMMARY: Kirkuk Provincial Council (PC) and Article
140 Commission member, Mohammed Khalil, a Sunni Arab, says
the Article 140 Commission,s approval of a proposed Arab
relocation program came after a "strife-filled" debate over
whether the program would be voluntary. The final wording
was an ambiguous statement that Kirkuk Arabs are interpreting
as indicating the program will involve involuntary
relocation. Khalil is threatening to withdraw from
participation on the Commission if the program is not
specifically declared voluntary. Furthermore, Arab and
Turkoman PC members will refuse to engage in any further
negotiations about ending their boycott of the Kirkuk
Provincial Council if the change is not made. Khalil said
about 50,000 of the 261,000 persons subject to possible
relocation are willing to go, although other sources give a
much lower total for potential relocatees. Public assurances
of a voluntary relocation program would only be effective if
given by Commission Chairman and Minister of Justice, Hashim
Al-Shibli (Sunni Arab, Iraqiyya list). The question of
whether the program should be voluntary or involuntary may be
symptomatic of ambiguities in the Arabic and Kurdish versions
of TAL Article 58. Completing normalization by the March
deadline is unlikely, even though proposing boundary changes
has been removed form the Commission,s responsibilities.
Mohammed Khalil defended his attendance at a recent Ankara
conference promising a delay in implementing Article 140,
saying his critics have a "psychological complex" about the
conference. Khalil alluded to apparent assassination
threats in the wake of the Ankara event. END SUMMARY.

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MOHAMMED KHALIL RESURFACES
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2. (C ) PC and GOI Article 140 Commission member Mohammed
Khalil met on 4 February with IPAO to discuss current
developments in the Article 140 implementation process and
related issues. Mohammed Khalil had dropped out of sight in
the past few weeks, after reportedly making inflammatory
statements at a conference in Ankara that called for
postponement of Article 140 implementation. There were local
reports that he had been threatened with arrest or worse by
Kurdish authorities. In this latest meeting, he appeared
relaxed and convivial.

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STRIFE IN THE ARTICLE 140 COMMISSION OVER RELOCATION
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3. (C) He opened by stating that the press and other
reports about the Article 140 Commission's newly announced
relocation program were incomplete, lacking the "strife" in
the Committee leading up to the approval of the program.
Khalil claimed he was the "only one" who disagreed with the
provisions, arguing, he said, that there must be a specific
provision in the program stating that it was voluntary.


4. (C) Khalil said that he objected to the basic idea of
returning the "Wafidain" (i.e. "beneficiaries" of Saddam,s
Arabization policies) to their original homes, and had hoped
to get support from Article 140 Chairman, Minister of Justice
(MOJ) al-Shibli, since he is an Arab, for addition of the
voluntary clause. Khalil said the MOJ "seemed" to support
him during Committee discussions, but the final approved
version of the program did not contain his requested
language. Therefore, Khalil is now demanding that the
wording of the program recommendation be clarified to
specifically state that it is voluntary. If this wording is
not added, said Khalil, he "will withdraw from the
Commission."


5. (C) Khalil was especially incensed at Kurdistan
Minister of External Affairs/Article 140 Commission member
Mohammed Ihsan, claiming that Ihsan had "talked
unprofessionally and insulted the Arabs in front of the
Commission." Asked about the insult, Khalil said Ihsan had
called the Wafidain "dishonest." Khalil added that during
the dispute over the wording of the program he was the only
Commission member who insisted that the program should be
made voluntary. The other members remained silent and did
not get involved.

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INVOLUNTARY RELOCATION: NO BASIS IN LAW?
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6. (C) Asked if any Commission member raised the question
of whether the Commission had the legal power to order an
involuntary return of the Wafidain, Khalil said that he made

two points during the discussion. First, that TAL Article
58, which authorizes the Commission to deal with relocation
issues, does not say that "Arabs" have to return to southern
provinces but only refers to those who benefited from ethnic
cleansing (NOTE: this seems to be an opening for claiming
that Kurds who do not have roots in Kirkuk but have settled
there since liberation should also return to their origin
point. This idea has been raised a number of times recently
by Sunni Arabs and ITF Turkomans. END NOTE). Second, he
said, TAL Article 58 does not authorize the involuntary
return of the Wafidain.


7. (C) Asked if he expected the Prime Minister to sign off
on the relocation program as recommended by the Commission,
Khalil said that the recommendations has been passed to the
office of the PM, where there are "a number of legal
advisors" who will review it. Khalil hopes that the "Council
of Ministers will see these mistakes" but he would not
provide an opinion on what the Prime Minister,s position
would be on the Relocation Program.

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261,000 REMAINING "WAFIDAIN"
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8. (C) Khalil then described the makeup of the Wafidain
community, dividing it into two groups: (1) those willing to
move back to their original homes; and (2) those not willing
to do so. Khalil said that "we should support and help those
that want to go." Those who want to remain, he continued,
"should not be penalized in any way." He said that papers
that he has from the Passport and Nationality Department
indicate that there about 363,000 people in Kirkuk who came
to the province between 1968 and 2003 and who could be
classified as Wafidain. Of these, about 102,000 people have
left Kirkuk and returned to their original homes. Of the
remaining 261,000, about 50,000 are willing to move back to
their original homes while the rest, about 211,000 people,
want to stay.


9. (C) NOTE: this figure for Wafidain willing to leave
approximately tracks with the figures supplied to us by the
National Solution Commission (reftel). Khalil,s figure for
those wishing to remain, however, is much larger. The NSC
said that many people had already returned home and that they
estimated that there were only a few thousand families who
had not registered with them to return to the Southern Iraq.
NSC representatives expected that most of these would also
agree to relocate once they saw money actually being
dispersed. END NOTE).


10. (C) Khalil was asked how long it would take before
relocation funds began being disbursed, "assuming that all
problems (e.g. the voluntary/involuntary question) were
resolved." He replied that it was unclear, and cited the
difficulties that the Commission had in getting the Ministry
of Finance to turn over their initial funding, USD 20
million, out of a total compensation/operations budget of USD
200 million. He expects more problems with follow-on
allocations that will be needed like, for example, the
relocation program.

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BORDER ADJUSTMENTS NOW UNDER PRESIDENCY COUNCIL
-------------- --

11. (C) Khalil does not believe that the Article 140
Normalization Process will finish by its planned mid-March
completion date. He also noted that the boundary adjustment
question has in essence been moved out of the purview of the
Commission and will be handled entirely by the Presidency
Council, even though, he said, it is still considered part of
normalization. (NOTE: we have heard reports such as this
about the boundary adjustment process several times over the
last week. MOJ Al-Shibli confirmed the role of the Presidency
Council in the boundary adjustment question, and indicated
that this would be separate from normalization. Al-Shibli
said that the boundary changes could happen "anytime the
Council decides," even after the Referendum. This is a
deviation from the original procedure as defined by several
Article 140 Commission members in September and October. In
those meetings the explained that the Commission would
develop boundary change recommendations to be presented to
the Prime Minister for his action, as is the case with other
normalization requirements, and that this would conclude by
March 2007. END NOTE).

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JUSTICE MINISTER SHOULD PROVIDE PUBLIC REASSURANCES
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12. (C) IPAO noted that in the past week, PC Chairman Rizgar
Ali has privately and publicly stated that no one will be
forced to move involuntarily under the terms of the
relocation program. Asked if he thought it would be useful

for Rizgar or the Governor to on go television to explain the
relocation program and allay concerns about it being
involuntary, Khalil declined, saying "any comment Rizgar made
would only be 'anesthesia' to placate local residents."
Instead, he recommended that Article 140 Commission Chairman
MOJ al-Shibli appear on television and make such a statement.
That, he said, would carry some force of law and would commit
the Commission to following a voluntary approach.

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NO MOVEMENT ON PC BOYCOTT
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13. (C) Asked about the current situation with the
Arab/Turkoman boycott of the Kirkuk PC, Khalil said that
there had been practically no movement on either the Kurdish
or Turkoman/Arab side. Although PC Chairman Rizgar Ali had
recently sent a memo asking the Turkomans and Arabs to end
the boycott and also made a televised appeal, he followed
this, said Khalil, with a public statement blaming the
boycott on "personal issues," referring specifically to Iraqi
Turkomen Front leader Ali Mahdi's anger over the incident in
which he was allegedly "roughed up" while trying to protest
the visit of the Article 140 Commission to Kirkuk in October

2006. According to Khalil, the Arabs and Turkoman had taken
this statement as demeaning, and had therefore disregarded
Rizgar's latest overtures (NOTE: When the boycott first
started, the Turkomans themselves offered the Ali Mahdi
incident as a cause of the boycott and demanded an apology
and investigation. Later they substituted more
policy-focused demands, such as ethnic parity in government
employment as a precondition to their return to the PC. END
NOTE).

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RELOCATION PROGRAM MUST BE VOLUNTARY OR...
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14. (C) Khalil stated emphatically that if the "voluntary"
wording were not added to the Commission's relocation
proposals he would withdraw from further activity with the
Commission, adding that there would also not be any
negotiations over the boycott until the voluntary nature of
the relocation was officially recognized. The Arabs and
Turkomans, he said, were in agreement about this.

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ANKARA CONFERENCE: OPPONENTS HAVE PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEX
-------------- --------------

15. (C) IPAO then asked about Mohammed Khalil's presence at
the Ankara conference and about his statements which seem to
have off such a firestorm in Kirkuk. Khalil claimed that
"certain groups" in Kirkuk seem to have a "psychological
complex" about the Ankara conference, and had overreacted.
He described the Ankara gathering as just a meeting of "civil
society groups." He complained that a few days earlier KRG
Minister Kemal Kirkukli had attended a conference in London
during which he said, according to Khalil, that the "Arabs
must move" from Kirkuk, yet, "no one was angry at him." He
evaded further questions about what exactly he had said at
the conference, claiming that it was just "his presence"
there that had set off the storm of criticism in Kirkuk and
the KRG.

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ASSASSINATION THREATS
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16. (C) Khalil concluded the meeting by noting that he would
not be intimidated and would continue working for Kirkuk
unless "we are assassinated," alluding to threats that had
been made against him.


17. (C) COMMENT: Khalil's local standing has been brought
into question since his appearance and statements at the
Ankara conference, but he showed no uncertainty with us
during this meeting. His linking of the "voluntary"
relocation issue and the Arab/Turkoman PC boycott further
complicates the boycott question. Like the Arabic and
Kurdish versions of TAL Article 58, the Commission,s
finalized proposal uses ambiguous language that could be
taken to mean either that the program is voluntary or
involuntary. Clarification as to how this process should be
understood is needed. Another Article 140 Commission member,
Assyrian lawyer Ashur Benjamin told us the same day that from
the "legal standpoint," he believes the law provides for
mandatory relocation of Wafidain, but because of political
considerations, it will be considered a voluntary program and
mandatory relocation will not be enforced. END COMMENT.
SPECKHARD