Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07HILLAH70
2007-05-04 07:07:00
CONFIDENTIAL
REO Hillah
Cable title:  

HILLAH MAYOR KABUKI CONTINUES

Tags:  PGOV PREL PINR KDEM IZ 
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VZCZCXRO5238
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK
DE RUEHIHL #0070 1240707
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 040707Z MAY 07
FM REO HILLAH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0855
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 0804
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHIHL/REO HILLAH 0914
C O N F I D E N T I A L HILLAH 000070 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/4/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: HILLAH MAYOR KABUKI CONTINUES

REF: HILLAH 0069

CLASSIFIED BY: Charles F. Hunter, Babil PRT Leader, REO
Al-Hillah, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)



C O N F I D E N T I A L HILLAH 000070

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/4/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: HILLAH MAYOR KABUKI CONTINUES

REF: HILLAH 0069

CLASSIFIED BY: Charles F. Hunter, Babil PRT Leader, REO
Al-Hillah, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (U) This is a PRT Babil Cable.


2. (C) PRT officers met on May 2 with the full membership of the
Hillah District Council (DC) for a discussion of the chain of
events described in reftel. Both Aqeel Al-Silawi, who
introduced himself as the acting mayor until the Provincial
Council (PC) confirms the DC's April 21 election of DC member
Sabah Al-Fatlawi as the new mayor, and "new mayor, pending
confirmation" (his words) Al-Fatlawi were in attendance. The
focus was primarily on interpretation of Coalition Provisional
Authority (CPA) Order 71, which spells out the powers of local
governments.


3. (C) Though at most half of the more than twenty men present
ventured an opinion during the two-hour meeting, the
disagreements among them were clear. Some viewed Governor Salem
Saleh Al-Muslimawi's intervention in suspending former Mayor
Imad Lefta as lawful, on the premise that the head of the
province's highest administrative unit has the right to
discipline elements of subordinate administrative units. Others
shared the PRT's view that because CPA 71 makes mayors
"accountable to" the DCs that elect them, a governor is not
empowered to take action against a mayor. There was similar
division of opinion about whether DC decisions, or at least
significant ones such as the replacement of a mayor, must in
fact be ratified by the PC. Attendees did agree that the
provincial powers law the Council of Representatives will
eventually pass needs to be specific and unambiguous on as many
of these points as possible.


4. (C) The underlying question of who has the best claim to be
Hillah's mayor was left unanswered. After the meeting
Al-Fatlawi spoke privately with PRT officers to ask them to
intervene with the PC. The PRT is arranging a follow-up meeting
with Al-Silawi, Al-Fatlawi, the DC chair and deputy chair, and
the DC legal committee head to urge them to implement a solution
consistent with the rule of law, for the sake of removing
ambiguity and meeting citizens' needs.


5. (C) COMMENT: The dialogue had its surprising moments. The
mayor-elect, Al-Fatlawi, seemed to argue against his own case
with an absolutist interpretation of the mayor's answerability
only to the DC. His argument ironically would mean that the
catalyst that led to his election, namely the governor's move to
suspend the former mayor, was illegitimate. Al-Fatlawi may be
looking more forward than backward, however, and laying down a
marker that he (a Sayyid Rasool loyalist) does not intend to be
pushed around by the SCIRI-affiliated governor. If so he may
help maintain a more even distribution of political power in the
province than the SCIRI establishment had probably been hoping
for.


6. (C) COMMENT, CONTINUED: The Provincial Council has yet to
take up the matter of the DC's vote and might choose not to do
so if the matter will be too close-fought. The PRT is concerned
that the old-regime mindset of deferring action until a higher
level approves it will make Hillah's citizens the losers,
looking for positive change and finding instead a cautious, lame
duck administration. Most discrete elements of this mayoral
saga leave something to be desired in terms of scruples and
political good faith. In the end, the greater good may turn out
to lie in letting bygones be bygones and getting to work on the
formidable tasks at hand. END COMMENT.

HUNTER