RRT ERBIL: NEA-I DIRECTOR DISCUSSES MINORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001830

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/17/2018
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER PINR KIRF VT IZ
SUBJECT: RRT ERBIL: NEA-I DIRECTOR DISCUSSES MINORITY
RIGHTS DURING KRG VISIT

REF: BAGHDAD 1564

Classified By: RRT Erbil Regional Coordinator Jess Baily for Reasons 1.
4 (b,d)

This is an Erbil Regional Reconstruction Team message.

Summary
--------------


1. (C) Special Representative on Minorities in Iraq, NEA-I
Director Richard Schmierer met June 11 and 12 Iraq with
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials, Christian
leaders, and other minority communities that have taken
refuge in the KRG. Clear themes emerged, demonstrating the
opportunities and challenges faced by these communities.
They have found security and limited financial support from
the KRG, yet still face systematic discrimination and
economic woes. While Christian leaders, such as KRG Minister
of Finance Sarkis Agjahan and Assyrian Democratic Movement
Secretary General Yonadem Kanna support an autonomous zone
for Christians, members of the Christian community remained
skeptical, noting it would become "like Israel," surrounded
by enemies on all sides.


2. (C) Summary, cont.: Christians IDPs who have taken
refuge in the region expressed uncertainty about the future,
and bitterness toward the past. None planned to return to
the communities they had fled in Baghdad and Basra, noting
their children have no futures in those cities. While no
easy solutions to ensure the survival of the Christian
community in Iraq are apparent, discussions with Father
Bashar Warda, St. Peter Seminary Rector did delve into
possible actions the U.S. could take to mediate the
disagreements between the various religious factions, and
encourage them to work as a united front to ensure the rights
for minority communities in Iraq. KRG Prime Minister
Nechirvan Barzani offered to set up a committee to explore
ways for the KRG to improve its assistance for religious
minorities. End Summary.

Autonomous Zone: Popular among leadership,
but doubts in the community
--------------


3. (C) In a meeting June 11 with NEA-I Director, KRG
Minister of Finance Sarkis Aghajan strongly advocated an
autonomous zone, noting that if Christians had been granted
their own areas previously they would have been able to
retain their lands and their communities instead of the mass
emigration now underway (Reftel). He noted others speak out
against an autonomous zone, but are motivated by personal
conflicts instead of working to save Christians in Iraq. A
referendum must be held, Sarkis explained, as it would allow
the Christian community to determine its fate in Iraq.
Yonadem Kanna, Secretary General of the Assyrian Democratic
Movement (ADM),on the other hand, advocated providing local
administrative control to religious minority communities per
Article 125 of the Iraqi Constitution in a meeting June 12,
rather than an autonomous zone based in the Ninewa Plains as
Sarkis urged. For example, Kanna said that parts of Baghdad
could serve as key areas in which to allocate increased local
administrative control, with what he numbered to be 27,000
strong Christian families living in Baghdad.


4. (C) Christian IDPs expressed great skepticism about an
autonomous zone in a dinner meeting with NEA-I Director June
11, noting it would become like Israel, surrounded by
enemies. They said it would isolate Christians from their
Iraqi heritage and homeland, and that the communities they
now live in would push them to live with their own brethren
in the autonomous zone. They asked what would we do, stuck
in small villages in the Ninewa Plain? Many Christian IDPs
are professionals, engineers and medical doctors, reluctant
to build up their lives in small villages, where agriculture
would likely be the primary occupation. Kurdistan National
Assembly (KNA) member Bayzar Ohan, an Armenian member of the
Chaldean Democratic Party, told NEA-I Director June 12 that
an autonomous zone would not work, as Christians are not
located in a contiguous area. The key, she said, is to
ensure minority rights as enshrined in Article 121 of the
Iraqi constitution are respected, and that authority at the
sub-district level should be increased, to allow Christians
to have an active voice in politics, as their communities are
too small for significant representation at the district
level.


5. (C) Father Bashar Warda, Rector of St. Peter's Seminary,
which relocated from Baghdad to Erbil in 2006, told NEA-I
Director June 12 that church leadership remains neutral on
the proposed autonomous zone, preferring to remain out of
what is ultimately a political decision. (Note: Sarkis told

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NEA-I Director that the Chaldean Patriarch has consented to
an autonomous zone, yet has not made his opinion public.
However, UNAMI SRSG Staffan de Mistura told NEA/I Director
Schmierer on June 16 that the Patriarch told de Mistura that
he did not support an autonomous zone because he believed
that such a zone would cause Christians living outside that
zone to be intimidated or threatened to leave their areas.
End Note.) Although Warda believes an autonomous zone would
be a bad idea, he explained that the two key Christian
political leaders in Iraq, Yonadem Kanna and Sarkis, are
promoting the autonomous zone idea. He said the key would be
to bring the two men together, to form a united front for
Christian issues, as the community would unite behind them,
and perhaps achieve the strength necessary to push forward
the Christian agenda with the Government of Iraq.

KRG offers refuge, but discrimination exists
--------------


6. (C) Christian IDPs told NEA-I Director that while the are
grateful for the security and limited financial support they
receive in the KRG, systemic discrimination prohibits them
from integrating into the community. Bashar Moneer Beeney,
an internist who fled to the KRG in February 2008, said he
receives only three hundred dollars per month for his work at
a KRG health clinic, and is not compensated based on his
experience and expertise. Kurdish doctors with similar
skills are paid much more, he said, and claimed discrepancies
in pay between Kurds and Christian IDPs can be found in
several fields.


7. (C) KNA member Ohan described how Arabic was previously
taught to the Christian community in Zakho (a district in
Dohuk Province),but after the 1991 uprising, all teaching
shifted to Kurdish only. Today Christian students have
difficulty achieving the grades necessary to attend
universities, she explained, as they are taught in Kurdish,
and not their native tongue. According to Father Warda,
church leadership has brought the teaching of Christians in
Kurdish to the attention of President Massoud Barzani, who
expressed concern and took notes. However, nothing has
changed, Father Warda said, and despite rhetoric in support
of Christian rights among KRG leadership, district level
administrators and leaders continue to push a Kurdish
nationalistic agenda and refuse to allow Christians to be
taught in Arabic. (Note: The KRG has increased Arabic
teaching for Christian IDPs living in urban areas such as An
Kawa in Erbil, however, the benefit does not appear to be
extended to non-IDP Christians in the KRG. End Note.)


8. (C) Yonadem Kanna told NEA-I Director that the KRG has
systematically seized Christian land over several years, and
simply uses the Christian cause as a proxy to further Kurdish
control of land in Iraq. He said that the KRG leadership
had threatened Christians interested in joining the Mosul
police recruitment drive, resulting in low numbers of
Christians being trained to protect their communities.


9. (C) Another economic challenge faced by the Christian
IDP community in the KRG is the corruption affecting activity
in the private sector. One interlocutor, a construction
engineer from Basra named Laith Alqa, commented that he
refused to reopen his construction business, despite
considerable potential contract work, due to the amount of
bribes and kickbacks he would have to pay.

Future Uncertain for Many
--------------


10. (C) The Christian IDPs expressed gratefulness to
Minister Sarkis and the KRG, as they have offered protection
for Christians, and recognized their plight while the
Government of Iraq offers nothing. Embittered and
traumatized, all expressed deep reservations about returning
to Baghdad or Basra. Maysoon Majeed, an engineer from Basra,
noted that there is no point in returning south, as the
Christian community no longer exists. How would she find
husbands for her three daughters in such an environment, she
asked. Several IDPs also expressed a strong distrust of
Muslims in general, saying that they simply could no longer
live peacefully with Muslims, given what has happened since

2003. They said that although the KRG, under Nechirvan
Barzani's patronage, provides protection, no long term
guarantees can be found for minorities in Iraq.


11. (C) The spiritual leader of the Sabean Mandean
community, Sheikh Sattar Al Zahrony, expressed similar doubts
to A/DAS. He said Sabean Mandeans numbered around 35,000
people before 2003, and now are reduced to less than 6,000.
He believes their permanent departure from Iraq is imminent,
given the continued threats against the community and rampant
discrimination, such as the belief among Muslims that Sabean

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Mandeans are unclean. He gave the example of a Sabean
Mandean woman who was raped and told by her rapists that she
was now clean and would be allowed to enter heaven. Al
Zahrony said extremism and intolerance had swept through Iraq
from Saudi Arabia and Iran, and said he expects that less
than ten percent of Sabean Mandeans who have fled Iraq would
ever return.

U.S. and KRG options to help
--------------


12. (C) Father Warda said that the U.S. could play a
powerful role by mediating between the two Christian leaders,
Sarkis and Kanna, and work to unify the various Christian
factions, so they work together to preserve Iraq's Christian
community. He cited the U.S. role in resolving the Kurdish
civil war as an example of U.S. ability to bring groups
together to ensure they achieve their mutual objectives. KNA
Member Ohan Bayzar said that job opportunities and education
also remain key to supporting Christian communities in Iraq.
Father Warda has spent much of his time visiting Christian
villages. Noting the poor infrastructure, lack of roads,
schools, and health clinics, and lack of agricultural
equipment, he said that even basic community planning would
help and could be used to solicit funds from European donors.


13. (C) In a June 12 breakfast meeting, NEA/I Director
pressed KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to do more to
not only protect religious minorities but to increase their
quality of life, particularly be creating economic
opportunities. "We want to help," said Nechirvan, offering
to set up a committee to explore ways in which the KRG could
improve its assistance to religious minorities. Comment:
The RRT will follow up with PM Nechirvan and his offer to set
up a committee and efforts determine how best to promote
minority rights in the KRG. End Comment.


14. (U) NEA-I Director Schmierer cleared this message.
BUTENIS