Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08BAGHDAD2869
2008-09-06 15:58:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baghdad
Cable title:  

NINEWA: HAMDANIYA MAYOR ARGUES THE SKY IS NOT

Tags:  PGOV PHUM ECON KDEM IZ 
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DE RUEHGB #2869 2501558
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 061558Z SEP 08
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9260
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 002869 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/07/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: NINEWA: HAMDANIYA MAYOR ARGUES THE SKY IS NOT
FALLING

Classified By: PRT Ninewa Leader Alex Laskaris for reasons 1.4 (b,d).

This is a Ninewa Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) message.
C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 002869

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/07/2018
TAGS: PGOV PHUM ECON KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: NINEWA: HAMDANIYA MAYOR ARGUES THE SKY IS NOT
FALLING

Classified By: PRT Ninewa Leader Alex Laskaris for reasons 1.4 (b,d).

This is a Ninewa Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) message.

1. (C) Summary: The Assyrian Christian mayor of Ninewa,s
Hamdaniya district told us that security in his community is
sufficient and that there is less to the debate over whether
to affiliate with the Kurdish region or Ninewa province than
meets the eye. Mayor Nissan Karumi professes no allegiance
to any political party, and contempt for all of them. He
argued that all Hamdaniya,s communities are capable of
coexistence, and voiced no objection to Kurdish-dominated
sub-districts of Hamdaniya joining the Kurdish region. The
mayor offered a standard list of grievances against the
provincial government but said the problems are systemic in
nature. End summary.

2. (C) PRT leader paid a courtesy call on Nissan Karumi,
mayor of the Hamdaniya district of Ninewa Province, on
September 2. Karumi cleared up one mystery right off the
bat: &Hamdaniya8 is the district,s official name,
&Qarakosh8 is the Ottoman name that most people use, and he
himself uses its Assyrian name of &Begdadaa,eh8. Karumi
said that Hamdaniya district had 150,000 people in 1997, a
number that has grown by some 4,000 IDP families since 2003.
He said that the newcomers are mainly Christian IDPs from
other parts of Iraq, including Mosul. Other groups of IDPs
include Shebak and a smaller number of Yezidis. He thought
the district was 80-90 percent Christian, with a Sunni Arab
community centered in Nimrud sub-district and one small
Turkman community.

3. (C) Karumi said that the security situation in Qarakosh
town and the broader Hamdaniya district is satisfactory. He
attributed this to the fact that the area was comprised of
close-knit communities in which strangers were easily
identified. He allowed that the KRG-Ninewa green line passed
through his district, but said that was a dispute among
politicians with little impact on the daily life of the
community. Karumi said that men working as private security
guards filled the vacuum created by the fall of the regime
and have gone from protecting churches to a broader law and
order role. The fact that their salaries come from KRG
Finance Minister Sarkis Aghajan bothered him, but only
insofar as the personnel were accruing no pension rights or
other benefits. He said he hoped that they would all be
integrated into the police, but noted that &these things
take a long time in Iraq.8

4. (C) We asked Karumi where he stood on the issue of
remaining in Ninewa Province or joining the KRG. He
responded that if every other group in Iraq is demanding
autonomy, he might as well do the same. As a lawyer, he
said, he knows that this is not possible, but hopes that by
demanding it for himself he could show other groups what a
bad idea it really is. Karumi said that this dispute was
between politicians and political parties, explaining that he
is not the former and not a member of the latter.

5. (C) Karumi explained that a District Mayor is not a
political position; the mayor is a town administrator who
controls no resources. He got the job, he said, because he
was a prominent insurance lawyer who coalition forces and
others approached to take the position. He lamented the
over-centralization of power in Iraq, asking how it was
possible to govern a country in which every decision ) no
matter how small ) needs a minister,s or director
general,s approval.

6. (C) Karumi said that there are some 250 poultry farmers
in the district who are interested in working together. He
complained that the farmers are not getting the support they
need from the government, mainly feedstock, and lack the
ability to get their goods to market in a systematic way. We
asked if the farmers had an association and, if so, are they
looking for credit in order to run businesses on a strictly
commercial basis. Karumi said that the entrepreneurial
skills and instincts do not exist in the district to operate
in this way; he complained that there are 10,000 college
graduates in the district, all of whom think the government
owes them a desk job where they can make money without doing
any work.

7. (C) Comment: Hamdaniya resembles other Christian
communities in Ninewa that we visit regularly, enjoying
relative prosperity, order, and security. Karumi is unusual
among Christian leaders, however, in acknowledging that
Christians have attained a degree of normalcy following
violent uprooting from Mosul and other parts of Iraq.
CROCKER