CHRISTIAN POLITICIANS COOPERATE ON ARTICLE 50

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 003357

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/11/2018
TAGS: KIRF PGOV PREL IZ
SUBJECT: CHRISTIAN POLITICIANS COOPERATE ON ARTICLE 50
REVISION

REF: A. BAGHDAD 3082

B. BAGHDAD 3244

Classified By: By Deputy Political Counselor Steve Walker for reasons 1
.4(b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: Iraq's two Christian parliamentarians,
political bloc leaders, and other minority representatives
are redrafting Article 50, which was excluded from the
Provincial Elections Law (PEL) parliament passed on September
24 (reftel). (Note: Article 50 would have established
set-aside seats for minorities on provincial councils in six
provinces. End Note.) The two Christian MPs, who have
temporarily set aside their differences, want the revised
Article 50 to guarantee three seats for Christians on the
provincial councils of both Baghdad and Ninewa and one seat
on the council in Basrah. In addition, they hope to allocate
a single seat on the councils in Baghdad and Amarah for the
Sabaean-Mandaean community. They are also pushing for
separate ballots and voting districts for Christians and
other minorities. Led by Acting Speaker Attiyah, opponents
of this plan propose a quota of one seat only for Christians
in each of the above-named cities. End Summary.

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Christian Collaboration
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2. (C) In separate meetings on October 10 and 11, Assyrian
Democratic Movement leader Younadam Kanna and Chaldean
Democratic Union Party leader Ablahad Afram Sawa told Poloff
that Council of Representative (CoR) bloc leaders were
negotiating to redraft Article 50 of the Provincial Elections
Law (PEL),but that so far nothing had been agreed upon.
Kanna and Sawa have proposed a reformulated Article 50 that
would stipulate three seats for Christians on provincial
councils in both Baghdad and Ninewa (Mosul),and one seat in
Basrah. The two also proposed separate ballots and voting
districts for minorities, so that any one minority would run
only against candidates of his/her own group. Sawa said that
many CoR members support the Christian position, but that
their bloc leaders do not. (Comment: This strikes us as a
bit optimistic. End comment.)

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Minority Solidarity
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3. (C) While Christians are the largest minority group in
Iraq, other minority groups seeking representation, such as
the Sabaean-Mandaeans, Yezidis and Shabak, are struggling to
be heard in the Article 50 debate. The energetic Kanna is
standing up for the tiny Sabaean-Mandaean community, which
was not allocated any seats under the original Article 50.
Kanna claims he was promised a seat for a Sabaean-Mandaean in
Baghdad and said he is lobbying hard to get them a seat in
Amarah (Maysan). Both Kanna and Sawa dismissed Yezidi CoR
member Mahma Khalil's (KDP) claim that there are nearly half
a million Yezidis in Ninewa and call for a four or five seat
quota for Yezidis on the provincial council. Kanna believes
Khalil will back down and settle for less. Kurdish bloc
leaders are fighting any seat allocations for the Shabak,
which they regard as ethnic Kurds. The Shabak themselves
disagree as to whether they constitute a separate ethnicity.
According to Sawa, three Shabak from Mosul (NFI) met with
Acting Speaker Attiyah and Deputy Speaker Tayfur on October
11 to assert that they consider themselves Kurds. Kanna
believes if the Shabak are allocated seats, they will be
satisfied with one seat in Ninewa.

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Confronting Minority Quota Opponents
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4. (C) Both Kanna and Sawa lamented the fact that CoR
Speaker Mashadani is out of the country. In their view,
Acting Speaker Attiyah is inherently hostile toward minority
quotas and is playing an obstructionist game. Kanna also
lambasted the "Baathists" -- meaning Tawafuq -- for trying to
minimize minority quotas by insisting on not more than one
seat for any individual minority in any area. This would
work out to one seat each for Christians, Shabaks, and
Yezidis in Ninewa; one Christian and one Sabaean-Mandaean
seat in Baghdad, and one Christian seat in Basrah.


5. (C) According to Kanna, Attiyah is proposing that the
CoR Provincial Affairs Committee and minority representatives
draft a paper on population numbers of each minority and
propose other mechanisms to grant minorities political
representation. Kanna dismissed this as an ad hoc census,
and a stalling tactic. He is particularly upset about
Attiyah's idea that the minority quotas ultimately decided on

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for the provincial council elections will be subject to
revision following a national census currently planned for
October 2009.

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Personal Differences
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6. (C) The Assyrian Kanna and the Chaldean Sawa have a cool
relationship due to what Kanna sees as Sawa's lack of
political independence (Sawa's party is part of the Kurdish
Alliance) and Sawa's insistence on applying the
differentiation among the various Christian sects to
politics. On the other hand, Sawa believes joining forces
with the Kurdish Alliance was his only option for increasing
Christian representation in the CoR and regards Kanna as
egotistical and overbearing. Nevertheless, Kanna and Sawa
are cooperating to support minority rights with regard to
inclusion of quotas in the PEL. Sawa noted that he has not
been able to convince Kanna to join him in a united public
position on the minorities representation issue. Sawa
regards this as evidence of Kanna egotism and selfishness.

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Comment
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7. (C) The negotiations in the CoR to come up with a
mechanism to guarantee minority representation on the
provincial councils continue. There have been a number of
competing proposals. Kanna and Sawa's collaboration on the
Article 50 negotiations is a welcome change from their usual
avoidance of each other; Kanna's support for other minorities
is also positive. Both are attending additional meetings on
Article 50 and will keep us informed of developments.

CROCKER