PRT NINEWA: RAIN AND JOBS - NOT SECURITY - ARE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000663 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/05/2018 TAGS: ECON EINV EAGR PGOV PINR IZ SUBJECT: PRT NINEWA: RAIN AND JOBS - NOT SECURITY - ARE FIRST ON THE MINDS OF CHRISTIANS IN THE NINEWA PLAIN Classified By: PRT Ninewa Team Leader Jason Hyland for reasons 1.4 (b) and (dQ ¶1. (U) This is a Ninewa Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) message. Summary -------------- ¶2. (C/REL ACGU) Even as the 29 February kidnapping of Chaldean Christian Archbishop Faraj Rahu from a neighborhood in east Mosul remains unresolved, community leaders and municipal officials in the outlying Tel Keif and Al Hamdaniya districts to the north and east of Mosul - where the majority of the province's Christians live - report that security is not their prime concern. Instead, leaders and officials in the area traditionally known as the Ninewa Plain are focused on essential service delivery, unemployment and the negative effects of this year's drought. End Summary. Worries about Agriculture Dominate -------------- ¶3. (C/REL ACGU) Al Hamdaniya Mayor Nisan Karroumi Yousif said during a late February visit to his new offices in district capital Qara Qosh that his area has a relatively stable security situation but faces severe constraints on agricultural production from a lack of rain and little irrigation. Farmers and community leaders in the Al Hamdaniya town of Bartalla and the Tel Keif town of Al Qosh echoed the specific complaint that the lack of rain is forcing farmers who cannot grow fodder to reduce their livestock herds. (NOTE: In a separate, late-February meeting, the Provincial Council and the provincial Director General of Agriculture discussed a plan to provide struggling livestock owners with an emergency infusion of fodder. END NOTE) In addition, farmers throughout the Ninewa Plain said they face unfair competition from cheap food imports, prohibitively expensive farm inputs like fuel and seed, a lack of meat and vegetable processing facilities, and severely reduced opportunities for agricultural credit. While the agricultural sector suffers, Mayor Nisan said his district's relative security facilitates merchant activity by importers based in the Kurdish Regional Government. Compared to Mosul and some western and southern parts of Ninewa, the majority of Al Hamdaniya and Tel Keif districts is behind the "Green Line" of Kurdish control, where security and commercial product availability are better. Unemployment, Especially for IDPs, also a Concern -------------- -------------- ¶4. (C/REL ACGU) Leaders across the Ninewa Plain said sectarian rivalries are secondary to residents' far more pressing need to find jobs. Mayor Nisan said the Christian community in Qara Qosh hosts more than 3,000 internally displaced families, most of whom are Christians from Baghdad and Basra. Leaders in the towns of Bartalla and Al Qosh said their villages are also hosting internally displaced families. None of the leaders or officials said resettlement or the security of these families is their top priority; rather, they told PRToffs they are interested in jobs and economic opportunities. In Al Hamdaniya alone, the mayor said there are 3,000 unemployed university graduates. Services, Assistance Requested from Province -------------- ¶5. (C/REL ACGU) Mayor Misan said he participated in some of the 2008 budget planning meetings, stressing the importance of providing municipal services like electricity, street cleaning, tree planting education and road repair. He said the town receives six hours of electricity per day at best, with some days as little as two hours. Municipal trash collectors have only one percent of the budget they need for salaries and less than half of the equipment required to do their jobs properly. Biographical Information -------------- ¶6. (C/REL ACGU) Mayor Nisan is a lawyer who worked for an insurance company in Mosul until 2003, when he returned to the town of Qara Qosh to work as the Al Hamdaniya district mayor. He has a degree from Baghdad University. He is a Christian with four children (three girls and one boy). He said his career aspiration was initially to be a judge, but that now he is too old. He speaks Arabic and basic English. Comment -------------- ¶7. (C/REL ACGU) Like rural residents across Ninewa, farmers in the province's eastern and northern districts suffer from a lack of rain, expensive farm inputs, and little access to credit. Faced with an influx of internally displaced persons and weak government service delivery, this inability of the traditional farm sector to support rural residents hinders economic growth. However, this Ninewa Plain area where many Christians and other minorities live has relatively better security - and, therefore, economic potential - than much of the southern and western parts of the province. The PRT is working closely with associations and investors in these more permissive eastern and northern areas to capitalize on local business and job creation opportunities, particularly in agriculture. End Comment. CROCKER