NON-MUSLIM ENDOWMENT: FLUSH WITH CASH, BUT NO ONE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 02 OF 03 BAGHDAD 001890 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/09/2019 TAGS: KIRF PGOV IZ SUBJECT: NON-MUSLIM ENDOWMENT: FLUSH WITH CASH, BUT NO ONE TO SPEND IT *********************** * Missing Section 001 * *********************** BAGHDAD 00001890 002 OF 003 and religious sites and that in order to maintain them more staff would be required. When asked whether the endowment could utilize some of its budget surpluses to hire additional employees, al-Naufali told Poloff on June 15 that he had tried this, but had been told that there was a government-wide hiring freeze as a result of low oil prices and that the GOI did not want any government agency adding to its payroll. In a separate conversation on July 7, al-Shammaa told Poloff that the Endowment had received permission from the Ministry of Finance to add 150 employees, but that they had to come from amongst a pool of employees who had previously worked for the GOI, specifically for state-owned industries that were reducing their staff. Al-Shammaa indicated that the Endowment was working on locating these employees so that they could be transferred over. -------------- Christian Endowment -------------- ¶6. (C) Within the non-Muslim Endowment, the Christian Endowment is by far the largest of three religious affiliations. According to Director al-Shammaa, the Christian Endowment has 85 employees (out of 98 at the entire non-Muslim Endowment) assigned to it. The Christian Endowment is also responsible for the bulk of the non-Muslim's endowment spending. Al-Shammaa told Poloff that as of July 7, the Christian Endowment had allocated 3 billion Iraqi dinars to renovate Catholic Churches (Chaldean and Syriac) in Baghdad, 1 billion dinars for Assyrian Churches, 500 million dinars for Armenian Churches, and 500 million dinars to support places of worship in Mosul and the villages of Ninewah. When asked about the selection process for projects, al-Shammaa described how the Christian Endowment receives proposals from the 14 officially recognized churches in Baghdad. Al-Shammaa noted that while each of the 14 churches wants their projects to be the priority, that the endowment works on a first come, first serve basis due to its staffing shortages. He acknowledged that this process left some church leaders upset on occasion. ¶7. (C) In separate conversations with Christian religious leaders, Poloff noted that there is a degree of frustration with the non-Muslim Endowment. Monsignor Imad Albanna, the regional representative of the Chaldean Church in Basra, told Poloff on July 7 that the procedures to receive assistance from the non-Muslim Endowment were "very slow." Albanna complained that as a result churches in Basra were falling into a state of disrepair. In contrast, Father Augin Dawood of the Assyrian Church told Poloff on July 6 that he was extremely satisfied with the support his church was receiving. At the same time, Archbishop Matti Matouka, the leader of the Syriac Catholic Church in Iraq, told Poloff on June 29 that the large scale emigration of Iraq's Christian community since 2003 has left the churches more dependent on the non-Muslim Endowment than ever because they can no longer rely on the donations and patronage of wealthy Christian families. ¶8. (C) In addition to its support to places of worship, the Christian Endowment has also worked over the past year, in conjunction with the Council of Bishops, on drafting a Personal Status Law that would govern issues of marriage, divorce, and inheritance for Iraq's Christian community (ref A). At present, these matters are regulated by Law 188, which applies to all Iraqis regardless of religion and sect and which draws heavily upon Islamic jurisprudence (ref B). At the request of the Christian Endowment, the Embassy's Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Office agreed to do a QConstitutional and Legislative Affairs Office agreed to do a legal analysis of the draft law to determine whether it met international best practices. The analysis along with suggested changes was completed in May and returned to the Endowment for their consideration. As of July, the Endowment was still revising its draft personal status law and had not submitted it to the Prime Minister's Office for consideration. -------------- Sabean-Mandean Endowment -------------- ¶9. (C) The Sabean-Mandean Endowment is by far the smallest of the three non-Muslim endowments with just three employees assigned to it. Nevertheless, its director, Zahroon Thomah, told Poloff on June 24 that the Sabean-Mandean Endowment has been able to complete a couple of projects that have benefited the community. Thomah noted, specifically, the completion of a new Sabean-Mandean Center of Study and Research located next to the principal temple in Baghdad as well as new furniture that the Endowment was able to provide to Mandean temples in Basra, Erbil, and Imara. At the same time, Thomah complained that it was impossible for the BAGHDAD 00001890 003 OF 003 Sabean-Mandean Endowment to do its work effectively with so few employees. He relayed to Poloff that the Endowment currently has a tender out to rehabilitate a Sabean-Mandean temple in Kirkuk and that there were plans to rebuild an old temple in Nasriyah, but that there was no one available to oversee the work. Thomah said that in these cases, the Sabean-Mandean Endowment requests assistance from the Ministry of Housing and Construction to oversee the work, but that this is not an ideal solution. ¶10. (C) Thomah also expressed frustration with the Provincial Councils of Basra and Kirkuk who he claimed were being unnecessarily obstructionist in providing lands for the construction of new Sabean-Mandean temples. Thomah said that the current temple in Basrah was located next to stagnant, polluted water and that the Basra Provincial Council had denied the Sabean-Mandean request on the grounds that there are no available lands. With respect to Kirkuk, Thomah stated that while the Provincial Council had not denied the request for land outright, it had told the Sabean-Mandean community there that they had purchase the land as it would not be given way for free. At the same time, Thomah claimed that the Sunnis and Shias always seem to get large tracts of free land to build their mosques. -------------- Yezidi Endowment -------------- ¶11. (C) With ten employees, the Yezidi Endowment is three times larger than the Sabean-Mandean Endowment, but remains dwarfed by the Christian Endowment. Adding to its challenge is the fact that the Yezidi community is not present in Baghdad, making its work more difficult to accomplish. According to the director of the Yezidi Endowment, Sherwan Ismael, the Endowment maintains representatives and has numerous projects underway in the northern villages of Baghdada, Kara Kosh, Bashiqa, and Shehan. In Shehan, the Endowment is building a guest house for pilgrims near the site of the Yezidi's most important place of worship, the Lalash Temple. Looking ahead, Ismael discussed plans to renovate and preserve ten Yezidi shrines in Ismael complained that he has difficulty recruiting Yezidis to work at the Endowment because of the distance between the Yezidi villages and Baghdad, the security situation along the roads, and because of the small salaries that the endowment is able to offer. ¶12. (C) Whether this statement is true is a matter of debate within the Yezidi community. According to Yezidi MP Amin Farhan, the bulk of the Yezidi community does not recognize the Yezidi Endowment in Baghdad because Ismael has been utilizing his position to direct funds to support his tribe rather than the Yezidi community as a whole. In a conversation with Poloff on July 9, Farhan also accused Ismael of failing to hire Yezidis at the Endowment because he wanted to conceal the truth as to how funds at the Endowment were being spent. Whatever the truth is, these statements reveal a real division within the Yezidi community as to whether they are really benefiting from the largesse at the non-Muslim Endowment. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶13. (C) In general, the story of the non-Muslim Endowment is a good one. The robust budgetary allocations from the Ministry of Finance are an indication that the GOI has allocated hard money to back up its rhetoric concerning support for Iraq's minority populations. Although the non-Muslim Endowment Directors like to compare their resources to the Sunni and Shia endowments, the truth is that these endowments will always dwarf them given that Iraq's Qthese endowments will always dwarf them given that Iraq's population is approximately 95% Muslim. The more apt comparison is between what the Endowment's budget and staffing were in 2003 (no official budget/five employees) and what they are today ($15 million/98 employees -- and apparently more on the way). End comment. HILL