IRAQI MFA STRUGGLES TO REBUILD, EVEN AS IT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 002814 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL IZ SUBJECT: IRAQI MFA STRUGGLES TO REBUILD, EVEN AS IT COMMEMORATES THE FALLEN REF: BAGHDAD 2272 Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Gary A. Grappo, for reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (C) Summary: On October 16, the Iraqi MFA hosted a commemoration ceremony for the victims of the August 19 bombing that killed some 30 MFA employees. PM Nouri al-Maliki and other senior officials delivered eulogies to the fallen. In the days and weeks leading up to this event, the MFA has been busily engaged in trying to rebuild and get back up to speed. A recent visit to the MFA by Dep Pol C indicated that about half of the Ministry has been renovated and progress continues with Ministry of Housing workers doing two shifts daily to renovate. Nonetheless, the top five floors of the main building remain an almost completely gutted shambles. Up to half of the MFA workforce has returned to work, working in to two shifts, as employees engage in the bureaucratic equivalent of hot bunking. Many senior diplomats continue to meet visitors at a nearby hotel because there is no appropriate place to receive them at the MFA. MFA officials express pride in their effort to rebuild but disappointment that there has been little assistance offered. End Summary. COMMEMORATING THE FALLEN -------------- ¶2. (C) The Iraqi MFA organized a final commemoration ceremony (the traditional 40-days after the deaths, or "Arbaeena" ceremony) at the Rasheed Hotel October 16. The ceremony was hosted by FM Zebari and featured speeches by PM Maliki, President Talabani, and other senior political figures. Families of the victims attended, bearing photographs of their loved ones. Speakers such as Zebari all made similar points: -- The August 19 bombings targeted the Iraqi state and the symbols of state sovereignty; -- The victims represented a cross-section of Iraqi society, Sunni, Shia, Arab, Kurd, Christian, and other minorities (approximately half of the victims were women); and -- The GOI is grateful for the assistance provided to the injured, by its neighbors and other countries (Zebari singled out Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, the UAE, as well as Spain, Germany, France and the U.S.) TRYING TO REBUILD -------------- ¶3. (C) In the days and weeks leading up to this final commemoration (which MFA officials quietly acknowledged was some ten days late for the actual 40-day count),the MFA has been busily engaged in trying to rebuild and get back up to speed. It is succeeding, albeit with difficulty, and MFA officials including Zebari are quite proud of the efforts they have made. "We have done it ourselves," Zebari told visiting Joint Campaign Plan Assessment team members October ¶14. In addition to pride, there is sometimes hint of disappointment in such statements that the MFA has received little assistance from western countries with a significant diplomatic presence in Baghdad, including the U.S. (Comment: We asked the MFA to detail their needs to us in the days after the bombing and they eventually supplied us with a substantial list of items needed, ranging from computers and other office equipment, to furniture and even elevators. We are working with MNF-I to identify military drawdown equipment that might address some of these needs. END COMMENT.) HALF THE MINISTRY RENOVATED -------------- ¶4. (C) A recent visit to the MFA indicated that about half of the Ministry has been renovated. Ministry of Housing workers, doing two shifts daily, are charged with the renovation, Zebari special assistant Qusay al-Kubaisi told Dep Pol/C October 8. The workers are busy throughout the QDep Pol/C October 8. The workers are busy throughout the main ten-story building and three smaller buildings on the compound, renovating gutted rooms, including new offices for the FM and his senior deputies in one of the annexes, all of whose offices were destroyed. In particular, the first four floors of the Ministry have been extensively renovated. OTHER HALF A GUTTED SHAMBLES -------------- ¶5. (C) Nonetheless, the top five floors of the main building remain an almost completely gutted shambles. The forlorn former office of Zebari, which Dep Pol/C visited with Kubaisi, was a reminder of the devastation the building BAGHDAD 00002814 002 OF 002 sustained August 19, the once elegant outer room where he received diplomats and foreign dignitaries now a darkened space looking like a trash heap in an abandoned warehouse. On the tenth floor, for example, the walls are completely missing on the side of the building that bore the brunt of the blast. ¶6. (C) Kubaisi told Dep Pol C October 8 that about 60-70 percent of the workforce was returning to work at the MFA, alternating in two shifts daily, as they did the bureaucratic equivalent of hot-bunking, because of the lack of usable office space. He estimated that employees had access to about 30 percent of the main building (and more so to the lower-lying annexes which suffered less damage and have been renovated more quickly. (NOTE: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers did a structural assessment of the building in weeks after the blast. According to Qubaisi, they pronounced the building structurally sound, despite the extensive damage.) STILL A LONG WAYS TO GO -------------- ¶7. (C) Progress aside, the MFA has still has a long ways to go. Taha Abassi, head of the Neighboring Countries Department at the MFA provided a more modest assessment of progress when he spoke to Dep Pol/C earlier in October. In his estimate, a large number of MFA staff ("most," he termed it) had not returned to work because they had no place to sit or did not want to be exposed to unsafe, construction conditions where loose wiring hung down everywhere and heaps of trash and debris lay around. Abassi, a senior official, described with some embarrassment his own current office surroundings, noting that he and six other senior diplomats were sitting in a hall that had not been damaged, trying to work. He noted that it was hard to get much work done since much of the MFA was like a worksite. (COMMENT: Abassi asked that we meet at the hotel, saying that except for the FM and his deputy, it was still impossible to receive people at the MFA under the current circumstances. ¶8. (C) Counting the human costs in his section alone, Abassi said that five people out of his office of thirty had been killed and another 10-12 had suffered significant injuries. Kubaisi noted that a significant number of MFA employees who survived remained traumatized by the bombing and have not returned to work. FORD