POST REQUESTS FY 2011 FUNDING FOR CORRECTIONS

UNCLAS BAGHDAD 003289 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR INL/I, NEA/I JUSTICE FOR ODAG, CRM, OPDAT, ICITAP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM KJUS KCRM IZ PGOV SUBJECT: POST REQUESTS FY 2011 FUNDING FOR CORRECTIONS ADVISORY MISSION IN IRAQ REF: A. BAGHDAD 2384 ¶B. BAGHDAD 3141 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The corrections advisor program in Iraq is needed to ensure humane treatment of detainees turned over to the GOI as well as to bolster GOI institutional capacity through December 2011. MNF-I will provide partial funding for the continuation of the corrections advisory program for coalition-related facilities. In the context of ongoing budget discussions across the interagency in Washington, Post would like to underline our support for continued State Department funding of the ICITAP mission. END SUMMARY ¶2. (SBU) Current INL-funding provides support to the corrections mission as previously agreed with ICITAP. This funding takes into account a planned dramatic staffing decrease between now and the end of the mission currently slated for March 2011. Current funding will not provide assurance that the Iraqi Corrections Service (ICS) can independently sustain prison operations without tragic or dangerous failures at high risk prisons. Had ICITAP corrections advisors been present at the Baghdad Central Prison in September 2009, they would have provided guidance to the ICS to prevent or at least mitigate the disturbance that destroyed that facility and required the MOJ to move over 2000 detainees to Chamchamal Prison. ICITAP advisors are required to ensure minimum oversight and capacity development of the ICS during the extremely important transition period. ¶3. (SBU) Against this backdrop -- and given how important the advisors are to prison security -- we support the State Department continuing the program, including covering the projected USD 9.8 million shortfall after DOD contributions. Doing so would allow for a sufficient number of corrections advisors to remain in high-risk ICS facilities throughout the transition process to assist in guaranteeing both Iraqi institutional capacity and compliance with international human rights standards. ¶4. (SBU) Such funding could support advisors at the following ICS prisons: Khadamiyah Maximum Security Prison, which houses death row inmates; Ft. Suse Prison, which holds AQI and third country nationals (TCNs); Rusafa Prison Complex, which is the ICS headquarters and primary intake center; Chamchamal Prison, currently under activation; and Basra Central Prison, which is under construction. MNF-I will fund advisors through December 2011 at Cropper and Taji Theater Internment Facilities (TIF) and at the National Corrections Training Center. FORD