PRT KIRKUK:KIRKUK'S LOCAL ARTICLE 23 WORKING GROUP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 000467

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/21/2024
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: PRT KIRKUK:KIRKUK'S LOCAL ARTICLE 23 WORKING GROUP
MAKES RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COR

REF: BAGHDAD 305

Classified By: PRT Kirkuk Leader Howard Keegan for reasons 1.4(b) and (
d).


1. (C) Summary. Kirkuk's Provincial Council Working Group
(A23WG),established to address issues related to Article 23
of the Provincial Elections Law, has made a set of
recommendations to present to the Council of Representatives
(CoR) Article 23 Committee. The A23WG suggested that
government positions be distributed equally among the three
main ethnic groups (Turkomen, Sunni, Kurd),that authority be
delegated to the Governor to handle trespassers and land
claims, and that a committee be formed to develop proper
demographic figures. In addition, Kirkuk PC decided that the
Kurds will take the Governorship, with the PC Chairman likely
to go to the Turkomen and the Deputy Governor to the Arabs.
Even though the CoR Article 23 Committee has started its work
on these same issues, A23WG will continue to meet to fine
tune its recommendations to the CoR. End Summary.


2. (C) On November 16, with the encouragement of PRT
Kirkuk, the PC formed a working group, comprised of PC
Coordination Commitee members in order to make
recommendations on the issues outlined in the Provincial
Elections Law Article 23. The A23WG meets every Sunday and
Wednesday in PC Chairman Rizgar Ali's office. The agenda,
decided by Rizgar, is informal (neither written down nor
distributed beforehand),with individual members raising
issues that often end up being the topic of discussion for
that particular day. Membership varies from meeting to
meeting, however a meeting will not be held unless each of
the three main ethnic blocs are represented. A23WG initially
appeared to take on a parallel role equal to the CoR Article
23 Committee. This changed when the U.N.-sponsored CoR
Article 23 Committee held it's first meeting in Kirkuk on
February 2. Since the CoR's Article 23 Committee is mandated
to make the final recommendations for Article 23, the A23WG
has shifted its focus toward broad recommendations on joint
administration, demographics, and trespassers.

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JOINT ADMINISTRATION OF THREE COLUMNS
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3. (C) The first issue tackled by the A23WG back in November
was joint administration in which all blocs agreed on the
(32% Kurd, 32% Turkomen, 32% Arab, and 4% Christian)split for
administrative positions in government. This was a hold-over
from the failed "December 2nd Agreement" (aka Thirteen Point
Agreement) signed between the Arabs and Kurds in December
2007 to end the Arab boycott of the PC. There were initial
hang-ups over security related positions, especially Iraqi
Police (IP),but those were eventually included in this
breakdown. The agreed upon strategy, championed by Kurdish
PC member Awad Mohammed (Kurdistan Toilers Party),calls for
the division of all governmental positions into three equal
columns. Each column will have Directorate General (DG)
Positions all the way down to the lowest administrative
positions split evenly. For instance, the top level DG
Positions will be split into thirds and distributed evenly
between the three columns. The next level DG positions will
follow suit. This will continue until all governmental
positions down to janitors are distributed equally between
these three columns. Once the three columns are complete the
three main ethnic blocs will negotiate over which bloc
receives which column.

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Q --------------
TRESPASSERS - GOVERNOR'S RESPONSIBILITY
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4. (C) The second issue tackled by A23WG was populations
living and/or working on land that is owned by another entity
- trespassers. Article 23 requires the Committee to identify
trespassers on properties in Kirkuk &before and after April
9, 2003.8 Before this date refers to Arabs who took
advantage of the previous regime's Arabization policies and
received land. Thorny details include the lack of a precise
definition of &Arabization,8 since the previous regime had
some land reform laws which on their face involved
ethnically-neutral economic redistribution of land, but may
have been applied to favor Arabs at the expense of the other
ethnicities. The trespasses after April 9, 2003 involve
immigration into Kirkuk province induced by the two main
Kurdish political parties of Kurds with no prior residence by
themselves, parents or grandparents of persons in the
province. Documenting a trespass is often difficult given
the loss, falsification or destruction of property records
necessary to prove such a trespass.

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5. (C) On January 21, the A23WG authorized the Governor to
deal with the issue. Specifically, it asks the Governor to:
- issue an official order to cease trespassing activities in
the province.
- send a letter to all Governmental Departments in Kirkuk
requiring evidence of trespassing activities on Government
lands (including buildings) before and after April 2003.
- send a letter to the Commission for the Resolution of Real
Property Disputes (CRRPD) asking for a list of all property
claims submitted to date.
- make a formal announcement to all citizens via media
outlets asking them to submit all claims of trespassing to
the CRRPD if they haven't done so already.

The A23WG agreed to submit this solution to the PC for
ratification, however to date this has not occurred. It is
expected that this issue will be raised at their next meeting
with the Article 23 Committee in the form of a recommendation.

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DEMOGRAPHICS - IHEC AND DGs BUY-IN
--------------


6. (C) Pending Governor approval, the A23WG plans to
establish a PC Committee to work with the Governor, IHEC and
all DG's who deal with populations to determine proper
demographic figures. This mainly boils down to the question:
Who is a legitimate resident of Kirkuk with the right to
vote, and who isn't? The Kurds said they want to rely on the
status quo (ration cards) to determine who should be able to
vote. Whereas the Turkomen and Arabs raised objections,
citing fraud and forgery as common practice in Kurdish areas.
The Turkomen want to rely on population figures from the UN
Oil for Food Program in 2003, and the last national census in

1957. The Arabs were content to complain of Kurdish
intransigence but did not offer any solutions.

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PC TO DECIDE TOP POSITIONS
--------------


7. (C) In accordance with Article 23 Paragraph 1, the Kirkuk
PC must decide who would take over the Governor, Deputy
Governor and PC Chairman positions. The Kurds moved quickly
and announced that they will take the Governor position with
PC Chairman Rizgar Ali as their main candidate. The Turkomen
bloc, currently the second largest ethnic group on the PC,
are well positioned to take over the PC Chairman Position.
However the Arabs, largely recognized as having a
significantly larger population in the province, could create
problems. It is expected that the Turkomen will take the PC
Chairman Position and offer a sweetener to the Arabs,
possibly giving up a sought after DG position such as the DG
of Education or Police Training. The two likely Turkomen PC
Chairman candidates are Tahseen Kaheya and Hassan Toran. If
the Arabs retain the Deputy Governor position it is expected
that current Deputy Governor Rakan Saeed will remain in place.

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A23WG's FUTURE?
--------------


8. () Even though PC Chair Rizgar Ali announced the A23WG's
work is now complete, due to the urging of Rizgar's Advisor
Awad Mohammed, it will continue meeting twice a week in an
attempt to refine their Article 23 recommendations. In a 15
February PRT meeting, Mohammed stated that the A23WG will now
work on finding mechanisms for implementation of the broad
points already agreed upon. For instance, his preferred
first point of business is to start classifying the DG
positions by level of importance so they can be sorted into
the three columns previously discussed. Awad stated that the
Qthe three columns previously discussed. Awad stated that the
A23WG will work towards signing "little" agreements on
specific issues related to Article 23 and present them to the
Article 23 Committee for its consideration.


9. (C) Comment. Initially, when the A23WG first formed,
there seemed to be a real impetus to take the issue of Kirkuk
into their hands and come up with a solution for Kirkuk from
Kirkuk. This feeling changed after the 02 February visit by
the UN-Sponsored CoR Article 23 Committee. Most members of
the A23WG felt as though they were snubbed by the Committee,
and their work and recommendations were mostly ignored
(Reftel). The fact that they are continuing to meet and work
on solutions is a victory of sorts and should be encouraged.
While the current agreements made by the A23WG are broad in
scope and short on specifics, it is hoped that further
dialogue will result in useful material for the Article 23
Committee.

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10. (C) The move to push the trespasser issue onto the
Governor reflects the unwillingness of the Kurds to deal with
the difficult issue of enforcing rules to correct Kurdish
transgressions. They readily admit that there is a problem,
but no one is willing to take the public criticism that goes
along with confronting the issue. By dumping this on the
&independent8 governor, the Kurdish parties (KDP and PUK)
are able to have a scapegoat while ensuring that no action
actually happens. In the past, similar issues dumped on the
Governor received no support by the Kurdish parties so they
withered and died with no action taken. END COMMENT.
BUTENIS