PRT NINEWA: SINJAR PARTY BOSS AND THE PARADE OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 000858

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2024
TAGS: PGOV PINR IZ
SUBJECT: PRT NINEWA: SINJAR PARTY BOSS AND THE PARADE OF
CAPTIVE PEOPLES

Classified By: PMIN Robert S. Ford for reasons 1.4 (d).

This is a PRT/Ninewa reporting cable.


1. (C) Summary. A crowd of 300 Sinjar residents under the
choreography of KDP Branch Chairman Serbast Turwanishi
pressed for the integration of Sinjar district into the
Kurdistan Region on March 26. Speaker after speaker insisted
that if Sinjar reverted to Arab control following the
departure of Coalition Forces (CF),the people would either
flee to Dahuk or be massacred in their homes, and that it
would be the USG's fault. In public remarks and again in
private, PRT leader said that Article 140 was not meant to
separate Arabs from Kurds and it is not a vehicle by which
one side or the other's demands will be completely
vindicated. He said this is an attempt to do by democratic
means what was done through force under Saddam. He
recognized the unique suffering of the Kurds at the hands of
the Iraqi state under Saddam, and the persecution of the
Yezidi from the time of Abbassids. In private, PRT leader
told Serbast that we will hold leaders accountable for their
words and their actions. Noting the pro-KDP crowd and
acknowledging the election results, PRT Leader stressed,
however, that Serbast' actions with regards to his opponents
weakened his position. Serbast's well-known bombast
notwithstanding, there are some 250,000 people in Sinjar,
most of whom suffered under Saddam and at the hands of Al
Qaeda through 2007. Behind today's amateur theatrics there is
among the people grave apprehension about the future if
Sinjar if it not integrated into the KRG. End summary.


2. (C) PRT Leader, BCT Commander Volesky and 6-9 Cav
Commander Parmeter traveled to Sinjar on March 26. We
accepted the invitation from Mayor Dakhel Qasim Hassoun,
knowing however that the chairman of the local branch of the
Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP),Serbast would dominate the
proceedings. Serbast's choreographed "meetings" are well
known to PRT, military and Embassy visitors; spokespeople for
every conceivable constituency stand up and proclaim their
loyalty to the KDP and their conviction that Sinjar must be
integrated into the KRG. Today's visit, however, set a new
standard for what Embassy regulars have dubbed "the parade of
captive peoples." We entered the town to the sight of some
300 people sitting in rows on the street in front of the KDP
building. In addition to the Mayor of Sinjar, we were
greeted by the sub-district mayors from Qatania, Sununi and
Khanasur, plus a member-elect of the Provincial Council.
There was an orthodox Christian priest, an Armenian deacon, a
host of Imams, and a good turnout of Yezidi clergy.


3. (SBU) Serbast and Dakhel opened the proceeding with long
speeches about the history of the district, with an emphasis
on crimes committed against Kurds by Saddam and AQI. They
called on the US to implement Article 140 of the Iraqi
constitution and place Sinjar within the Kurdistan Regional
Governorate (KRG). Noting that the town of Qataniya had been
deliberately placed in Arab-majority Ba'aj district in order
to alter the demographics of the region, every speaker added
the Yezidi town to his/her list of demands. In all, the
speakers focused on four key demands for the USG, UNAMI and
the GOI:


A. The immediate integration of Sinjar into the KRG;

B. Return of Qataniya to Sinjar district;

C. Immediate implementation of Article 140; and

D. Resolution of outstanding property claims.


4. (SBU) PRT Leader was invited to address the crowd, with
Q4. (SBU) PRT Leader was invited to address the crowd, with
Kurdish television cameras filming the event. He made the
following points:

-- It is important that Iraqis and foreigners recognize the
crimes committed by the Saddam regime against the Kurds. It
is also important to recognize the unique suffering of the
Yezidi, including the August 2007 Qataniya bombing;

-- Together with our Iraqi partners, we are building an Iraq
where people can live where they wish; they can worship in
their traditions; they can educate their young in their home
language; they can choose (and remove) their political
leadership; and they can pursue their livelihoods freely;

-- Our collective challenge is to undo by democratic means
what was done by force. That means dialogue among competing
claims, recognizing that everyone believes that his or her
position is just;

-- The Iraqis have accepted a UN role in facilitating a
process. It will not dictate a solution, but it will provide
a framework for the resolution of disputes;

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-- Ninewa had the second highest rate of voter turnout in
Iraq and the lowest rate of ballot spoilage. That means that
Ninewa's people wanted elections and cared deeply about
making their voices heard;

-- There general election produced three parties with seats
in the council, and the quota election brought in three
single-seat parties. Those parties now need to work together
for the good of Ninewa's people;

-- The security of the people of Sinjar is our paramount
concern, and we recognize both the role of the Peshmerga in
protecting the region as well as the contributions of the
Dahuk Governorate in providing public services and rations
to the population.


5. (SBU) In a new twist on his choreography, Serbast
invited the crowd to ask questions of the PRT leader. Most
were clearly rehearsed monologues, but all communicated the
basic panic born of uncertainty in Sinjar. PRT leader said
that the US had not come to Iraq to physically separate Kurds
and Arabs; an Article 140 resolution would likely entail
Kurds living in an Arab governorate and Arabs living under
Kurdish provincial authority. He said that the external
borders of Iraq are inviolable but that internal boundaries
could change. PRT leader said that those changes would not
come about by the will of a single dictator, rather that they
would emerge through dialogue, negotiations and compromise.


6. (C) Following the 90-minute spectacle, principles moved
into Serbast's office for before and after-lunch discussions.
Serbast complained that the UN was proving ineffective and
that the Arab political class was intent on delaying UNAMI's
report until 2010. He claimed that the French Ambassador in
Damascus had made this request to the GOI. We responded that
it had been the KRG side that insisted that the whole report
be put on the table before discussions could get underway,
and noted that this gambit had linked the future of Sinjar to
broader, more complex issues.


7. (C) Serbast complained that "elements" within the USG
were increasingly anti-KRG. Drawing on the talking points
used by PMIN in an earlier visit, we said that the Kurdish
people had no greater friend than the US. We said that the
resolution of the DIBs issue was a process, and that all
leaders had to prepare their people for the possibility that
there will be compromises; in an atmosphere of panic,
responsible political leaders advocate the resolution of
disputes through dialogue and prepare their people for
something other than absolutist positions. PRT leader noted
that Serbast and likely governor-elect Alnujaifi had one
thing in common: both maintained that there is no dispute.
Alnujaifi refers to the DIBs region as "areas of
co-existence" and Serbast refers to them as "Kurdistan."
Using Ambassador's Special Advisor's points from previous
parades of captive peoples, we said that the suppression of
dissent weakened the KDP's position.


8. (C) When Serbast demanded 33 percent of the jobs in
Ninewa Governorate, reflecting the NFL's share of the vote,
we asked if the NFL had approached Al Hudba about a coalition
arrangement. The Mayor of Sinjar said that US Special Forces
had invited him to a meeting with the Mayor of Ba'aj an Arab
Al Hudba member-elect of the Provincial Council. He noted,
however, that the Ba'aj mayor said he did not have
Alnujaifi's permission to have substantive discussions. We
asked Serbast if the NFL was prepared to make concessions in
order to gain a share of power in Ninewa. He replied that it
Qorder to gain a share of power in Ninewa. He replied that it
was up to Al Hudba to make concessions as the NFL won a third
of the vote. We noted that Alnujaifi personally won 14 times
as many votes as the leading NFL candidate and had polled
almost as many votes as the entire NFL list. Serbast replied
that he respected that total, but added that Alnujaifi has
links to Al Qaeda and is an unreconstructed Ba'athist who
hates Kurds.


9. (C) Comment. Serbast's bombast detracts from the
challenges ahead. His antics and complete lack of subtlety
notwithstanding, it has always been clear to us that the
majority of Sinjaris want membership in the KRG and believe
there is no substitute. Most of Sinjar's people are Yezidi
forcibly relocated from villages in the mountains and dumped
in non-viable artificial communities and left to fend for
themselves. The KRG's strongest claim to the region is not
old maps but rather the fact that Dahuk is the lifeline for
the local population and that the Peshmerga protected the
Yezidi when the ISF failed to do so. Oddly enough, we were
the only ones to raise either fact; Serbast and his hench
people were mesmerized by their own rhetoric, leaving us

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concerned for the welfare of the Sinjaris despite the antics
of their leaders. End Comment.

BUTENIS