PRT SALAH AD DIN: FIRST JUDICIAL CONFERENCE SINCE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000872 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/31/2019 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL IZ SUBJECT: PRT SALAH AD DIN: FIRST JUDICIAL CONFERENCE SINCE 1999 Classified By: PRT Leader Rick Bell for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). (U) This is a PRT Salah ad Din reporting cable. ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On March 12 - 14, the Salah ad Din (SAD) judiciary held its first conference since 1999. The conference enhanced esprit de corps and exchange of information among the judges, and helped facilitate improved relations between the judiciary and police. The Iraqis gladly gave up their weekend in order to participate, and their contributions to the USG-funded conference helped to save more than half the allotted budget. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) The SAD judges held a successful conference in Sulaymaniyah, facilitated by QRF funding obtained by the SAD PRT Rule of Law team. At their request, the event was held Friday-Saturday, the Iraqi weekend. Fifty-three Iraqis attended, including 48 of 60 judges, the court administrator, the president of the bar association, the Provincial Director of Police, and two police colonels in charge of the Investigations and High Crimes sections. ¶3. (SBU) They convened as a group for the first time since 1999, and seized the opportunity to discuss pressing matters both formally and informally. The longest discussion on the formal agenda was with the police representatives, and a lively back and forth ensued, with several commitments for improvements resulting. The judges also had sections on civil law, family law, the enforcement of judgments, administrative matters, the security agreement, and the coordination of investigations of security detainees released by Coalition Forces. The judges had not had a conference since before the war, and many of them (about half, by one reckoning) had not met each other. ¶4. (U) The evaluations of the conference were very laudatory. "The benefit of this conference is the wide-ranging discussion about investigative techniques and speaking about the issues that we as judges face, and trying to fix them in coordination with the Coalition Forces," said one of the judges. "I liked the coordination and exchange of experience between the judges and the opportunity to meet all the judges in the province," said another. ¶5. (U) In addition to the formal training, the conference served to build esprit de corps among the judges and to enhance communication and narrow cultural differences between the judiciary and police. ¶6. (SBU) Although $24,000 of QRF funding was budgeted for the conference, total costs will be less than $10,000 due to contributions from the Iraq side: the Iraqis contributed planning and site selection efforts, transportation to a central site to board buses, and security for transportation of the judges to the Kurdish Region. The PRT and partner BCT (3/25 ID) assisted with financing, planning for the event, coordination for the border crossing into the Kurdish Region, and additional protection of the conference site by Kurdish authorities. The Salah ad Din PRT was greatly assisted in its efforts by the Kirkuk PRT Rule of Law team. BUTENIS