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June 16 Memo from US Embassy in Iraq |
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The following is the only available transcript of the June 16th memo from the U.S. Embassy in Iraq to the Secretary of State. PDF of Memo, 700k
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R 121430Z Jun 06
FM AMEBASSY BAGHDAD
TO SECTSTATE WASHDC 5042
INFO IRAQ COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS BAGHDAD 001992
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, ASEC, AMGT, IZ
SUBJECT: Snapshots from the Office: Public
Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord
SENSITIVE
1. (SBU) Beginning in March, and picking up in
mid-May, Iraqi staff in the Public Affairs section
have complained that Islamist and/or militia
groups have been negatively affecting their daily
routine. Harassment over proper dress and habits
has been increasingly pervasive. They also report
that power cuts and fuel prices have diminished
their quality of life. Conditions vary by
neighborhood, but even upscale neighborhoods such
as Mansur have visibly deteriorated.
Women’s Rights
--------------
2. (SBU) The Public Affairs Press Office has 9
local Iraqi employees. Two of our three female
employees report stepped up harassment beginning
in mid-May. Once, a Shiite who favors Western
clothing, was advised by an unknown woman in her
upscale Shiite/Christian Baghdad neighborhood to
wear a veil and not to drive her own car. Indeed,
she said, some groups are pushing women to cover
even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at
its most conservative.
1.
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3. (SBU) Another, a Sunni, said that people in
her middle-class neighborhood are harassing women
and telling them to cover up and stop using cell
phones (suspected channel to licentious
relationships with men). She said that the taxi
driver who brings her every day to the green zone
checkpoint has told her he cannot let her ride
unless she wears a headcover. A female in the PAS
cultural section is now wearing a full abaya after
receiving direct threats in May. She says her
neighborhood, Adhamiya, is no longer permissive if
she is not clad so modestly.
4. (SBU) These women say they cannot identify
the groups that are pressuring them; many times,
the cautions come from other women, sometimes from
men who they say could be Sunni or Shiite, but
appear conservative. They also tell us that some
ministries, notably the Sadrist controlled
Ministry of Transportation, have been forcing
females to wear the hijab at work.
Dress Code for All?
-------------------
5. (SBU) Staff members have reported that it is
now dangerous for men to wear shorts in public;
they no longer allow their children to play
outside in shorts. People who wear jeans in
public have come under attack from what staff
members describe as Wahabis and Sadrists.
Evictions
---------
6. (SBU) One colleague beseeched us to weigh in
to help a neighbor who was uprooted in May from
her home of 30 years, on the pretense of
application of some long-disused law that allows
owners to evict tenants after 14 years. The
woman who is a Fayli Kurd, says she has nowhere
to go, no other home, but the courts give them no
recourse to this new assertion of power. Such
uprootings may be a response by new Shiite
government authorities to similar actions against
Arabs by Kurds in other parts of Iraq. (NOTE: An
Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an
extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he
said is taking place in almost every Iraqi
province, as political parties and their militias
are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all
over Iraq. One editor told us that the KDP is now
planning to set up tent cities in Irbil, to house
Kurds being evicted from Baghdad.)
Power Cuts and Fuel Shortages
a Drain on Society.
-----------------------------
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7. Temperatures in Baghdad have already reached
115 degrees. Employees all confirm that by the
last week of May, they were getting one hour of
power for every six hours without. That was only
about four hours of power a day for the city. By
early June, the situation had improved slightly.
In Hai al Shaab, power was recently improved from
on in six to one in three hours. Other staff
report similar variances. Central Baghdad
neighborhood Bab al Mu’atham had no city power
for over a month. Areas near hospitals, political
party headquarters, and the green zone have the
best supply, in some cases reaching 24 hours. One
staff member reported that a friend lives in a
building that houses a minister; within 24
hours of his appointment, her building had city
power 24 hours a day.
8. (SBU) All employees supplement city power
with service contracted with neighborhood
generators hookups that they pay for monthly. One
employee pays 7500 ID per ampere to get 10 amperes
per month (75,000 ID = USD 50/month). For this,
her family gets 6 hours of power per day, with
service ending at 2 am. Another employee pays
9000 ID per ampere to get 10 amperes per month
(90,000 = USD 60). For this, his family gets 8
hours per day, with service running until 5 am.
9. (SBU) Fuel lines have also taxed our staff.
One employee told us May 29 that he had spend 12
hours on his day off (Saturday) waiting to get
gas. Another staff member confirmed that
shortages were so dire, prices on the black market
in much of Baghdad were now above 1,000 Iraqi
dinars per liter (the official, subsidized price
is 250 ID).
Kidnappings, and Threats of Worse
--------------------------------
10. (SBU) One employee informed us in March that
his brother in law had been kidnapped. The man
was eventually released, but this caused enormous
emotional distress to the entire family. One
employee, a Sunni Kurd, received an indirect
threat on her life in April. She took extended
leave, and by May relocated abroad with her
family.
Security Forces Mistrusted
--------------------------
11. (SBU) In April, employees began reporting a
change in demeanor of guards at the green zone
checkpoints. They seemed to be more militia-lik,
in some cases seemingly taunting. One employee
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asked us to explore getting here press credentials
because guards had held her embassy badge up and
proclaimed loudly to nearby passers-by “Embassy”
as she entered. Such information is a death
sentence if overheard by the wrong people.
Supervising a Staff At High Risk
---------------------------------
12. (SBU) Employees all share a common tale of
their lives: of nine employees in March. Only
four had family members who knew they worked at
the embassy. That makes it difficult for them,
and for us. Iraqi colleagues called after hours
often speak Arabic as an indication they cannot
speak openly in English.
13. (SBU) We cannot call employees in on
weekends or holidays without blowing their
“cover.” Likewise, they have been unavailable
during multiple security closures imposed by the
goverment since February. A Sunni Arab female
employee tells us that family pressures and the
inability to share details of her employment is
very tough. She told her family she was in Jordan
when we sent her on training to the U.S. in
February. Mounting criticisms of the U.S. at home
among family members also makes her life
difficult. She told us in mid-June that most of
her family believes the U.S. – which is widely
perceived as fully controlling the country and
tolerating the malaise –- is punishing populations
as Saddam did (but with Sunnis and very poor
Shiites now at the bottom of the list).
Otherwise, she says, the allocation of power and
security would not be so arbitrary.
14. (SBU) Some of our staff do not take home
their American cell phones, as this makes them a
target. Planning for their own possible
abduction, they use code names for friends and
colleagues and contacts entered into Iraq cell
phones. For at least six months, we have not been
able to use any local staff member for
translation at on-camera press events.
15. (SBU) More recently, we have begun shredding
documents printed out that show local staff
surnames. In March, a few staff members
approaches us to ask what provisions would we make
for them if we evaluate.
Sectarian Tensions Within Families
----------------------------------
16. Ethnic and sectarian fautlines are also
becoming part of the daily media fare in the
country. One Shiite employee told us in late May
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that she can no longer watch TV news with here
mother, who is Sunni, because her mother blamed
all government failings on the fact that Shiites
are in charge. Many of the employee’s immediate
family members, including her father, one sister,
and a brother, left Iraq years ago. This month,
another sister is departing for Egypt, as she
imagines the future here is too bleak.
Frayed Nerves and Mistrust in the Office
-------------------------------------------------
17. (SBU) Against this backdrop of frayed social
networks, tension and moodiness have risen. One
Shiite made disparaging comments about the Sunni
caliph Othman which angered a Kurd. A Sunni Arab
female apparently insulted a Shiite female
colleague by criticizing her averly liberal dress.
One colleague told us he feels “defeated” by
circumstances, citing the example of being unable
to help his two year old son who has asthma and
cannot sleep in stifling heat.
18. (SBU) Another employee tells us that life
outside the Green Zone has become “emotionally
draining.” He lives in a mostly Shiite area and
claims to attend a funeral “every evening.” He,
like other local employees, is financially
responsible for his immediate and expended
families. He revealed that “the burden of
responsibility; new stress coming from social
circle who increasing disapprove of the
coalition presence, and everyday threats weigh
very heavily.” This employee became extremely
agitated in late May at website reports of an
abduction of an Irai working with MNFI, whose
expired Embassy and MNFI badges were posted on the
website.
Staying Straight with Neighborhood
Governments and the ‘Alasa’
----------------------------------
19. (SBU) Staff members say they daily assess
how to move safely in public. Often, if they must
travel outside their own neighborhoods, they adopt
the clothing, language, and traits of the area.
In Jadriya, for example, one needs to conform to
the SCIRI/Badr ethic; in Yusufiya, a strict Sunni
conservative dress code has taken hold: Adhamiya
and Solihiya, controlled by the secular Ministry
of Defense, are not conservative. Moving
inconspicuously in Sadr City requires Shiite
conservative dress and particular lingo. Once-
upscale Mansur district, near the Green Zone,
according to one employee, by early June was an
“unrecognizable ghost town.”
20. (SBU) Since Samarra, Baghdadis have honed
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their survival skills. Vocabulary has shifted to
reflect new behavior. Our staff – and our
contacts – have become adept in modifying
behavior to avoid “Alasas,” informants who keep an
eye out for “outsiders” in neighborhoods. The
Alasa mentality is becoming entrenched as Iraqi
security forces fail to gain public confidence.
21. (SBU) Our staff report that security and
services are being rerouted through “local
providers” whose affiliations are vague. As noted
above, those who are admonishing citizens on their
dress are not know to the residents.
Neighborhood power providers are not well known
either, nor is it clear how they avoid robbery or
targeting. Personal safety depends on good
relations with the “neighborhood” governments, who
barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The
central government, our staff says, is not
relevant; even local mukhtars have been displaced
or coopted by militias. People no longer trust
most neighbors.
22. (SBU) A resident of upscale Shiite/
Christian Karrada district told us that
“outsiders” have moved in and now control the
local mukhtars, one of whom now has cows and goats
grazing in the streets. When she expressed her
concern at the dereliction, he told her to butt
out.
Comment
-------
23. (SBU) Although our staff retain a professional
demeanor, strains are apparent. We see that their
personal fears are reinforcing divisive sectarian
or ethnic channels, despite talk of reconciliation
by officials. Employees are apprehensive enough
that we fear they may exaggerated developments or
steer us towards news that comports with their own
worldview. Objectivity, civility, and logic that
make for a functional workplace may falter if
social pressures outside the Green Zone don’t
abate.
KHALILZAD
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http://zfacts.com/p/392.html | 01/18/12 07:28 GMT
Modified: Mon, 26 Jun 2006 15:24:08 GMT
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