Cablegate: Another Anti-Isg Demonstration at Reo - Kirkuk

VZCZCXRO1387
RR RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHIHL
DE RUEHKUK #0179 3551420
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 211420Z DEC 06
FM REO KIRKUK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0798
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 0760
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHKUK/REO KIRKUK 0826

UNCLAS KIRKUK 000179

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/I - KHOURY-KINCAID

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PINR PGOV PBTS IZ
SUBJECT: ANOTHER ANTI-ISG DEMONSTRATION AT REO - KIRKUK

REF: KIRKUK 74

SENSTIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED, PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDNGLY.

1. (U) On December 19, a group of about 100-150 demonstrators
from the Turcoman People's Women Union assembled in front of the
REO to express discontent with provisions of the Iraq Study
Group (ISG) report. The Women Union is an affiliate of the
Turcoman Brotherhood Party (led by Walid Sharika, a member of
the National Council of Representaives Article 140 Committee),
itself a member of the Kurdistan Coalition List. The
demonstration was scripted along the lines of last week's
demonstration (reftel), and representatives from the group
invited into the REO presented similar complaints ("rejection"
of paras. 26, 27, 28 and 31 of the ISG report relating to the
constitution, allocation of regional resources, Kirkuk final
status, and reconciliation with Baathists).

2. (SBU) The demonstrators' representatives spoke at length on
the perils of dialog with Baathists. Answering REO Regional
Director's query about whether these views also indicated a
rejection of Prime Minister Maliki's recent speech on allowing
former Baath members into the Army, the Turcoman said they
"fully supported" Maliki's efforts at reconciliation. To them,
the key difference between Maliki's actions and their reading of
the ISG reconciliation recomendations was that Maliki drew the
line in accepting dialog with people with "blood on their
hands."

3. (SBU) COMMENT: Since last week's high level demarche to the
REO by the Provincial Council (reftel), it seems Kurdistan
Coalition List members and affiliates of all stripes have been
tripping over each other to publicly propagate the same anti-ISG
message, using cut-and-pasted talking points. There have been
manifestos sent to us by a Kurdish-affiliated journalist
syndicate, a student union and coming up in the next week: a
group being organized from here to demonstrate in
al-Sulaymaniyah. In all cases we have reminded that the ISG
report is not U.S. policy. END COMMENT.

SCOTT

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