VZCZCXRO5412
RR RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHMOS
DE RUEHKUK #0017/01 0291911
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 291911Z JAN 06
FM REO KIRKUK
TO RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 0458
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0494
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHKUK/REO KIRKUK 0520

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000017 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, IRMO/IPCC, NCT 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  1/29/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREF PREL PINR IZ
SUBJECT: (SBU) PUK FACILITATES ARAB DEPARTURE FROM KIRKUK 
 
 
KIRKUK 00000017  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: BELL, RC, RC, USDOS. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
(U) Classified by Regional Coordinator Richard Bell for reasons 
1.4(b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (SBU) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY:  Dr. Farhad Omar works in a 
new PUK-funded group assisting Arabization Arabs who want to 
return voluntarily to southern Iraq.  He and a Kurdish member of 
the Kirkuk provincial council told DRC and IPAO on January 25 
that "Kurdistan Unity and Brotherhood (KUB)" assists prospective 
returnees with the process of changing their civil registration 
from Kirkuk to their province of origin.  KUB provides returnees 
with some small financial assistance but does not buy their 
houses or pay moving costs.  KUB works through word-of-mouth and 
local representatives of Sistani's office, SCIRI and some Shiite 
Arab tribal leaders in Kirkuk.  Farhad, an ethnic Kurd from 
Kirkuk, is a member of the Kurdistan Communist Party.  END 
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY. 
 
 
(SBU) PUK-FUNDED GROUP ASSISTS ARABS TO LEAVE 
------------------------------------------- 
¶2.  (C) Dr. Farhad said he was a member of Kirkuk Unity and 
Brotherhood (KUB), a group formed in the fall by Kurds to help 
repatriate Arabization Arabs to southern Iraq.  Concerning this 
group, he said: 
 
-- KUB has 12 staff and rents a building in Kirkuk for $500 a 
month.  To help cover its costs, KUB has received about $4,500 
from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in December-January 
of which about $1,500 has been spent defraying some costs of 
returnees.  The KUB gets no support from the PUK's rival, the 
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). 
 
-- The first group of Arabization Arabs whose repatriation was 
assisted by KUB left in December 2005.  Another 150 families 
will depart soon, of whom over 30 have already completed all 
their paperwork; this will raise the total to about 1,000 
individuals, at an average of 4-5 people per family. 
 
-- The December group's members were mostly Shiite Arabs with a 
sprinkling of Sunnis from three neighborhoods of Kirkuk city in 
particular, Zayran, Abdulrahman and Wasiti.  (NOTE:  These 
districts are in the southern part of Kirkuk city.  END NOTE.) 
Most of the returnees were from Thi Qar and Qadisiyah provinces. 
 All have completed the process of changing their civil 
registration from Kirkuk to their former provinces. 
 
-- KUB did not defray their moving costs or buy their homes. 
KUB did provide them financial assistance to travel to their 
original districts to re-register.  Once re-registered, they 
then sold their homes and moved back.  A few from the December 
group are still in the process of moving out.  Most of these 
Arabization Arabs were forcibly placed in Kirkuk by Saddam. 
 
-- Three Shiite religious parties have set up committees to 
assist KUB in this process.  They are Sistani's group, Hakim's 
Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) and a 
group of Shiite Arab tribal leaders.  KUB's interlocutor with 
the Sistani group is Sheikh Abbas, with SCIRI it is Saa'dun Abid 
Ja'ri and with the Council of Independent Iraqi Tribes it is 
Jabar Haddam.  Abbas, Ja'ri and Haddam all live in Kirkuk. 
 
-- KUB's "advertising" is done by word-of-mouth, public meetings 
and through KUB's interlocutors in the Arabization Arab 
community.  About a thousand heads of household have met with 
KUB already and the numbers are growing.  Over 20 people came to 
see them January 25.  KUB will expand its outreach by holding 
conferences and meetings with potential returnees. 
 
-- Once someone has agreed to leave, KUB will take them to the 
Kirkuk civil registration office to verify that they are 
registered as residing in Kirkuk and verify their place of 
origin.  KUB does much of the administrative legwork in Kirkuk 
for potential returnees and if necessary assists them 
financially to travel to southern Iraq to locate a new home and 
facilitate the re-registration process.  The Kirkuk civil 
registration office confirms via mail with the civil 
registration office in their original home area their new place 
of registration, a new ID card is issued and their Kirkuk ID 
card is cancelled.  The original province usually has no problem 
with allowing them to return.  The prospective returnee then 
sells his home to whomever and moves back.  KUB does not pay 
moving or temporary housing costs. 
 
-- KUB also places the returnee's name on a list for possible 
future compensation.  Some have suggested that compensation be 
 
KIRKUK 00000017  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
in the form of apartments in the south so that the returnees do 
not use the money to splurge and then be without housing. 
(COMMENT: This would also ensure their departure from Kurdish 
areas.  END COMMENT.) 
 
-- KUB is focusing part of its efforts on the Sunni Arabization 
Arabs of Kirkuk (most Arabization Arabs are Shiites), as this 
small group is being used by Sunni Arab parties to stake an Arab 
claim to Kirkuk (i.e., Sunni parties are encouraging Arabs to 
stay in Kirkuk). 
 
-- The Shiite religious parties in Kirkuk also have an office 
that provides assistance to Shiite Arabs wishing to return to 
the south, but this office is not very active. 
 
¶3.  (C)  Our interlocutors said Sadrists in Baghdad were trying 
to revive the old Arabization policy by hiring only Arabs from 
outside Kirkuk for various ministries and parastatals in Kirkuk. 
 The Kirkuk Provincial Council, with strong support from the 
highest levels of the KDP and PUK, "raised hell" and the Prime 
Minister put a stop to this practice at the beginning of the new 
year.  Some 300 new employees of the Northern Oil Company, 200 
of the Health Ministry and a few other ministries who arrived in 
this manner are still in Kirkuk.  The PM agreed that the PC had 
the right to decide who should be hired for state and parastatal 
jobs in Kirkuk. 
 
(U) COMMENT 
----------- 
 
¶4.  (C) This is the first we have heard of this program;  Dr. 
Farhad's description of its operation may or may not be 
accurate.  However, it seems to be a low-cost Kurdish effort to 
accelerate Kurdification that lets homebuyers pay the big, 
up-front costs for the returnees' houses while KUB only has to 
pay minor costs associated with civil-registration changes and 
house-hunting trips.  We will try to meet with some of KUB's 
beneficiaries, to get a clearer sense of their motives for 
leaving Kirkuk.  The Kurds' motive for helping them is 
transparent:  with an eye on the referendum that is to be held 
before end 2007, the Kurds know that each Arab family that 
leaves decreases the number of potential votes against 
incorporating Kirkuk into Kurdistan. 
BELL