VZCZCXRO0029
OO RUEHDE RUEHIHL RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHBC #0086/01 1471434
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 271434Z MAY 06
FM REO BASRAH
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0356
INFO RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHBC/REO BASRAH 0375

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BASRAH 000086 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  5/27/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON EINV ETRD IZ
SUBJECT: BASRAH PC MEMBER: SECURITY PROBLEMS IN BASRAH IMPEDES 
FOREIGN INVESTMENT 
 
REF: BASRAH 85 
 
BASRAH 00000086  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Mark Marrano, DEPUTY REGIONAL COORDINATOR, REO 
BASRAH, DEPARTMENT OF STATE. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d), (e) 
 
 
 
¶1. (C) Summary: On May 25, the Basrah Deputy Regional 
Coordinator (DRC) and Poloff met with Munathil Abd Khanjar, 
Basrah Provincial Council (BPC) member and head of the Economic 
Committee.  Munathil provided a bleak picture of economic 
development in Basrah, saying that deteriorating security 
portrayed on international news was detracting potential foreign 
investments.  The BPC was too busy trying to replace Governor 
Mohammed Wahili to devote any attention to resolving the 
security crisis.  End Summary. 
 
Poor Security in Basrah Dissuading Investment 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶2. (C) On May 25, the DRC and Poloff met with Munathil Abd 
Khanjar, Basrah Provincial Council member and head of the 
Economic Committee.  Munathil, a political independent on the 
Basrah Islamic List (BIL), gave a levelheaded and frank 
assessment of the overall security situation in Basrah and how 
it was affecting the city.  Poor security in Basrah was giving 
it a bad reputation internationally and dissuading potential 
investors.  He recently returned from a trip to Jordan, where he 
had contacted a number of Arab countries and invited them to 
open branch offices in Basrah in an effort to increase foreign 
investments and boost economic development.  He said he had 
invited a Jordanian company called Al Nassir to come to Basrah 
to open up a trash removal business during this trip abroad.  He 
expressed disappointment that the company delayed their trip 
based on negative security reports of Basrah they saw in the 
news. 
 
¶3.  (C) If just one foreign company could be attracted to 
Basrah, Munathil said, he believed many more would follow. 
Expressing frustration, he said that a recent effort to 
negotiate a contract with a Kuwaiti company called "Blue Wave" 
to collect trash in Basrah fell through when the company's 
representative in Basrah received a death threat and fled the 
city.  "We have the money," Munathil stressed, saying the 
contract would have provided lots of local jobs. 
 
¶4.  (C) According to Munathil, 75 percent of the security 
problem is due to unemployment in Basrah, and more jobs would 
cause security to improve drastically.  Munathil said that he 
believed outside forces from neighboring countries were the 
primary cause behind the increase in violence in Basrah over the 
past months.  He noted that Basrah is in close proximity to 
three other countries, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Iran, and that 
each of these countries has its own interests; some of these 
countries are benefiting from the lack of security in Basrah 
(Comment: It was clear that Munathil meant Iran, as he had 
earlier stated he was trying to increase Kuwaiti and Saudi 
investments in Basrah.  End Comment). 
 
¶5.  (C) Because all efforts to hire a foreign company for trash 
removal in Basrah had failed thus far, Munathil said that his 
committee was looking to purchase about 100 second-hand garbage 
trucks from Germany with BPC funds.  Once the trucks arrived in 
Basrah, the BPC itself would hire workers to collect trash in 
the city.  Munathil requested U.S. government assistance in 
transporting the garbage trucks from Europe to Umm Qasr port. 
Once the trucks arrived in port, he said, the BPC would be able 
to transport them to Basrah (Note:  Umm Qasr port is about 35 
miles southeast of Basrah.  End Note).  The DRC replied that we 
would look into the possibility of USG assistance. 
 
Violence Flourishes as BPC Obsesses on Governor 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶6.  (C) The DRC stressed that the overall security situation in 
Basrah was something that the BPC would have to address 
seriously.  Lack of security was not just affecting foreign 
investments, but degrading public trust in the council. 
Munathil replied that the BPC had been caught up in efforts to 
remove Governor Mohammed Wahili from his office for the past 
month and had not been able to make progress on other issues 
(see reftel).  All of the projects put forward by the Economic 
Committee, he noted, needed BPC approval to go forward; so far, 
the BPC had not approved anything because it was only discussing 
the issue of the Governor. 
 
¶7. (C) Comment:  Munathil's assessment of the impact of the 
security situation on Basrah's economic development, as well as 
the inability of the BPC to move forward on important issues 
because of its obsession with replacing Governor Mohammed, was 
 
BASRAH 00000086  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
spot-on.  Moreover, Munathil was one of the first BPC members we 
have spoken to in a long time who seemed more concerned with 
delivering basic services to Basrah's population, like trash 
removal, than blaming the governor for all of the city's 
problems.  Until overall security in Basrah improves, however, 
it is unlikely that Munathil and his colleagues will be able to 
make headway on picking up trash and attracting investors to 
Basrah.  End comment. 
MARRANO