VZCZCXRO7422
RR RUEHBW
DE RUEHHE #0197 1281248
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 071248Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY HELSINKI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4297
INFO RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD 0058
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 0098
RUEHBL/AMCONSUL BELFAST 0009
RUEHSA/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 0008

C O N F I D E N T I A L HELSINKI 000197 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/06/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM IZ FI
SUBJECT: RESPECTED FINNISH NGO HOSTS SECOND IRAQ 
RECONCILIATION SEMINAR 
 
Classified By: PolChief Greg Thome for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) 
 
¶1. (SBU) The Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a respected 
Finnish NGO headed by former President (and UN Special Envoy 
for Kosovo) Martti Ahtisaari, hosted a second reconciliation 
seminar in Finland for senior Iraqi political leaders April 
24-27.  The first occurred in Sept. 2007.  Aimed at 
establishing a dialogue that will advance political and 
social compromise among various factions in Iraq, the seminar 
included 36 leading Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish officials from 
nearly all major political parties, as well as from the 
&Awakening Councils.8  Facilitators from Northern Ireland 
and South Africa also participated, as they did in September. 
 Co-sponsored by Tufts University and the University of 
Massachusetts, the CMI seminar was again held secretly at an 
undisclosed location in Helsinki, per the participants, 
request, and very little information has been made available 
to the press.  The GoF did not participate directly in the 
discussions, but did put up more than half the funding for 
the conference.  MFA officials observed some of the sessions, 
and they offered the Embassy the following read-out. 
 
&THE KEY PARTICIPANT8 MISSING 
----------------------------- 
¶2. (C) MFA officials and conference organizers were generally 
pleased with the substance and the overall participation.  Of 
the 36 leaders prsent, nearly all were members of parliament 
and/o cabinet-level officials, or senior figures withinthe 
&Awakening Councils.8  Ten members of the Costitutional 
Revision Committee attended, includig Chairman Sheikh 
Hammoudi, as well as several members of the Iraqi 
Parlament,s Foreign Affais Committee (FAC).  Other seior 
figures included Minister for Dialogue and Reconciliation 
Akram Al-Hakim; Kurdistan Patriotic Union Leader Fouad 
Massoom; Dawa Party Leader Ali Adeeb; and Iraqi Islamic Party 
leader Osama al-Tikriti.  Kurdish leaders, who did not 
participate in September, were also well represented, as were 
the &Awakening Councils,8 which sent leaders from Baghdad, 
Andar and Diyala provinces. 
 
¶3. (C) Organizers were disappointed, however, that no 
representative of the Sadrist block attended.  According to 
one MFA observer, the seminar focused most heavily on seeking 
ways to reduce the ongoing violence in Baghdad.  It became 
clear that, for a variety of reasons, bridging the internal 
divides that exist within the Baghdad Shiite and Sunni 
communities -- rather than between Shiites and Sunnis -- has 
become crucial.  Therefore, the intra-group dialogue, 
particularly among the Shiites, suffered without anyone who 
could represent Sadr,s factions. 
 
RESULTS AND NEXT STEPS 
---------------------- 
¶4. (C) Organizers and MFA contacts confirmed that all in 
attendance appeared to have the authority to speak on behalf 
of their parties or groups, and that the spirit of the 
dialogue was indeed positive.  Many participants have been 
engaging in &a lot of hard work8 over the past two years to 
identify creative avenues for reconciliation, one observer 
noted, and their shared commitment to that goal -- as well as 
their levels of respect for one another -- was evident.  The 
participants agreed that the two Helsinki sessions have 
allowed them to make progress, but many underscored that now 
was the time to begin achieving more concrete results on the 
ground in Iraq.  With this in mind, they proposed to host the 
next seminar in July or August in Baghdad; Finnish, Northern 
Irish and South African participation will continue, along 
with the possible addition of United Nations representatives. 
 A preliminary declaration of conference outcomes was also 
apparently drafted, but will not likely be released as 
consensus was not reached on the final wording before the 
participants departed Finland.  On a separate track, members 
of the Iraqi Parliament,s FAC proposed establishing a 
contact group or other form of dialogue with their Finnish 
counterparts, and the MFA will seek to facilitate this 
initiative. 
 
HYATT