Chrenkoff: Good News From Iraq

[Annie]

It may be with the nice weather and MJ verdict, people don't have time today, but when you do...

http://chrenkoff.blogspot.com/2005/06/good-news-from-iraq-part-29.html

Monday, June 13, 2005
Good news from Iraq, part 29
Note: Also available at "The Opinion Journal" and Winds of Change. Many thanks to James Taranto and Joe Katzman, and all of you for your continuing support. Please also note that because of the change in publishing schedule brought about by last week's Memorial Day weekend, this issue contains good news and positive developments from the past three week, and not two, as is usually the case.

"You can't fix in six months what it took 35 years to destroy." These words, spoken by Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Iraq's first democratically elected Prime Minister in half a century, should be inscribed in three-foot tall characters as a preface to all the reporting from Iraq. Sadly, the underlying reality all too often seems to escape many reporters caught in the excitement of "now".

In an opinion piece in "Christian Science Monitor", A. Heather Coyne concurs with the gradualist view:

Having spent the past two years in Iraq, first as an Army officer and now as the head of the Iraq office of the Washington-based US Institute of Peace, I am struck by the determination and steadiness of Iraqis as they struggle to build a stable, democratic country, and by the continuing, firm commitment of Iraqis to participate in - and manage - that process.

In spite of a constant threat from the various insurgencies over the past year, Iraqi government agencies, political parties, and civil society organizations have gradually expanded their capabilities and activities. They will tell you how much more they could have done had they not been constrained by security threats or - almost as important - the lack of reliable infrastructure, but what they have accomplished already is admirable, as is their unflagging determination in the face of these threats and constraints.

There is a phrase I hear in almost every conversation with Iraqis that captures the mood of this process: hutwa bi hutwa, or "step by step."

Below, some of those often overlooked or under-reported steps that people of Iraq and their foreign friends have been taking over the past five weeks.

SOCIETY: Samir al-Saboon, the Sunni head of Iraq's National Security Agency, has recently shared the results of latest opinion research in Iraq, taken in May:

Recent polling data shows that fully two-thirds of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction, Saboon said. While a poll in January showed only 11 percent of Sunni Muslims in Iraq shared that view, that percentage has since grown to 40, he said...

Recent polling data shows that fully two-thirds of Iraqis believe their country is headed in the right direction, Saboon said. While a poll in January showed only 11 percent of Sunni Muslims in Iraq shared that view, that percentage has since grown to 40, he said.

Politically, the biggest task on the calendar is preparing Iraq's new democratic constitution by August this year. The committee to draft the document will be composed of 69 members: 55 members of the assembly, 13 Sunni representatives, and a member of a small Mandean sect. "Around half the Sunni representatives will be members of political parties and the others representatives from Sunnis regions, mainly in the centre and the west of the country." The 13 will be chosen by the Sunni community, not the Assembly or the committee. The committee's head is Shi'ite cleric Hummam Hammoudi, and his deputies a Kurdish legislator, Fouad Massoum, and a Sunni Arab lawmaker, Adnan al-Janabi.

Among the foreign offers of help, Indian government has volunteered its expertise to help draft the constitution.

Speaking of constitution drafting, there is already some good news:

Shiite legislators have decided not to push for a greater role for Islam in the new Iraqi constitution out of concern that the contentious issue will inflame religious sentiments and deepen sectarian tensions.

Instead, the United Iraqi Alliance, the Shiite coalition that won the most seats in January’s elections, will advocate retaining the moderate language of Iraq’s temporary constitution that was drawn up under the auspices of the American occupation authority.

Humam Hamoudi, the Shiite cleric who heads the 55-member constitutional committee that will draft the new document, said that any attempt to debate the issue of Islamic law could ignite a firestorm of competing sectarian demands and that the brief references to Islam in three paragraphs of the temporary constitution should be left untouched.

"These paragraphs represent the middle ground between the secularists and those who want Islamic government, and I think the wisest course of action is to keep them as they are," he said in an interview at his Baghdad home. "Opening up the subject for discussion would provoke religious sentiments in the street."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Jaffari has restated to the Assembly his government's vision - most importantly, "the political programme of the interim government set up following elections has the objective of building a federal, pluralist Iraq while respecting human rights and public freedoms."

In northern Iraq, after some initial delays, the local Kurdish assembly opens for business:

Parliament in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq has held its first session in the northern city of Irbil.

After recitations from the Koran, all 111 deputies took oaths of office under Kurdish national flags.

Iraq's President, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, attended the session, as well as the newly-elected President of the autonomous region, Massoud Barzani.

The two men who lead rival parties have effectively ruled the Kurdish region since the end of the Gulf War in 1991.

Down south, the minority Sunnis are finally organizing themselves politically, thus ending their boycott of Iraq's democratic politics:

The newly created Sunni alliance, which has not adopted a name, will open its first office in Baghdad, with branches later in other cities.

"The decisions taken by this body will be shared by all Sunnis parties and movements, Islamists, independents, merchants, military officers, heads of tribes and workers," said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of the Sunni Endowment.

The charitable organization was one of three main Sunni groups to back the formation of the new organization. The others were the influential Association of Muslim Scholars and the Iraqi Islamic Party.

"We decided to establish this Sunni political and religious organization to speak on behalf the Arab Sunnis. We all have to work for the sake of Iraq to get this country out of this hard situation," said Sheik Lawrence Abid Ibrahim al-Hardan, 47, who is from restive Anbar province west of Baghdad.

Sunnis said they hope the organization will give them more of a say in Shi'ite-dominated Iraq and help bring the minority together ahead of new elections in December.

For extensive coverage see this report from "Al-Mendhar". In a related development, Sheikh Dr. Ali Al Fares Al Dailami, secretary of the Sunni-based Iraqi and Arab Clans’ Council has announced that his body will be entering into alliance with the former PM Iyad Allawi to “create a national alliance that includes various national forces in preparation for going into the coming elections process.”

USAID continues to support the parliamentary process through education (link in PDF): "A USAID partner providing support to the Iraqi National Assembly (INA) conducted the fourth in a series of general orientation sessions for INA members. The session was attended by 17 members of the "Iraqi List” (former Prime Minister Allawi’s list), the United Iraqi Alliance (including al-Dawa party, the National Independent Bloc and Al Fadheela Islamic Party) and independent members of the National Assembly. The program focused on the role of individual members of a legislature in a democratic society and tools to become effective representatives of the people. Topics of special interest included basic parliamentary functions and duties, rights and responsibilities of members of INA, powers and privileges, interpersonal skills development, and the importance of information-gathering and tools for public outreach. The seminar also included a presentation on the role of caucuses."

Turkey is likely to hold more courses for Iraqi politicians, given by the governing party, the opposition, the Supreme Court of Elections, and the Political Sciences Faculty and Middle East Public Administration. Meanwhile, between May 17 and 25, "the Government of Japan has been conducting election management training for 14 personnel who belong to the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq headquarters in Baghdad or its branch offices in the Governorates of Al-Muthanna, An-Najaf, Washit and Dahuk."

There is also more assistance from the European Union to help improve Iraqi governance and administration:

The six men seated around the white classroom table -- including the pudgy Foreign Ministry attache, the former army captain, the man with the sad, brown eyes who introduced himself vaguely as a "director general" -- were the unlikely vanguard of Iraq's bold new experiment in democracy.

"What's most important are the principles," said Jean-Pierre Massias, the head of this University of Auvergne training program for senior Iraqi officials. "The rule of law. Checks and balances. Compromise. How local governments can be a tool to prevent conflicts. How to administer a country."

After bitterly dividing over the war, Europe is uniting to help reconstruct Iraq, and these civics lessons in central France are part of that effort. Plans are in the works to coach about 750 Iraqi judges and prison guards on Western law and to hold an international conference in Brussels. European programs to train Iraqi security forces are mostly taking place outside the turmoil-torn country. The same stipulation is tied to a French offer to drill 1,500 Iraqi troops and police.

Various UN programs and initiatives are also helping Iraqi administrators build capacity

- Specialists from the Ministries of Education (MoE) and Health (MoH) participated in a week-long training workshop on school sanitation and hygiene education.

- 16 female staff members from the MoE and Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (MOLSA) undertook a 20-day study tour in Egypt, looking at all aspects of Early Childhood Development programmes.

- MoE participants developed a pilot project to cater for the learning needs of 50,000 children during a 3-day workshop on the Accelerated Learning Programme (ALP). This was a first opportunity for ministry staff from Baghdad and Northern Iraq to meet with each other and share experiences.

- 20 MOLSA social workers from 3 northern Governorates took part in a 2-week course representing the fourth phase in the Social Workers Training Course.

- 14 Iraqi journalists completed a four week intense journalism course from the American University of Cairo, increasing to 67 the total number of journalists who have participated in this course.

- 22 staff from the Ministry of Electricity participated in a training course in Japan and Korea. The engineers and technicians were trained in maintenance and assessment techniques for thermal generating power units; the backbone of Iraq’s power system.

- 4 staff from the Ministry of Municipalities and Public Works completed an inter-country training on emergency water & sanitation disinfection.

- The Mine Risk Education Operational Plan for the Centre and South of Iraq resulted from a 3-day workshop held in Amman. The MRE Operational plan to be overseen by the National Mine Action Authority (NMAA) represented an important contribution to educating Iraqis to live safely in contaminated areas.

- 17 participants from 8 Governorates learned to develop rainfall and run off models for watershed catchments at a week long workshop held in Cairo with visiting American professors.

- Iraqi government administrators and policy makers from the water sector and the Ministry of Environment attended a workshop sharing the Jordanian water governance experience with participants from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Central Asia.

- 20 senior staff from the Ministry of Water Resources benefited from a project cycle workshop to enhance their water-related project management techniques.

- 23 representatives from the region including 2 Iraqi staff from the Ministry of Planning completed a workshop in Amman to enhance their skills and expertise in resource capacity management within the Contract Research and Development field.....[lots more]