US embassy cable - 05PRAGUE1343

UNCLAS PRAGUE 001343 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID, PREL, SCUL, EZ, IZ, JO, KPAO 
SUBJECT: CZECH ACTIVIST JAN URBAN ON IRAQI JOURNALISTS, 
IRAQI PRESERVATION PROJECTS 
 
REF: PRAGUE 1198 
 
1. SUMMARY. Poloff met with Czech journalist/activist Jan 
Urban after his return from Amman, Jordan, where he conducted 
training for 40 Iraqi journalists under a program funded with 
money from the National Endowment for Democracy.  Urban said 
he would like to follow up with additional programs, 
including internships at RFE in Prague. Urban also told the 
Embassy about Czech efforts to help preserve Iraqi cultural 
treasures, one program of which involves US military 
assistance. END SUMMARY 
 
2.  Urban spent the month of August in Jordan training two 
groups of Iraqi journalists, journalism students from 
Baghdad, and an older group, mostly middle-aged, from Basra. 
The program was run by the Czech NGO, People in Need (PIN), 
which had been in Iraq for years, though primarily providing 
humanitarian assistance. In 2004, PIN pulled all of its 
expats out of Iraq and relocated many of them in Jordan. Last 
month, PIN began a new program in Jordan, based on the Czech 
experience in the transition from a totalitarian regime to 
democracy. An Institute has been set up in Amman, with the 
working title, The Democracy and Transition Center for the 
Middle East. 
 
3.  Urban felt that the group of middle-aged journalists from 
Basra knew little about their craft. He felt the students 
from Baghdad, while untrained, held more promise. The 
students were exclusively Shia. The group of 20 students 
included 3 women. The other group of 20 had 2 women. Urban 
said the journalists did not feel they were going to be 
labeled collaborators by insurgents in Iraq, since the US 
money went, with relatively little fanfare, to a Czech NGO 
that was running the program in Jordan. 
 
4.  The Center has received an initial allocation of funds 
from the National Endowment for Democracy in the US, and 15 
million Czech Crowns (USD 650,000) from an office within the 
Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Urban said they are still 
calculating the costs for the first two sessions, but expect 
to have enough to run additional training for 40 Iraqis. 
Urban felt that this was one of the most successful and 
productive programs he has ever been associated with and is 
eager to continue. Jordanian media outlets have already 
agreed to make computers and TV facilities available to Urban 
for the next sessions. Urban would then like to select a 
small number, perhaps three, who would receive working 
internships at Radio Free Iraq, the Iraqi service at Radio 
Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Prague. He is still looking for 
financing to cover the costs of such internships. 
 
5.  Urban also described some of the other activities that he 
is working on in Iraq.  One program that he considers 
extremely successful is a program to save ancient Iraqi 
manuscripts from water damage. This program takes advantage 
of two unusual factors. First of all, the Iraqi Cultural 
Minister lived for many years in the Czech Republic, has a 
Czech wife, and values Czech technical abilities. Secondly, 
Czech restorationists have ample practical experience, 
following the floods in August 2002 which affected the 
national library.  So when centuries-old Iraqi manuscripts 
were found to be waterlogged, the Iraqi Cultural Minister 
asked the Czechs to help. Some of the most priceless books in 
the country have been flown back to Litomysl, where the 
Czech's National Restoration Institute restored them. The 
restored books were then flown back to Baghdad. Urban said 
the US army in Baghdad has provided two refrigerated tractor 
trailers that are keeping other soggy books and documents 
frozen until they also can be shipped to the Czech Republic 
for restoration.  Urban thanked the US for providing this 
help. 
 
6. Urban said the Iraqi Cultural Minister had asked for help 
with more than 10 preservation projects, one of which was the 
book program already described.  Urban explained that former 
Czech Minister of Culture, Pavel Dostal, who died this July, 
had been an enthusiastic supporter of the assistance 
projects.  But Urban said the search for a new minister, and 
the fact that the new minister, Vitezslav Jandak is less 
interested in these programs, has caused delays in getting 
funding approved.  Urban thought there was a great rush 
underway to get some of the other programs funded before the 
planned October 3-4 visit to Prague by Iraqi President 
Talabani. 
CABANISS