US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD3868

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003868 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/19/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, PTER, KDEM, IZ, UN 
SUBJECT: UN RAMPS UP PUBLIC OUTREACH EFFORT ON  CONSTITUTION 
 
REF: BAGHDAD 3795 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert S. Ford for 
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (SBU) The UNAMI Constitution Support Unit (CSU) 
delivered formatted copies of the Arabic version of 
the draft permanent constitution to their contracted 
print companies to begin print production immediately. 
CSU personnel told PolOff on September 19 that they 
expect the first 1,000,000 copies to be printed by as 
early as September 22.  UNAMI intends to print at 
least 5,000,000 copies, including 1,000,000 in Kurdish 
(production in Kurdish is to begin later this week). 
The CSU is also moving forward with plans for 
separately printing 250,000 copies for the Turkomen 
community. 
 
2. (C) UNAMI has modified its plans to use the Public 
Distribution System (PDS) for delivering the bulk of 
the drafts to Iraqi households (reftel).  Based on 
current PDS operations and scheduling, UNAMI will send 
the first traunche of copies to the PDS warehouses in 
the south, Baghdad, and Ninewa in time for the 
distribution agents to pick them up and deliver them 
during the first days of October.  For the rest of 
Iraq, including the Sunni areas, UNAMI will coordinate 
distribution largely through the NGO community, 
provincial governments, and political parties.  UNAMI 
reports that the response by all these groups to 
assist in the distribution effort has been 
overwhelming, causing UNAMI to consider keeping the 
printing presses open for additional runs. 
 
3. (C) The NGO community moved forwards with final 
preparations for their respective outreach campaigns 
after Deputy Speaker Shahristani presented the text 
modifications to the TNA during its September 19 
session.  UNAMI reports that UNDP has scheduled a 
variety of outreach projects for the week of September 
17 to 23 consisting of workshops, seminars, and 
multimedia projects to promote the constitution.  They 
also reported that the Ministry of Human Rights and 
other Iraqi government offices are doing their own 
constitution education campaigns.  CSU personnel 
indicate they plan to host a mapping exercise soon 
that would take into account the collective outreach 
efforts of the international community in order to 
ensure Sunni Arab and other high interest areas are 
adequately reached. 
 
Satterfield