REPORT OF MY VISIT TO BAGHDAD
You were keen for me to visit Iraq to ensure that British business expertise
does not get overlooked in the reconstruction work in Iraq and that Iraqi
women are being properly involved in the political process. I addressed both
issues in a full programme when I went to Baghdad on Wednesday 9 July.
This was an extremely valuable visit which enabled me to see at first hand,
albeit very briefly, what it is like in Baghdad and to give support to the
women of Iraq and to British business..
I was able to get to Baghdad in time to address the plenary session of the
"Voice of Women of Trac" conference, which included some of the Iraqi
exiles in Britain with whom Ann Clwyd and I have been working. This was
an important event organised, run and managed by the Iragi women but with
the backing and support of the CPA, especially a secondee to the CPA from
my Department's Women and Equality Unit (WEU) without whom the
event would simply not have happened. In addition to speaking at the
plenary session, I participated in one of the workshops looking at
constitutional and democracy issues, had lunch with the attendees and
private discussions with the steering group who had led the conference. I and
some of the Iraqi women gave interviews to NBC, BBC (the "PM"
programme and the World Service) and to journalists from UK and local
newspapers.
Paula Dobriansky, the Under Secretary for Global Affairs at the State
Department also addressed the conference.
Department of Trade and Industry
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women. Although he took note of this, Bremer also said that the political
parties in Iraq were not putting forward women in spite of their promises to
do so. In particular, the Kurds, who have several women within the
government and judiciary in northern Iraq, failed to agree a woman nominee.
I now note that only 3 women have actually been appointed to the Council.
This will be a major disappointment to the in-country and exiled Iraq women
who had expected a stronger voice. All of us will need to keep pressing this
message with Bremer and others in the US Administration to ensure that
there is substantial womez's representation in future political structures. I
also impressed on Bremer the need to continue to provide support to the
women who are appointed since without such support and in the absence of
party political structures behind them, they will quickly become
marginalised
In addition to participating in the women's conference and meeting Brerner,
I was joined by a scoping mission from British Trade International's Iraq
Industry Working Group. Together we visited the CPA's Business Support
and Facilitation Centre (brainchild of a UK secondee) and had discussions
with senior officials of the new Ministries of Industry and Trade about trade
and investment promotion and economic reform. We will be following up
that visit with offers of further practical support in the form of material to
stock the Centre. The Iraqi senior officials were clearly very keen to make
use of UK experience in economic reform and privatisation both at home
and in other markets such. as Easter Europe and I hope that we can follow
up this interest with specific offers of expertise from both the public and
private sectors.
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...process of ensuring that women are fully engaged in the
reconstruction of...
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sight of Bechtel's needs assessment and also raised our concerns about the
way that proposals (for sub-contract work) from Siemens UK and Balfour
Beatty were being handled by Bechtel. Bremer undertook to look into these
(he clearly shared our concerns about Bechtels' ability to push matters
along).
I should make special mention of the UK secondees to the CPA with whom I
had a separate meeting. Tney are very impressive and are doing excellent
work in very trying circurnstances. They need all the support we can give
them. We also need to ensure that there is a supply of other good people to
go out there, either in addition to those already in Iraq or to replace those
who are returning. For example, the curent WEU secondee to the CPA is
due to return to the UK in August. It will be very important to ensure that
she is replaced. I understand that DFID are already exploring the possibility
of getting such a replacement to ensure that initiatives to incorporate gender
into all aspects of reconstuction can be taken forward.
More generally, we need to ensure that we are seconding sufficiently senior
people to the CPA. This is not a criticism of those who are there - indeed
the point was made to me by our people. However it was noticeable that the
US are sending out more senior people than we are and this can put our own
people at a disadvantage when it comes to ensuring that the UK and
European points of view are taken into account.
On the way back to London on Wednesday evening, Chris Wilton, our
Ambassador in Kuwai, arranged a useful reception for me to meet British
business people and others engaged- or planning to be - in reconstruction
work and humanitarian aid in Iraq.
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Patricia Hewitt
11 July 2003
(Approved by the Secretary of State und signed in her absence)
:41.
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