Basra Electricity Protest – Preventing Widespread Violence through Team-Mediation

Sa'ad Al-Khalidy, IQCM Executive Director

August 30, 2012
salkhalidy@iqcm.org
Salkhalidy.iq@gmail.com

Background:
The 2011 “Electricity
Revolution” began in Basra Iraq, and
ended country wide with dozens dead
and many others injured. People were
rightly angry. Many had less than three
hours a day of electricity, and no way
to run air conditioners or fans – during
a summer so hot that temperatures
above 50 Celsius were not published.
These protests were countrywide,
except for the Autonomous Kurdish
Regional Government in the North. In
Basra, both the Governor and the
Electricity Minister resigned over the
incident. Basra Electricity Revolution in 2011
In July 2012, the protests began
again, with social and tribal leaders,
and some Parliament members planning organized demonstration against the Local and Central
Government. It was expected that Basra demonstrations lead to countrywide violence once
again. This year, leaders trained who are IQCM members were on-call to mediate and calm
tensions.

See videos of these demonstrations online at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XylKsuMjafQ
(The Nights Demonstrations in 2012)
http://www.qanon302.net/news/news.php?action=view&id=19948
(Nights Demonstrations)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhCD6btTjJ8
(Electricity Revolution in 2011)

IQCM Team Role:

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 Ra'ad Al-Mosawy and Dr. Qusay Abdul
Lateef are some of the first participants of the
Mercy Corps conflict management program,
signing up to participate in the GPCMI program
in 2006. They are also charter-members of the
Iraqi Center for Negotiation Skills and Conflict
management (IQCM). Sayid Mahmoud, the third
mediator and also a Center member, is on the
Basra Provincial Council and was more recently
trained by Mercy Corps ICRR program. These
three, with very different backgrounds were well Dr. Qusay First meeting with the leaders
organized to mediate and avoid a new wave of
violence by using the conflict management tools
they learned.

How did these three get involved in mediating the conflict?

Dr. Qusay is a particularly active member in the Iraqi Centre and was invited by a
Parliament Member to attend one of the meetings for the leaders who were preparing to
demonstrate. At that meeting, he listened to them all, and then asked whether their interests
were in the stability of Basra, or just in protesting to protest. They considered this question as
an attempt to cancel the demonstration, but when he explained to them that he represent the
Iraqi Centre and that is an independent NGO specialized in conflict management; they asked
him to conduct a meeting for them. After that, they decided to forestall protests and form and
train a negotiation team to negotiate with the Local Government.

Dr. Qusay and Sayid Ra'ad explain the negotiation

process and tools, to the leaders who wanted to
protest

Tools used:
1. The Quadrant Tool
2. The Seven Elements tool for Conflict Management

The Quadrant Tool:

The Quadrant Tool is divided in to four steps, the first is the problem Diagnosis, the
second is the reason analysis, and the third is the general approach and the fourth step is action

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ideas. This tool was in complement to the primary tool, the Seven Elements Tool developed at
Harvard in the late 1970’s and in the next section.

First Step - Diagnosis:

1. Electricity service stands at an hour of electrical power for every six hours without
2. Power is distributed unjustly, with some areas receiving more hours than others
3. Transfer cables break down all the time, and no one fixes them
4. Power transformers break down all the time, and no on fixes them

Second Step - Possible Reasons analysis:

1. Power consumption goes up with increasing population and income levels
2. No one prepares for the summer
3. Corruption leads to poor maintenance of the grid
4. The old grid components require upgrading
5. The weak system leads to overloads which cause many parts to break
6. Illegal hacking of, and tapping in to, power lines for personal use, further leads to
their rapid failure

The Third Step - The General approaches:

1. Continuous follow up and monitoring of the grid through the control rooms.
2. Serious follow up of the electrical power projects implementation.
3. Better monitor and prosecute against the illegal use of power

The Fourth Step - The Practical solutions:

1. Form a committee within one week to involve representatives from the electricity
power distribution department, Basra provincial Council, and Basra City Council to
do the following:
a. Follow up on the performance of Control rooms staff
b. Follow up on the distribution of electrical transformers compared to the loads
of each area in order to balance them and guarantee that they distribute power
in accordance with loads, in addition to working on adding new transformers
for the needed areas.
2. Form a committee within one week that includes the provincial council, the
distribution department, electrical network department, and the electrical transformers
department to follow the electricity project implementation, and to punish the
negligent employees.
3. Issue an order to avoid houses getting extra electrical lines

The Seven Elements Tool:

First Element - Relationship:
The relationship was already confusing because of the low electricity services during
the long summer that coincided with Ramadan fasting. In addition, there was another political
crisis among the main parties and many considered this as an excellent opportunity to instigate
people against the central government and the Basra Local Government, which supports the
Shia-Arab State of Law Coalition of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. These ambitions
transcended Basra’s borders and would have led to a protest movement claiming widespread
governmental failure in most of the Iraq’s provinces.

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 Furthermore, since the current Governor in Basra was replacing someone who resigned
under the huge protest against the low electricity power provision in 2011, many considered
his sole job to be that of providing electricity in the summer.
The positive side of the relationship is that the Iraqi center members had a positive
relationship with both of the conflicted parties; this has enabled them to play an active role as
recognized unbiased mediators.

Second Element - Communication:

The Center team started by leveraging Sayid Mahmoud’s position on the Basra
provincial council to explain the role of the mediators to the government in order to clarify
their non-biased nature.

The Meetings:
10th August 2012. In this meeting, Dr. Qusay represented the Iraqi Centre and persuaded
the community leaders that there could be many negotiated solution rather than starting with
the BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) was to protest. He managed to
persuade them after long emotional talks with the people who were preparing for the
demonstrations. During the meeting, there was a list of 32 protestor demands, half of them
related to the electricity problem, and others are mostly regional problems that needed years to
be solved. Dr. Qusay promised to return to mediate on the 13th of August with another member
from the Iraqi Centre.
11th August 2012 The mediators convened with Ayad Al-Nabhan, the IQCM
Negotiation Advisor to prepare for the next meeting. They discussed the suitable tools to be
used and realities of the demand list. They came up with a modified list of demands and the
tools that can be used.
13th August was the second meeting that was attended by the community leaders and
two of the Iraqi Centre members. The purpose of this meeting was to explore the potential
options and to prepare for the negotiation process. The environment was calmer than the
previous meeting despite some challenges. Most of the attendees, however, were successful in
supporting the Centre members in calming dissenting voices by stating their efforts need not
be war-like, and a negotiation would avoid violence in the city, which is an interest for all (This
was how they used the framing tool). During the meeting, they agreed to postpone their meeting
with the local government until 16 August 2012 for the following reasons:

1. Due to the absence of the Basra provincial council member that headed the Electrical Power
Committee as he was on travel.
2. To first, collect more information, data, and photos of the electricity projects in Basra.
3. To first conduct negotiations training sessions so that all parties knew the same tools
4. To reframe the list of demands in to a list with a less aggressive tone, and also remove the
impossible demands out of the local government’s authority.
5. To prepare the local government for negotiation and request them to invite the Electricity
production head, the electricity distribution head and the electricity transfer heads in
addition in order to have a formal negotiation session with an agreement that the conflicted
parties can be committed to.

14th August 2012 the leaders had a meeting with the center members and they did the
following:

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1. The demand list was reviewed and reframed as facilitated by the Iraqi Centre
representatives.
2. The Center team elaborated and illustrated the seven-element tool, the Framing tool, and
the features of the good negotiator.
3. They agreed to have a preparatory meeting on the 15th of August.

15th August 2012 the protesting-leaders met with the Center members and during the
meeting did the following:

1. They distributed the roles of the negotiation committee in order to prevent chaos during the
session.
2. They were reminded not to be pressured and avoid letting emotional lead to the talks getting
out of control.
3. They were explained that the negotiation is a process to avoid the spread of violence that
may be repeated and that this was a solid interest to both parties - especially the local
government as the blame for violence would ultimately rest with them.
4. The final list of demands was printed and distributed to the negotiating parties.

Third Element - Interests:

The Community’s Interests:
1. Electricity power provision improved as demonstrated by more hours of electricity per
day
2. To have a long-term solution for the electricity problem in Basra.
3. To gain trust that any commitments agreed to would be followed through with
4. To appear as a worthy party that could change the people minds from demonstration to
negotiation in order to support their position in the negotiation.

Local Authority Interests:

1. To avoid the planned demonstrations especially in Ramadan because they may lead to
obligatory changes in the leadership positions of the local government.
2. Electricity power provision improved as demonstrated by more hours of electricity per
day
3. Wining the other party’s trust
4. To make sure the solutions derived were both local and national

Fourth Element - Options:

On the 16th of August 2012, the negotiation began and the opening speech was given by
the head of Basra City Council who have expressed his gratitude to the Community negotiation
committee. In addition to that, he said that the people’s demands are their normal right, and
that such kind of communication with the committee will support the Basra Local Authority to
request real serious procedures to address this problem. He thanked the Center team for their
positive role and allowed them to facilitate the session.
The Center members gave a brief introduction about the problem and focused on the shared
interests to both of the conflicted parties using the framing tool. They emphasized that no one
wanted violence, and that everyone wanted electricity improved.

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 Then, the Community representatives talked with the local Authority members and
discussed the demands. They brainstormed the options that could lead to getting the interests
achieved, and the following options were created:
1. Clearly identify the current status of electricity power and manage it justly by having
all of Basra three hours with electricity and three hours without, in order to have the
three down supplemented by the private Diesel Generators.
2. Specify a timeline for improving the electricity power to be 4 hours of electricity for
every 2 hours of cut
3. Establish an investigative committee with a clear timeline for identifying the negligent
employees in the distribution department and the Electricity power production
department, and to punish them
4. Form a mutual committee with the involvement of the Iraqi Centre members to follow
up on the implementation of the previous three points.

(Options Generation Session) The Negotiation Meeting

runs by the Center Mediators between Basra local
government and the Community Leaders

Fifth Element - Criteria:

The Community Leaders Criteria: They represent the people and request normal service
of electricity to the community, which is the Governmental responsibility.

The Local Government Criteria: A national Issue cannot be solved through a local
solution only, and it is the national Electricity Power ministry’s responsibility.

Sixth Element - Commitment:

Both Parties have representatives in the follow-up committee that is following the
implementation of the options developed.

Seventh Element - Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement, or BATNA:

Community Leaders BATNA:

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 1. Mass protests
2. Use Media to voice dissent against the Local and Central Governments.
Local government BATNA:
1. Prevent Violence and control the security situation using a heavy hand