Rival Iraqi factions begin secret meetings in Finland
HELSINKI, Finland: Rival Iraqi factions began meetings at a secret location in Finland Friday to try to find ways of ending violence in their country, organizers said.
Crisis Management Initiative, a mediation group led by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, said 36 senior representatives from Iraq including Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds were attending the peace seminar.
Advisers from Northern Ireland, with long experience of sectarian conflict, and from the apartheid-era struggle in South Africa are also taking part.
They include Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, deputy leader of Sinn Fein, and the senior Catholic in the nearly year-old power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, according to his party.
The talks are a follow-up to similar meetings held over four days in Finland in September 2007 when participants agreed on a plan for peace. The venue then, an isolated inn in southeastern Finland, was kept secret until the talks were over.
"The delegations from Northern Ireland and South Africa are here with more delegates and more senior people," CMI spokesman Quintin Oliver said, but declined to give further details.
Jeffrey Donaldson, a Protestant lawmaker from Northern Ireland and junior government minister, was also attending, his party confirmed.
Both he and McGuinness took part in the first round of talks. Donaldson described the September agreement as a "road map" to Iraqi peace.
Oliver said he did not know how long the talks would last.
"The meeting started this morning. The discussions are continuing," he said. "In these sorts of events you have to be able to take it for as long as it needs."
In September, participants approved recommendations including the disarmament of feuding factions and forming an independent commission to supervise the process.
Ahtisaari, who in 2005 took part in talks to help end 30 years of fighting between Aceh rebels and the Indonesian government, was not expected to participate.
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Associated Press Writer Shawn Pogatchnik in Dublin contributed to this report
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On the Net:
CMI site: http://www.cmi.fi
Representatives of Iraq's main ethnic groups have begun a second round of negotiations in Finland to study successful negotiations in South Africa and Northern Ireland. The initial talks, in September last year, ended with the Helsinki I Agreement, which presented a series of recommendations aimed at bringing peace to Iraq.

The talks have been arranged largely by the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), a non-profit organisation founded in 2000 by then Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari. CMI has previously arranged a successful arrangement between Indonesia and rebels in the province of Aceh, ending 30 years of fighting with talks in which Ahtisaari was chairman. He is taking no role in the Iraqi negotiations.

"Senior leaders from all the major ethnic groups are represented," said a CMI spokesman. 36 Iraqis are attending the seminar, entitled "Divided Societies", as well as South African and Northren Irish representatives. The Iraqis include prominent Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds although the names of the participants, as well as the exact location and length of the event, have been kept secret. This mirrors last time, where the site, an isolated inn in the Southeast, was only revealed after the talks had ended. All previous African and Irish representatives have also returned, as well as several others.

Amongst those sent to explain their historic peace negotiations is Martin McGuinness, former Irish Republican Army commander, deputy leader of Sinn Fein and Northern Ireland's power-sharing government's senior Catholic. That government has been in place just under a year. Junior Irish government minister Jeffrey Donaldson, a Protestant lawmaker, is also present. Both participated in last year's discussions.

Last year's four-day event's Helsinki I Agreement contained deals to aim for power sharing and to stop using violence to settle political disputes. CMI spokesman Quintin Oliver said that "All the participants are engaged in intense discussions with a considerable and detailed review of the Helsinki I Agreement and principles in light of the changed circumstances (being discussed in the second round)," and that the new talks began on Friday and will probably continue at least until Sunday.

As well as CMI, organisation for both sets of talks was handled by the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts and the Institute for Global Leaders at Tufts University in Massachusetts.