Iraqi factions meet for talks in Finland: organisers
HELSINKI (AFP) — Representatives from Iraq's main ethnic groups met in Finland to study reconciliation processes in Northern Ireland and South Africa in a bid to find a framework for justice and human rights in Iraq, the meeting's hosts said Saturday.
"Senior leaders from all the major ethnic groups are represented," a spokesman for the Finnish non-profit organisation Crisis Management Initiative (CMI), Mikko Autti, told AFP.
A total of 36 Iraqis were taking part in the seminar on "Divided Societies," in addition to representatives from South Africa and Northern Ireland, Autti said.
Neither the names of the participants nor the location or duration of the talks were revealed.
The closed-doors seminar is a follow-up to a first round of talks held in September 2007 in Helsinki, where delegates studied the peace processes in South Africa and Northern Ireland to see what lessons could be learned to end Iraq's inter-communal violence.
That four-day meeting concluded with the Helsinki I Agreement, a set of recommendations including the principles of power-sharing and a commitment to removing the use of violence as a means of resolving political differences.
The second round of talks began on Friday and were likely to continue at least through Sunday, another CMI spokesman, Quintin Oliver, said.
"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)," he said.
"It is now likely that the discussions will continue into a third day," he told AFP.
Both rounds of discussions were jointly organised by the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts, the Institute for Global Leaders at Tufts University in Massachusetts, and CMI.
CMI was created by former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari in 2000. In 2005, the group mediated a peace accord between the Indonesian government and rebels in the province of Aceh.
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.