Around 20 Iraqi participants in CMI seminar

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A seminar aimed at finding solutions to the violence in Iraq gathered around 20 Iraqi participants in Finland on Friday, reported Kristiina Rintakoski from the Crisis Managemenet Initiative (CMI), which organised the event.
      The participants included both politicians and researchers. According to Rintakoski, most Iraqi representatives were senior advisers.
      The organisers stress that the event does not represent any actual peace talks, but is a seminar and a debate on the issue.
      The aim during the weekend was to consider how the experiences of the peace processes in South Africa and Northern Ireland might be utilised for the clarification of the difficult situation in Iraq.
     
The CMI has announced that for security reasons, the names of the Iraqis as well as the venue of the seminar were not be disclosed.
      The discussions were conducted in English and Arabic, and the participants represented Iraq's Shiite and Sunni groups, while the Kurds were not involved.
      The CMI and the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies, which belongs to the University of Massachusetts, were the two main organisers of the seminar.
      In addition to the Iraqi researchers, the CMI experts, and the University of Massachusetts researchers, the seminar involved also some experts from South Africa and Northern Ireland.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  CMI seminar on Iraq expected in Finland during the weekend (31.8.2007)

Links:
  Crisis Management Initiative

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