The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
903.
Other points
made in discussion included:
•
the
possibility of using Territorial Army (TA) training and
pre-deployment centres
for
civilians involved in post-conflict work;
•
the
critical importance of policing and security;
•
the
possibility of establishing contingency arrangements to make it
easier to start
preparing
earlier for post-conflict operations; and
•
the
importance of building capacity elsewhere, including in the UN and
EU.
904.
The three
Ministers agreed that officials should:
•
review the
UK’s approach to planning and preparing for post-conflict
situations at
the
national level and then look at influencing others, with the EU a
high priority;
•
consider
setting up an inter-departmental “co-ordinating mechanism”, look at
the
tools
needed and consider how to spread best practice; and
•
take into
account the resource implications.
905.
On 28
November, Mr John Sawers, FCO Political Director, informed
Sir Nigel
Sheinwald,
Mr Blair’s Foreign Policy Adviser, that FCO, DFID and MOD
officials were
preparing a
paper for discussion by Ministers in January 2004.571
Mr Sawers
identified
three main
issues to address:
“a. how we
improve the UK performance in this area;
b. how we
help improve the international effort – especially in the
UN;
c. what our
training and personnel management needs are.”
906.
A trilateral
FCO/MOD/DFID working group agreed on 7 January 2004 to
focus
on “the
gap that has been identified in terms of planning for the initial
implementation
907.
Officials
presented a paper setting out recommendations for the “better
planning,
implementation
and management of the UK’s contribution to post-conflict
reconstruction”
to DOP on
12 February.573
908.
The paper,
already agreed by Mr Straw, Mr Benn and Mr Hoon,
recommended
setting up
an inter-departmental Post-Conflict Reconstruction Unit (PCRU) with
a double
remit:
•
“Policy:
developing government strategy for post-conflict reconstruction
linked
into
concomitant military and humanitarian planning, the wider
international
571
Letter
Sawers to Sheinwald, 28 November 2003, ‘Foreign
Policy Strategy Group: First Meeting’
attaching
Paper [unattributed and undated], ‘Post Conflict
Reconstruction’.
572
Paper
[unattributed and undated], ‘Post Conflict Reconstruction
Trilateral Working Group: Meeting
at the
Royal Artillery, Woolwich on 7 January 2004’.
573
Letter Owen
to Fergusson, 5 February 2004, ‘Post Conflict Reconstruction: Paper
for the DOP,
12
February’ attaching Paper [unattributed and undated], ‘Post
Conflict Reconstruction’.
508