A DELEGATION of Shi’ite and Sunni leaders from Iraq is due to arrive in Belfast tonight to learn the secrets of building peace out of seemingly intractable sectarian conflict.

The 10-strong group has the backing of Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, and is led by Muwaffaq al-Rubaie, his national security adviser and a leading Shi’ite.

For three days they will meet community, church, police and political leaders to discuss such subjects as the decommissioning of terrorists’ weapons, combating sectarianism and preventing the infiltration of the police by paramilitary gangs.

“The focus of the visit is practical and goal-oriented; the Iraqis need concrete solutions and structures to deal with these issues today,” said Alison Gordon, first secretary (political) at the British embassy in Baghdad who is from Holywood and is accompanying the delegation.

“The road to disarmament and peace in Northern Ireland was slow and painful. But with strong political and religious leadership, reconciliation is possible — even in Iraq,” she said.

The group is not expected to meet any of the most senior politicians, although it will have talks with representatives of the leading parties. It will also meet Nuala O’Loan, the police ombudsman, and David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist party, the political wing of the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Gordon hopes that, after the visit, the PSNI will hold workshops or conferences in Iraq or Jordan to pass on its expertise.

“They have such big problems with the police force there that there are rumours they may need to disband it and start again,” she said. “How do you start getting rid of militia elements that have infiltrated your service? How can you deal with communities and make the police service representative?” The delegation will examine the PSNI’s “50/50 rule”, which was introduced to discriminate in favour of Catholics. So far this has succeeded in increasing Catholic numbers from a base of 8% in 2001 to 21% today. The rule will cease once the proportion of Catholics reaches 30%.

The delegation will also look at the process of police reform initiated by Chris Patten.

Other meetings on the security front will be with Andrew Sens and Brigadier Tauno Nieminen, who oversaw the decommissioning of IRA weapons, and Lord Alderdice, a member of the IMC, the international body that monitors the paramilitary ceasefires.

At police headquarters they will meet commanding officers from troubled areas and from the crime operations department, which combines the force’s intelligence-gathering and criminal-investigation departments.

“A second focus is to look at more specific ways in which they can design their reconciliation initiatives,” Gordon said. “How do they focus on conflict resolution to get some of the militia elements and some of the rejectionists round the table to try to make this government work? They are talking to people from the academic as well as political establishment.”

Also in the delegation is Rafi’a al-Issawi, minister of state for foreign affairs and a Sunni from a tribe in Anbar province, the heart of the anti-American insurgency. It also includes the controversial figure Hadi al-Amiri, secretary-general of the Badr organisation, an Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia that has fought the British in Basra but now claims to have laid down its arms. Al Amiri, a hard line Shi’ite, is head of the Iraqi parliament’s security and defence committee.

Other delegates include a tribal leader, a senior military figure and senior Muslim clerics.

Those due to share their expertise with the delegation include Archbishop Sean Brady, the Catholic primate, and lower-level representatives of the main Protestant churches.

Politicians include Sinn Fein’s Raymond McCartney, a former IRA prisoner and hunger striker who was convicted of the murder of a German industrialist as part of the IRA’s “economic war” to destabilise Northern Ireland. Gregory Campbell, the MP for East Londonderry, will represent the DUP.

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge