TANZANIA: MOVING CLOSER TO COMMITTING PKO TROOPS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DAR ES SALAAM 001951

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT AF/RSA FOR MBITTRICK, CBECK, JSEVOLD,PORTH
AF/E FOR B YODER
ADDIS FOR AU MISSION
LONDON, PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/15/2016
TAGS: PREL MOPS MARR PGOV KTIA TZ
SUBJECT: TANZANIA: MOVING CLOSER TO COMMITTING PKO TROOPS
TO DARFUR

REF: A. DAR ES SALAAM 1946


B. STATE 193696

C. BECK-DELLY E-MAIL 12/12/2006

D. DAR ES SALAAM 0606

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission, D. Purnell Delly, for reasons 1
.4(b,d)

Summary
--------------

1. (SBU) Signs are increasing that the Government of Tanzania
(GOT) is moving closer to committing troops to a peacekeeping
mission in Darfur. From December 11 to 15, the Africa
Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) team
hosted a strategy conference in Dar es Salaam with key
decision makers from the Tanzanian People's Defense Force
(TPDF). As the conference drew to a close, the TPDF Chief of
Staff indicated to the ACOTA program manager that Tanzania's
military wants to be fully prepared for "a possible political
decision" to deploy peacekeeping troops to Darfur. While on
a fact-finding trip in Accra, Ghana, (December 11 to 13) the
Tanzanian Minister of Defense indicated to ACOTA Coordinator,
Chip Beck, that President Jakaya Kikwete is "committed in
principle" to a deployment in Darfur once specific questions
- including training and equipment for such a peacekeeping
(PKO) mission - are answered. As 77 TPDF military police
(MPs) prepare to depart for PKO duties in Lebanon, Tanzania
appears willing to put its peacekeeping promises into action
in a timely manner. End summary.

Brass at ACOTA Workshop Request Sudan-based Training Model
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2. (SBU) Twenty-seven TPDF officers, including a major
general, six brigadier generals, sixteen colonels and
lieutenant colonels, and the head of training for the entire
TPDF, attended a five-day day ACOTA planning session in Dar
es Salaam from December 11 to 15. The goal of the workshop
was to guide key TPDF decision-makers to identify and outline
what the Tanzanian armed forces need in order to ready troops
for PKO operations. According to ACOTA Program Manager, Paul
Nell, the Tanzanian participants were focused on practical
plans and solutions for a peacekeeping deployment mission in
Darfur. For example, when asked by Nell, what was the TPDF's
preferences for training scenarios, without hesitation the
leaders requested a training model that would simulate the
circumstances, terrain and maps in Western Sudan.

TPDF Wants to be Prepared in Advance of a Political Decision
-------------- --------------

3. (SBU) On the third day of the ACOTA workshop, the TPDF
Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Davies Mwamunyange, who
had attended the December 11 opening ceremony, requested a
separate meeting with ACOTA Program Manager, Paul Nell.
Mwamunyange wanted Nell to unequivocally convey to ACOTA
organizers that the TPDF is interested in making practical
progress to train peacekeepers as soon as possible. "The
TPDF needs to be ready for whenever a political decision
might be made to deploy a peacekeeping battalion," he
stressed. In the Chief of Staff's view, the TPDF
leadership's principal concerns are timing and mechanisms for
training, particularly training in equipment use.
Mwamunyange also emphasized that the U.S., the U.K., Canada
and France needed to coordinate their respective efforts on
PKO support for Tanzania. (Comment: We are actively engaged
here in precisely that, working particularly closely with our
colleagues at the British and Canadian High Commission.)


4. (SBU) Mwamunyange shared his own view that the Sudanese
government would welcome Tanzanian participation in
peacekeeping efforts in Darfur. He explained that Tanzania
has kept open lines of communication with the Sudanese
leadership, implying that President Omar Al-Bashir listens to
President Kikwete. He also noted that the GOT continues to

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maintain a good relationship with the Egyptian government
which has some influence over the Janjaweed in the Darfur
region.

Minister of Defense Confirms High-level Interest in ACOTA
-------------- --------------

5. (SBU) During a visit to Accra, Ghana (Dec. 11 to 13) to
observe peacekeeping facilities for the Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS),Tanzania's Minister of
Defense, Dr. Juma Kapuya, told Chip Beck, ACOTA Coordinator,
at a December 12 breakfast meeting that President Kikwete is
"clearly behind" the ACOTA discussions and ensuing
preparations and training of TPDF peacekeeping forces in Dar
es Salaam. Kapuya said that Kikwete sees Tanzania's
engagement in PKO as a necessary engagement tool to promote
democracy and "avoid future conflicts in Africa." Kapuya
noted that "for some reason, the Khartoum Government likes
and trusts Tanzania" and that Khartoum has signaled that it
would like to see a Tanzanian battalion be part of an
expanded AMIS mission (Ref C).


6. (SBU) Kapuya confided to Beck that the GOT is not sanguine
that a viable UN mandate will emerge for Darfur, but expects
and even prefers to be deployed under the existing AU
mandate. The Defense Minister confirmed that while Tanzania
is willing to contribute a battalion to the PKO effort, the
TPDF leaders have specific questions, particularly about
equipment for personnel and training on larger equipment
needed for a battalion to successfully operate in Sudan.

Actions Speak...TPDF MPs preparing to head for Lebanon
-------------- --------------

7. (SBU) These positive signals concerning Tanzania's
participation in a Darfur PKO come on the heels of the GOT's
rapid preparations to deploy 77 military police (MPs) to
Lebanon. The Tanzanian MPs will join the UN PKO mission in
Beirut to help protect the UNIFIL Mission. The MPs -73 men
and 4 women- have completed training and will leave for
Lebanon within the next few weeks. This mission is the first
time TPDF forces have served outside of Africa in a
peacekeeping operation; their mandate will be to assist in
protecting the 9,000 international peacekeepers already in
Lebanon. In his inspection tour of the MPs training
operations on December 12, President Kikwete noted that the
GOT had responded to this request from the United Nations
following the July 2006 clashes between Hizbollah and Israeli
forces because the global community has placed its trust in
Tanzania as "a nation of serious people."

Comment: Decision Will Come from the Top
--------------

8. (SBU) At the close of the ACOTA training, Chief of Staff
Mwamunyange and the ACOTA facilitators were discussing the
possibility of scheduling an initial ACOTA training within
the first quarter of 2007. With this target date in mind,
post will continue to work closely with MFA and the Ministry
of Defense, to finalize the language for a Status of Forces
Agreement to be in place by or before that time (see Ref A).


9. (C) There appears to be recognition within the Ministry
of Defense (MOD) and TPDF that a decision to deploy a
Tanzanian PKO in Darfur may be on the horizon, and come
straight from the top (i.e. President Kikwete). The TPDF top
brass clearly do not want to be caught short or unprepared.
The high-level attendance at the December 11-15 ACOTA seminar
and Tanzania's rapid preparation to deploy TPDF military
police to Lebanon indicate a new and vigorous Tanzanian
commitment to participate in peacekeeping operations. More
importantly, we believe Chief of Defense General Waitara
appears to have finally bowed to President Kikwete's will on
defense issues. When we initially began pushing Tanzania
more than a year ago to engage with us on peacekeeping, newly
inaugurated President Kikwete indicated willingness, but

DAR ES SAL 00001951 003 OF 003


General Waitara, a carry-over from the Mkapa era, resisted
strongly. More recently, he resisted deployment of a U.S.
Civil Affairs unit. However, in the last several weeks it
has become clear that the President has imposed his will, as
the TPDF has ceded decisively on PKO cooperation, deployment
of a civil affairs team, and in other areas of mil-to-mil
cooperation. All this bodes well for a rapidly expanding
mil-to-mil relationship.
RETZER