Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06KHARTOUM2561
2006-10-27 10:20:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

SENIOR SPLA COMMANDER BLAMES SAF, LRA FOR RECENT

Tags:  PREL PGOV MCAP UG SU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO2023
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #2561/01 3001020
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 271020Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5035
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 002561 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR AF/SPG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV MCAP UG SU
SUBJECT: SENIOR SPLA COMMANDER BLAMES SAF, LRA FOR RECENT
ATTACKS

REF: KHARTOUM 02527

Classified By: Classified by CDA Chief Eric Whitaker, Reasons: Section
1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 002561

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

FOR AF/SPG

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/27/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV MCAP UG SU
SUBJECT: SENIOR SPLA COMMANDER BLAMES SAF, LRA FOR RECENT
ATTACKS

REF: KHARTOUM 02527

Classified By: Classified by CDA Chief Eric Whitaker, Reasons: Section
1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Major General Thomas Cirillo, a senior
commander in the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and
Deputy Commander of the Joint Integrated Units (JIUs) for all
of Sudan, blames the Sudanese Government's Sudan Armed Forces
(SAF) and the Ugandan rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) for
a week of violence around Juba that left over 40 people dead.
The Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS) is under increasing
pressure to make a clear public statement about the events.
GoSS President Salva Kiir told a church congregation October
22 that 15 SAF personnel were in custody, and were
responsible for attacks on the outskirts of Juba. Various
GoSS officials say the government is prepared to make public
the identity of the SAF detainees and other evidence against
the northern army. SPLA sources add that they have completed
a "preliminary" investigation, and will press for a joint
investigation in conjunction with SAF through the JIUs.
While LRA complicity in the recent violence bodes ill for
ongoing peac
e talks, proof of SAF participation in attacks within a few
miles of Juba would expose a more fundamental weakness in the
implementation of the North-South Comprehensive Peace
Agreement (CPA). End Summary.

-------------- --
Cirillo: SAF Elements Attack Outskirts of Juba
-------------- --


2. (C) Cirillo told ConGen October 23 that both SAF and LRA
were behind the recent violence. The evidence against SAF is
explosive, he admitted, and centers on events in the village
of Gumbo on the nights of October 18 and 19. The violence in
Gumbo followed several days of escalating conflicts
attributed to the LRA, including brutal ambushes on major
roads east and south of Juba earlier in the day on October 18
(reftel). According to Cirillo, unknown assailants entered
Gumbo, a village one mile south east of Juba on the night of
October 18, attacked and looted several homes, and killed
four people. SPLA forces deployed to Gumbo on October 19 and

counterattacked when the assailants returned for a second
night of violence. Two SPLA soldiers, and two individuals
believed to be members of SAF, were killed in the fighting.


3. (C) SPLA forces encircled the village, according to
Cirillo, and captured several of the attackers during the
October 19 skirmish and during a cordon-and-search operation
the following morning. Seven suspects were detained during
the initial operation. Nine others were seized later in the
day on the outskirts of Gumbo, Cirillo reported. Several of
the detainees were in possession of SAF identification cards,
Cirillo claimed. Under interrogation, he said, several of
the detainees have admitted that they are attached to
specific SAF units. At least some of these units are SAF
components of the JIUs -- SPLA/SAF forces that Cirillo, the
JIU deputy commander, describes as "joint," but not
"integrated." Cirillo said a SAF officer attached to the
JIUs arrived in Gumbo on October 20 to claim the bodies of
the two SAF soldiers killed in the conflict, but SPLA
officials refused to turn them over.


4. (C) All of the detainees are Southern Sudanese, except for
two Darfurians and a woman from northern Uganda, Cirillo
reported. Another SPLA source says the woman has since been
released.

--------------
Cautious Response
--------------


5. (C) Cirillo's account is generally corroborated by other
GoSS sources, including GoSS President Salva Kiir. Kiir told
a church congregation October 22 that 15 SAF personnel were
in custody in connection with the recent violence. GOSS has
so far made no definitive statement on the fighting, however,
despite hours of intense, high-level meetings by senior
political and military officials. Some military officers
were believed to be pressing for a more vigorous military
response. In view of the seriousness of the charges,
however, the GoSS appears inclined to move cautiously.
Cirillo said the SPLA's preliminary investigation would be
concluded on or about October 24, and that he expected some
of the evidence against SAF to be made public. GoSS would
also ask for a joint SAF/SPLA investigation through the JIU,
Cirillo said.

--------------

KHARTOUM 00002561 002 OF 002


LRA Role
--------------


6. (C) Another area of confusion is the alleged role of the
LRA. Cirillo said the LRA was behind all the incidents but
those in Gumbo, including two grisly road ambushes in which
passengers were variously shot, macheted, burned to death,
and, according to another contact, in one instance
decapitated. An LRA spokesperson at the ongoing peace talks
in Juba denies responsibility. GoSS's chief mediator at the
peace talks, Vice President Riek Machar, has told
participants that the violence is an "internal" Sudanese
matter, according to a UN official attached to the talks.
Cirillo and other SPLA sources, together with Ugandan
security personnel attending the talks, continue to assert
LRA complicity. There were at least three other skirmishes
involving the LRA in the days leading up to the attacks,
these sources point out, and the road ambushes were
consistent with LRA tactics.


7. (C) "Juba was a center of the LRA" before the GoSS took
over, Cirillo explained. "They were supplied and trained
here, and they still have many collaborators and agents."
Cirillo asserts that SPLA intelligence officials recently
learned that SAF had supplied a significant quantity of
ammunition to the LRA. (Note: This is not the first time
Cirillo and other senior GoSS officials have made these
allegations. In previous cases, the evidence they provided
was refuted. End note.) He further alleges that SAF was
behind the recent violence, including that carried out by the
LRA. Cirillo acknowledged that the GoSS, through the SPLA,
was simultaneously providing significant quantities of food
and other supplies to LRA groups, both at the assembly areas
designated under the current peace process and at other
locations.

--------------
Growing Tensions
--------------


8. (C) The violence comes amidst growing allegations that
Khartoum is redeploying plainclothes military and
intelligence personnel in and around Juba, providing
clandestine assistance to various militia and otherwise
acting to undermine the CPA. Transport and Roads Minister
Rebecca Garang told ConGen October 3 that Khartoum
intelligence operatives had been spotted in increasing
numbers in Juba. Cirillo claims several such operatives are
currently in SPLA custody. A diplomatic colleague here
reports that a Roman Catholic nun, long resident in Juba,
also claims to have seen several Khartoum operatives who were
familiar to her from the years before the CPA was signed.
Both Riek Machar and GoSS Health Minister Theophilus Ochang
Lotti assert that the SAF is providing arms and other support
to remnants of the former Equatoria Defense Force (EDF),a
militia that collaborated closely with both the Khartoum
government and the LRA prior to the CPA. Ochang was a leader
of the EDF before joining the SPLM and the GoS

S.


9. (C) Officials cite several factors underlying growing
tensions between Khartoum and the semi-autonomous southern
region. Several senior GoSS officials have told us that they
believe Southern support for UN deployment in Darfur has been
a major irritant to the national government in Khartoum.
They believe Khartoum was also angered by Ugandan president
Yoweri Museveni's October 21 visit to Juba, which Khartoum
claimed was without its authorization (septel). GoSS success
in incorporating various militia and political factions
formerly allied with Khartoum also has been an annoyance,
officials say.

--------------
Comment
--------------


10. (C) If the SPLM can prove that the SAF was involved in
this week's violence around Juba, it would be a sharp blow to
prospects for a peaceful implementation of the CPA. Although
the GoSS is responding cautiously, there is significant anger
at Khartoum's alleged role in this violence, both in official
circles and among the general population. The SAF has been
implicated in previous attacks, but the SPLM has so far been
unable to prove its allegations. A credible investigation of
these events, perhaps with international participation, might
help bring clarity and defuse the growing tension.
POWERS