JORDANIAN COMMENTS ON RAPE AS POLICY RESOLUTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 004045 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR IO/RHS LLUM E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2017 TAGS: AORC UN PHUM KWMN SOCI JO SUBJECT: JORDANIAN COMMENTS ON RAPE AS POLICY RESOLUTION REF: STATE 135255 Classified By: Ambassador David Hale for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Poloff delivered reftel demarche to the Foreign Ministry's International Organizations Chief Ayman al-Aamiry and his deputy Hussam al-Husseini on September 27. Aamiry predicted the resolution would garner wide backing, though neither made an explicit commitment to support it. Both noted it was consistent with Jordanian law, and added that avoiding being country-specific in the language would ease its passage. ¶2. (C) Unprompted, Aamiry inferred Darfur as a target of the proposed resolution. While speaking with evident personal disgust of state-sponsored rape and specifically mentioning the atrocities of the Milosevic regime, he suggested Sudan might be able to defend some of the activities going on in its territory if it "swallowed its pride" and admitted its poor capacity to take preventative action. Poloff countered that the lack of any consequences were key signs that a regime tolerated rape as an instrument of policy. Aamiry acknowledged that Sudan had to demonstrate that it was doing something to alleviate the problems. ¶3. (C) Husseini cited Jordan's strong laws making rape a capital crime, but predicted that the U.S.-sponsored resolution could prompt some debate over the definition of rape, and queried whether the reference to "for political purposes" might be controversial. For his part, AaQry seemed unworried about controversy, stressing that what was being discussed was rape as policy and that a "state must take action." Poloff added that there are many UN resolutions and international conventions that address abuse of women, and that it was the hope of the United States to keep the focus squarely on the matter of rape as an instrument of state policy. Visit Amman's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/ Hale