DARFUR: ARAB LEAGUE CHIEF RESPONDS TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 001279 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/30/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM ECON UNSC MOPS EG SU SUBJECT: DARFUR: ARAB LEAGUE CHIEF RESPONDS TO CONGRESSIONAL RESOLUTION CRITICISM Classified by Ambassador Francis Ricciardone for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) The Ambassador had the opportunity on April 30 to discuss with Arab League Secretary General Moussa a recent Congressional Resolution on Darfur that explicitly criticizes the Arab League over the conflict there. Moussa conveyed that he was personally affronted by the resolution, and said he would respond in writing to Speaker Pelosi. The resolution, he complained, was based on a "lack of information" on the role of the Arab League in helping to resolve the Darfur conflict. Moussa clarified that the League took issue with the issue of genocide, based on the information available to it, but agreed the situation there was a terrible violation of human rights and should be condemned. Moussa said that he had been so moved by the extent of the humanitarian disaster in Darfur, that he had personally sought money from Arab governments to support the African Union mission in Darfur. Not only had he succeeded in raising 20 million dollars for the AU, but Moussa said he had been the one to insist at the Arab League's latest summit in Riyadh that Omar Bashir meet with UN SYG Ban Ki Moon, the Saudi King, and the AU Commissioner to address next steps on an AU/UN force for Darfur. ¶2. (C) The Ambassador urged Moussa to take the Congressional resolution to heart, and to increase efforts to get the Arab governments to openly and forcefully behind international efforts to resolve the Darfur conflict. In any response to Congresswoman Pelosi, the Ambassador counselled, Moussa should detail the Arab League's and his own contributions to addressing the situation in Darfur. Any statement from the Arab League that called upon the Government of Sudan to cooperate with the UN to help end the violence in Darfur, even if it did not explicitly use the word "genocide," would be welcomed. ¶3. (U) Text of Arab League Statement on U.S. Darfur Resolution: Begin text (Embassy translation): The General Secretariat of the AL expressed its astonishment at the US Congress resolution dated April 25, 2007 which calls on the AL to declare that the human rights violations occurring in Darfur are considered collateral cleansing, at a time where no international or regional organization had used that characterization. The General Secretariat expressed its disappointment to the content of the Congress resolution where it stated that the AL worked on impeding the spread of the national troops in Darfur, which assures that false information had been presented to the US congress on which it built resolutions that are far from reality. The AL referred to the expanded and high level cooperation occurring between the AL, the AU and the UN during the peace negotiations that took place over two years at the Nigerian capital Abudja, the Addis Ababa meetings to insure more international support to the AU mission in Darfur, and the Arab Summit in Riyadh to overcome a number of special obstacles related to different assistances, had proved success to reach results that blend with all principles of protection of civilian victims of struggles and the principle of State sovereignty. The AL stated that the security arrangements that are currently being consulted - among which is the African / National hybrid operation - which the Sudanese Government had agreed upon in Addis Ababa meetings and in the African Peace and Security Council in November 30, 2006, is considered a basic step to secure the implementation of Darfur Peace Agreement that was signed in May 2006. In accordance to previous experiences in Africa and other areas, these arrangements should be parallel to real and active political efforts to treat the roots of the crisis in Darfur, which is what the AL and its state members are doing in coordination of efforts with the UN and the AU. End text. RICCIARDONE