Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07KHARTOUM1673
2007-10-29 14:47:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Khartoum
Cable title:  

FORMER DARFUR GOVERNOR SUGGESTS POSSIBLE NCP PEACE

Tags:  PREL KPKO MARR AU UN SU 
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PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDU RUEHKUK RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHKH #1673/01 3021447
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 291447Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8955
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001673 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/29/2017
TAGS: PREL KPKO MARR AU UN SU
SUBJECT: FORMER DARFUR GOVERNOR SUGGESTS POSSIBLE NCP PEACE
PROPOSAL

REF: KHARTOUM 1585

Classified By: CDA Alberto M. Fernandez, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (
d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001673

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/29/2017
TAGS: PREL KPKO MARR AU UN SU
SUBJECT: FORMER DARFUR GOVERNOR SUGGESTS POSSIBLE NCP PEACE
PROPOSAL

REF: KHARTOUM 1585

Classified By: CDA Alberto M. Fernandez, Reason: Section 1.4 (b) and (
d)


1. (C) Summary: Charge d'Affaires and Pol/Econ Chief met
October 27 with the Governor of Khartoum State Dr. Abdel
Halim Mutaafi. The Governor provided insights on the Darfur
conflict and made suggestions on how it might be resolved.
Mutaafi is the former Governor of Darfur State and is married
to a descendant of the last Fur Sultan, Ali Dinar, but is
part of the Nile Valley elite and an NCP insider. He said
there was some discussion in the NCP of his serving as the
new Darfur negotiator, but Mutaafi claimed his admiration for
the Fur made him unsuitable. He represents a rare voice of
reason on Darfur among NCP insiders. End summary.

The Zaghawa as Raiders
--------------


2. (C) Mutaafi said the current problem began when camel
herders (both Zaghawa and Abbala Arabs) headed south and
began displacing African farmers (Birgid and Fur). These two
camel herding groups are still the core cause of many of the
problems in the region, he said. The Zaghawa pushed out the
Birgid (Mini Minawi,s men still control these areas) while
the Arab tribesmen pushed out the Fur. Mutaafi said that
both the Zaghawa and the Abbala Arabs are skilled at robbery;
they attack at sunset to steal either vehicles or camels and
then they travel overnight long distances, so that by morning
they are far away, barely leaving a trace. Both are skilled
at ambush of pursuing forces.


3. (C) Mutaafi said the Zaghawa are a warrior people who like
to raid. The problem is that when the NIF split (ousting
Hassan al-Turabi in 1999),all the Zaghawa went with Turabi
into the Popular Congress Party. He said Zaghawa leadership
is made up of "opportunists and bandits" like Mini Minawi, or
principled Islamists like Khalil Ibrahim. Both Ibrahim and
Turabi claim the link between them is broken but Mutaafi
doesn't believe them. According to him, President Al-Bashir
tasked Mutaafi with trying to woo Khalil Ibrahim into peace
talks, but Khalil is not easily fooled. He said most of

Khalil Ibrahim,s objectives are achievable ) Darfur to be
one region, equal representation in government, a
vice-presidential slot ("we have two, why not three") ) but
one of his objectives is not acceptable to Khartoum: that JEM
troops be kept together as a separate force after peace is
achieved. "This is an idea he got from John Garang,s
success with the SPLA and is not acceptable to Khartoum." He
said Khartoum would accept having them absorbed into the
national army and police.

The Fur
--------------


4. (C) Mutaafi said Abdel Wahid is "insane" with delusions of
grandeur and sees himself as "second only to Bush on the
world stage." But he does speak for his people and appeals
to Fur IDPs, which makes him important, at least for now.
Mutaafi said the number of IDPs is overstated but is at least
700,000, which he said is the largest dislocation in the
history of Darfur.


5. (C) Mutaafi recalled that the late &Sultan8 of the Fur
warned him in 2002 that 300 villages had been burned and that
the Fur were arming themselves. The Fur financed their
rebellion from Khartoum, with Fur traders, small businessmen,
and unemployed university graduates raising $2-$5 dollars
apiece and using this money to buy weapons. He said the
Zaghawa played a duplicitous game, throwing in with the Fur
at the last moment against Khartoum. Mutaafi claimed he
warned Fur leaders that the Zaghawa would eventually turn on
the Fur and try to seize Jebel Marra, which had until then
been a homogenous "Fur paradise," and this has happened.

Risks for UN Peacekeepers
--------------


6. (C) Mutaafi said the problem is that the international
community sees Darfur as a security/humanitarian issue when
it is essentially political and economic, albeit with
security and humanitarian dimensions. He fears that the
26,000 UNAMID troops will be swallowed up in the immensity of
Darfur. That number of troops won't go far if spread out,
and they should concentrate on providing security in cities

KHARTOUM 00001673 002 OF 002


and camps, at least. UNAMID could very well be attacked and
they won't have any way to establish who the perpetrators
were. Both the Arabs and the Zaghawa are fully capable of
doing so and leaving no trace that it was them.

Proposed Solutions
--------------


7. (C) Because the problem is political and economic, Mutaafi
said the real solution is intimately tied with tribal
reconciliation. Mutaafi believes this is not impossible and
can be done. It would mean getting the Fur back on their
land as soon as possible. He said the Arab tribes who occupy
that land are not farmers and are neglecting it. Meanwhile
the Fur are growing angry and embittered in the camps because
they have gone from being the wealthiest people in Darfur to
"beggars in the camps and urban areas." He said the Fur are
well organized and devout Muslims; the Quranic strictures
about fighting for the sake of the oppressed and the weak
appeal to them. A new generation of urbanized militant Fur
youth will rise up and sweep away the traditional leaders and
their more reasonable demands if the current situation goes
on too long, he predicted. The key is to move quickly to
reconcile the tribes, move the Arab tribes to new territories
("they need to be resettled") and return the Fur to their
villages. Otherwise, he felt, the war in Darfur will
continue for decades.


8. (C) Mutaafi proposed creating a resettlement area for the
Abbala Arab tribes in the Goz Dango region of South Darfur,
and to return the Fur to their lands which are currently
being used by the Arabs. The (African) Masalit and the
(Arab) Habbaniyah have some claim to this land, he said, but
have not lived there for generations. Mutaafi described it
as good land, with artesian water. He said the key is to
find the funds to build these communities; each village would
require wells, a mosque, a court ("very important in Darfur")
a school, and a clinic. Mutaafi said one of the goals of the
upcoming Arab Donor,s Conference (October 30-31 in Khartoum)
is to raise money for this, especially for digging wells. He
recalled that such an idea had been formulated before in the
so-called Western Savannah Project in South Darfur, supported
intermittently by the international community in the 1980s.

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


9. (C) Given the Humanitarian Affairs Minister's recent
comments about resettlement in advance of the Arab Donor's
Conference on Darfur (reftel) and now Mutaafi's proposal for
resettlement for the Arabs in Southern Darfur, the Khartoum
government may be moving toward this as a possible solution.
However there is nothing to prevent them from announcing the
plan now, and moving forward on negotiations with the tribes
that have land rights in Goz Dango. Certainly, there is
nothing preventing the NCP announcing publicly that IDPs and
refugees will get their land back and Janjaweed squatters
will have to move. We believe the idea has merit, though
obviously it lacks critical elements such as compensation for
the Fur to restore their communities, justice for
perpetrators of war crimes, and greater political
participation for the Fur and other disenfranchised tribes in
the region. Mutaafi,s comments on the prospects for an
additional vice president and reunification of Darfur as one
state are useful but may not yet reflect the NCP more
hardline consensus.
FERNANDEZ