DARFUR: UN/AU TASK FORCE NEEDS USG SUPPORT

C O N F I D E N T I A L KHARTOUM 000287 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, AF S/E NATSIOS, AF/SPG, AF/PD, AND PA NSC FOR PITTMAN AND SHORTLEY ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV AU KPAO UN SU SUBJECT: DARFUR: UN/AU TASK FORCE NEEDS USG SUPPORT REF: A. KHARTOUM 00235 ¶B. TRIPOLI 00190 Classified By: CDA Cameron Hume, Reason: Sections 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (SBU) This is an action request. Please see para. 4. ¶2. (C) On February 25, UN Mission in Sudan (UNMIS) Director for Political Affairs Abidoun Bashua briefed Poloff on the progress made in establishing the joint UN/African Union (AU) task force to engage with Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) non-signatories (Ref A). Dubbed the Joint Mediation Support Team (JMST),the task force held its first meeting on February 21. Its terms of reference will include: 1) Preparing for the visits of UN Envoy Jan Eliasson and AU Envoy Salim Ahmed Salim to Chad and other neighboring countries to meet with DPA non-signatories; 2) Meeting with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM),the National Redemption Front (NRF),the G-19, and the Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA) to test the acceptability of mediation with those groups; and 3) Preparing an inventory of actors to be contacted for consultation with the envoys and planing a course for engagement. At present, the JMST will consist of a two-person secretariat in Khartoum -- with the goal of expanding the staff as soon as possible -- and will be supervised by Bashua and the AU's head of DPA implementation, Sam Ibok. Four UN and AU staff members plan to travel to Chad on March 1 to meet with the non-signatories. ¶3. (C) Bashua emphasized that the Addis Ababa and Abuja agreements of November 2006 charged the UN and AU with coordination of the political process. He said that the proliferation of initiatives to engage the non-signatories has since undermined the UN/AU role and requested USG assistance in gaining a strong endorsement from the international community for their efforts. Though Bashua said that Eliasson and Salim welcomed the assistance of regional partners, such as Libya and Eritrea, in engagement with the DPA non-signatories, the envoys needed to coordinate the process, not to compete with concurrent efforts from the sidelines. He was glad that the USG did not have a representative at the recent discussions in Tripoli, as such attendance would have legitimized an event outside the UN/AU process (Ref B). ¶4. (C) Action request: Post requests that the Department Spokesman issue a statement from the podium re-iterating the USG's policy to support UN Envoy Eliasson and AU Envoy Salim in leading and coordinating the political process with the non-signatories. ¶5. (U) Tripoli minimize considered. HUME