Darfur CFC: Stolen Vehicles Returned

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000303 SIPDIS SENSITIVE, SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/SPG, S/CRS DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KPKO SOCI AU UN US SU SUBJECT: Darfur CFC: Stolen Vehicles Returned and a Search for Second Chamber Funding ¶1. Summary: The key issue in the Ceasefire Commission (CFC) the week of February 19 was funding for faction representatives' Mission Support Allowance (MSA),which is several months in arrears. Force Commander Luke Aprezi asked the representatives to consider six options for realigning the CFC, including reducing the amount of MSA per representative and various methods of reducing the numbers of representatives in the sectors. He would like to get the total down to 150 from its current 198, including the 30-40 which would be added for the Second Chamber. The Force Commander again pressed all parties on the vehicle theft issue. Senior Assistant to the President and Sudanese Liberation Movement(SLM) leader Minni Minawi, located a stolen PAE vehicle, and returned it on February 21. The FC directed that a joint GOS-AMIS team be established to review the GOS plan for Janjaweed disarmament. End Summary. VEHICLE HIJACKINGS DOWN -------------- ¶2. The FC said that since the Joint Commission there had not been any further vehicles hijacked but urged the factions to continue to press the issue in the field. He said he wants to ensure that AMIS is not part of the problem by supplying vehicles to the rebel factions. He mentioned the attempted hijacking of the Deputy Force Commander's vehicle by three armed men several days earlier, and told the SLM/Minawi representative that it is disturbing that these attacks are happening in an area under his faction's control. Aprezi said he was pleased that over the past several weeks three vehicles had been returned by Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and SLA Non-Signatory Faction (NSF) factions and praised these factions for tracking these vehicles down. On February 22 during a brief "ceremony" during his visit to El Fasher, Minawi returned a PAE vehicle that had been hijacked by unknown assailants several weeks earlier. (Note: Though the vehicle was hijacked near an area nominally controlled by SLM/Minawi, the identity of the perpetrators is unconfirmed. The incident is illustrative of Minawi's decreased ability to defuse events on the ground as the capacity of his forces declines. End note.) NOT GIVING UP ON THE SECOND CHAMBER -------------- ¶3. Undaunted by the lack of Government of Sudan agreement on the Second Chamber, the FC continued to press the case. He said that there are three things impeding the full implementation of the Second Chamber: 1) Government of Sudan agreement; 2) JEM's insistence on following the N'Djamena Ceasefire Agreement and not the Darfur Peace Agreement; and 3) funding. ¶4. The FC said that faction representatives in four sectors have gone on strike over the arrears in their MSA, which have not been paid since October. He said that AMIS' systems for disbursement has broken down and dissatification has increased among the donors over funding the cease fire process in Sudan when their nationals being attacked and in some cases sexually assaulted. He said that the government of Niger is under strong pressure to withdraw its civilan/political officers after one was killed in Kutum in early February. "I want peace more than you," Aprezi said. "In other missions I have worked, such as Liberia, field commanders made aid workers off limits and would mete out strong justice against those who attacked them. Here they are the prime target." Appealing to their self-interest (representatives are very well compensated),he suggested that the representatives become better informed about the nature of European democracies that have real elections and not the "kangaroo elections" we Africans are used to. Aprezi urged the faction representatives to take on a larger sense of ownership for what is going on in their sectors. ¶5. Aprezi said that there are currently 198 faction reps deployed throughout the CFC, and if the Second Chamber comes into being in the current configuration, the number could go as high as 300-350. He would like to look at options to get the total down to 150, with the inclusion of Second Chamber representatives. He asked representatives to consider a series of options: 1) No MSA for anyone. 2) Reduce the numbers of representatives proportionally across the sectors (three to two in HQ, two to one in MSGs). 3) Place faction representatives only in areas the factions formally control. 4) Give the DPA signatories more representatives than signatures in the Declaration of Commitment (DOC). 5) Have representatives only in areas where factions have tribal roots, a variant of #3. 6) Reduce amount of MSA for all. He suggested that this could be done as a stand-alone measure, or in conjunction with any of the other options. KHARTOUM 00000303 002 OF 002 ¶6. Aprezi said that he would develop these options with specific numbers and costs and send them to Khartoum as an options paper. He also asked the factions to consider them and advise him which one would be best for the operations of the CFC. ¶7. The factions said that they would go back and study the options, but in the meantime expressed concern that they had not been paid their MSA for so many months. They said it would be impossible to continue to have people deployed if they are not receiving money for food and rent. The SLA/Minawi representative also objected with cutting the CFC along tribal lines (option 5),as it would exacerbate tribal conflicts. The FC said that on MSA arrears was not a donor issue but an AU administrative issue. The EU representative said that in fact there was some question on the future of funding for the CFC. Visiting UK DATT told El Fasher Poloff on February 20 however, that there appears to be a way forward on funding the CFC from a European source. He believes the arrears issue will be worked out soon, although he was less sure about future funding. JANJAWEED DISARMAMENT -------------- ¶8. The FC then turned to the issue of Janjaweed disarmament, suggesting that the Government of Sudan had studied the issue more than the factions or AMIS and intimating that Government of Sudan representatives were looking for loopholes around the DPA to delay or reduce the burden of disarming the Arab militias. He said he was directing his own staff to examine the issue and to form a joint GOS-AMIS team to review the Government of Sudan plan in detail. He said that observers and faction representatives would not be part of the disarmament team but the findings would be briefed in the CFC. OTHER BUSINESS -------------- ¶9. Other issues that were addressed included: -- Standard operating procedures are still under revision and will be reviewed in the next meeting. -- Government of Sudan was pressed on the issue of airport access, which has been tightened and makes it difficult for AMIS to function. The Government of Sudan representative said there was simply too much vehicular traffic at the airport and they will now provide just 15 passes for AMIS at any given time. The FC informed the Government of Sudan representative that this was simply unacceptable as his party alone has four vehicles. -- FC would like to convene a meeting of aid workers to show that some areas with proper coordination are safer than they believe. -- Factions complained about being uninvited to the morning AMIS briefing. FC told them they had been abusing the information from these briefings to benefit their factions. -- There were 12 cases ready for review, but they were delayed until the next week because of the Minawi's visit during the Wednesday meeting. HUME