DARFUR IDP YOUTH ACTIVISTS WANT SECURITY AND A

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000980 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, AF/SPG NSC FOR PITTMAN AND SHORTLEY E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2012 TAGS: PGOV PREL KPKO AU UN US SU ASEC SUBJECT: DARFUR IDP YOUTH ACTIVISTS WANT SECURITY AND A WHOLE LOT MORE Classified By: CDA A. Fernandez, Reason: Sections 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: CDA Fernandez met with youth activists from two major IDP camps on the outskirts of Nyala, capital of South Darfur. The ninety minute dialogue in Arabic with five intense young men (and one woman) of Fur origin from the Otash and Kalma refugee camps focused on the hopes and aspirations of the rising aspirations of IDP youth who see themselves as increasingly separate and disconnected from traditional leaders and from outside insurgent commanders. The youths expect a great deal from the international community over the next few years. End Summary. ¶2. (C) The young people, in their late teens or early twenties, noted that the deep frustrations existing in Darfur,s IDP camps were actually quite common in Darfur society as a whole, across ethnic lines &even among Darfuri Arabs,8 although &it is worse for us because we are at the bottom of a marginalized society, we are at the end of the line.8 They described lack of higher education, economic opportunity and social and political exclusion as their biggest concerns. The biggest need was for &services plus security.8 Security alone was not enough although they recognized that an improved security environment should improve economic and educational opportunities for all, not just for IDPs. ¶3. (C) The activists, who are participating in an OTI-funded program for IDP youth, noted the growing disconnect between young people coming of age in the camps and both traditional tribal elders inside or out of the camps as well as self-styled rebel leaders. They dismissed outside rebel groups as increasingly irrelevant from the reality of camp life and also minimized the efforts of a traditional tribal chief like the elderly Magdoum Ahmed Rijal, the senior uncompromised Fur tribal chief in South Darfur, to promote a common front between Fur inside the IDP camps and reconciliation in Darfur as a whole. &He doesn,t live in an IDP camp but in town,8 they remarked &and wasn,t able to do much to stop the violence of 2003-2005.8 The youths noted that the traditional leaders who are in the camp &belong to the past and they do not know the concerns we have as a young generation.8 (In a later meeting between CDA and the Magdoum, he decried camp youth as &politically immature.8) ¶4. (C) All believed that if the situation of hopelessness, boredom and despair in camps which satisfy basic physical needs and not much else are not addressed &the young people here will explode, sooner or later, 5-10 years if not sooner as feelings of revenge run deep.8 This certainly presents a worrying scenario coupled with concerns expressed by international aid workers of what they see as both the increasing presence of arms within camps and increasing violence among camp members (IRC noted later in Al-Fasher that the number of rapes outside the camps are way down while domestic violence within the camps is a rising concern). ¶5. (C) The youths repeatedly returned to lack of education and economic opportunity ) the concerns of the urban poor rather than the children of farmers ) as their greatest concerns, even more than political or ethnic persecution. They noted seeking to escape from the camps in order to work in Nyala,s market to earn a dollar a day in order to supplement their food rations. They saw lack of money, not discrimination, as the major reason why they could not attend the local GOS-run college, Nyala University (there is also the problem of lack of secondary schools in IDP camps, but there were no secondary schools in the villages where the IDPs came from either). There was an ethnic element to their grievances, and they said the GOS &sees every IDP camp member as a current or potential member of the various rebel movements,8 even though the rebels, fragmentation and lack of easy connection to the reality of the camps inside Sudan (at least among the Fur) strongly alienates them from the IDPs themselves. ¶6. (C) Although all welcomed the announcement of the Hybrid and the possibility that it could improve security to allow returnees to return to their farms and villages, most of these interlocutors dream of the bright lights of the big city. &We want the Hybrid to bring not just security but development,8 they added, noting their interest in continuing their lives in Nyala town itself. ¶7. (C) Comment: While many in Darfur doubt the good faith of the GOS, expectations on the Hybrid are sky high among most sectors of Darfuri society. This underscores the need to KHARTOUM 00000980 002 OF 002 coordinate the sequencing of a political process and at least some early and tangible development to enhance acceptance of the often overlooked key players in the Darfur drama ) the current inhabitants of Darfur ) inside and out of the camps. End comment. FERNANDEZ