NO PUBLIC COMMITMENT FROM NORWAY ON DARFUR PACKAGE

C O N F I D E N T I A L OSLO 000411 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/20/2017 TAGS: PREL UNSC KPKO NO SUBJECT: NO PUBLIC COMMITMENT FROM NORWAY ON DARFUR PACKAGE REF: A. STATE 51828 ¶B. OSLO 00096 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires a.i. Kevin M. Johnson for reasons 1.4 (b and d) ¶1. (SBU) On April 20 we delivered reftel A points to Ministry of Foreign Affairs Senior Advisor Anne Kjersti Froeholm. Froeholm told us that Norway sees the GOS acceptance of the Darfur heavy support package as positive, but serious questions regarding command and control and force protection must be answered before Norway will commit to sending engineers to Darfur. ¶2. (C) Norway wants as much UN control as possible and is particularly concerned about AMIS daily operational control called for in the current Concept of Operations. Also at issue is the size of the engineering battalion; the current Concept of Operations calls for 315 persons, whereas the Norwegian/Swedish planed force contains 450 persons and cannot be easily scaled down. Froeholm also restated Norwegian concerns about force protection (reftel B). Even with two additional AMIS battalions, Norway is not completely confident that AMIS can provide adequate security for Norwegian engineers and wonders how the "static" national security protection called for in the concept of operations will work with this mobile engineering battalion. Froeholm added that Norway wants to help, and is working with PKO on a resolution to these issues, but is uncertain whether required security and control conditions can be met. JOHNSON