UPDATE ON DARFUR PEACEKEEPING DEPLOYMENT FOR 27

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 USUN NEW YORK 001221

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

IO AND AF FOR FRONT OFFICE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/26/2017
TAGS: PREL MOPS PGOV UNSC AF SU
SUBJECT: UPDATE ON DARFUR PEACEKEEPING DEPLOYMENT FOR 27
DECEMBER 2007

REF: KHARTOUM 2048

Classified By: Ambassador A. Wolff for reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (U) This is an action request. Please see paragraphs 3,
6 and 7.



2. (C) SUMMARY:

--Deployment Update: Chinese Engineers and Bangladeshi Formed
Police Unit (FPU) are the only Heavy

Support Package units arriving in calendar year 2007. UN DPKO
expects the remainder of the HSP units

to arrive by Feb 08 and plans to have the first UNAMID units
in by the first quarter of 2008.

--26 December Meeting with General Five (UN Acting Military
Advisor)

-- Troop Contributing Country (TCC) Update: Still no firm
pledge of helicopters or transport units.

--Transition of Authority (TOA) from the African Union to the
UN will occur on 1 Jan 08. END

SUMMARY.



3. (C) Deployment Update.

---
HSP
---

--Chinese engineers: The Advance copy of the latest
Secretary Generals' Report on UNAMID states

SIPDIS

equipment for the advance party of Chinese engineers should
arrive in Nyala by the end of December.

According to the UN Darfur Integrated Operations Team (IOT),
the Chinese will be able to begin camp

construction once they are married up with their equipment.
Reports from Khartoum indicate that the

Chinese engineers have the required equipment, but lack
orders to begin work (ref A). IOT expects

the main body of Chinese engineers to arrive by the end of
March.

--Egypt: DPKO FORCE Generation Services (FGS) estimates
Egypt's multi-role engineer company (335

personnel),medium transport company (150 personnel),and
signals company (185 personnel) will

deploy by mid February. (COMMENT: USUN recommends Department
request Embassy Cairo confirm

deployment date with the GOE. END COMMENT.)

--Nigeria: UN DPKO plans to deploy the Nigerian level II
hospital by the end of March 2008.

However, per DPKO, Nigeria has still not provided load lists
to the UN. Once a load list is

provided it will take the UN 60-75 days to contract AIR for
movement. (COMMENT: USUN recommends

Department request Embassy Abuja contact the appropriate
officials on the status of the load list.

END COMMENT)

--Pakistan: DPKO FGS has yet to conduct the Pakistan
Pre-Deployment Visit (PDV). Upon conclusion

Pakistan must provide load list to UN FGS.

USUN NEW Y 00001221 002 OF 004



--Bangladesh Formed Police Unit (FPU): arrived in Nyala 21
Nov (per IOT).

--Bangladesh Logistic Company: PDV concluded 7 December.
Bangladesh must now provide FGS with

their load list (per IOT). (COMMENT: USUN recommends
Department request Embassy Dhaka contact the

appropriate officials on the status of the load list. END
COMMENT)

-- Nepalese Formed Police Unit: will arrive in February. The
equipment for the Nepalese FPU is being

routed through India to Mumbai for sea transport to the Port
of Sudan. According to the IOT the

equipment is being held up in India. (COMMENT: USUN
recommends Department request Embassy Katmandu

inquire with the GOI on the status of the Nepalese FPU
equipment. END COMMENT)

--------------
UNAMID
--------------

--Egypt: Conducted its in-country reconnaissance of Darfur
8-15 December. DPKO has scheduled Egypt

to conduct MOU negotiations are 2-4 January 2008 (per DPKO).
Egypt is responsible for sending a

negotiation team to the New York. UN has scheduled the
Egyptian PDV for 14-18 January 2008.

(COMMENT: USUN recommends Department request Embassy Cairo
confirm with the GOE deployment of the

negotiation team. END COMMENT)

--Nordic (Sweden and Norway) Engineers: The Darfur IOT
reported that the Norwegian embassy in

Khartoum was contacted by the GOS and told their engineer
company will not be accepted. (COMMENT:

USUN recommends Department request Embassy Khartoum approach
Norwegian embassy to confirm that the

GOS conveyed its non-acceptance to Norway. END COMMENT.)

--Thailand: MOU negotiations with the UN were conducted
11-14 Dec. DPKO plans to deploy the Thai

battalion March 2008 assuming GOS acceptance. Thailand has
stated it will only deploy with the

consent of the GOS. (COMMENT: USUN recommends Department
request Embassy Bangkok approach GOT to

confirm it will not/not deploy without government of Sudan
approval. END COMMENT.).

-- Ethiopia: Concluded their in-country reconnaissance of
Darfur, and have MOU negotiations

scheduled for 7-11 January 2008. Darfur IOT states Ethiopia
will coordinate the UN PDVs once

negotiations are complete. (COMMENT: USUN recommends
Department request Embassy Addis confirm with

GOE the detailing of the Ethiopian negotiating team. END
COMMENT.).



4. (C) Meeting with General Five: On 26 December USUN
Military Staff Committee met with Acting

Military Advisor to the UN General Per Arne Five to discuss
UNAMID deployment and TCC commitments.

USUN NEW Y 00001221 003 OF 004



Five intends to have the Egyptian and Ethiopian battalions
deploy first in 2008 (maybe as early as

February) and have the Thai battalion follow. A 4th
Senegalese battalion is then to deploy by June

before the rainy season starts. Five plans on having an
additional 4 infantry battalions in by late

2008 (2nd half) assuming their equipment and training needs
are met. General Five expressed an

interest in visiting Washington to receive a briefing on the
African Contingency Operation Training

and Assistant (ACOTA) program. Additionally he would like to
see how the Department provides

equipment for African battalions. General Five would plan to
take additional officers from DPKO

Military Planning and FORCE Generation Services. On
helicopters, Five stated there has been some

talk with the Russians (see para 4) and Ethiopians, but no
firm offers. Five also brought up his

concern about getting the former AMIS battalions up to UN
standards. Five promised the MSC personnel

a matrix of the next AMIS rotations hoping that by the next
rotations those units could be equipped

to UN standards.



5. (C) TCC Update: Still no TCC commitments of helicopters or
transport units. Darfur IOT indicates

the Russians have made two proposals to the UN for the
helicopters. In the first proposal the

Russians will sell their helicopters to a TCC for the TCCs
use in UNAMID. The TCC would have to

provide the pilots, and logistics. The second proposal is for
the Russians to rent their aircraft to

the UN on a "dry lease" basis. This means the UN would pay
the Contingency Owned Equipment (COE)

rate for the helicopters only. The UN would then have to find
pilots, and their own logistics

support. The UN is pursuing both options with the Russian
Mission. (COMMENT: USUN recommends

Department request Embassy Moscow confirm the offers. END
COMMENT).



6. (C) Transition of Authority (TOA): SYG Deputy Chief of
Staff Kim informed USUN that a "low key"

TOA ceremony will occur in El Fashar on 31 December 2007. UN
assumes authority of the African Union

Mission in Sudan (AMIS) transitioning to the UN/AU Mission in
Darfur (UNAMID). Additionally, Kim

informed Ambassador Wolf that Sudanese Deputy Foreign
Minister Ali Karti has been invited to NY in

mid-January for further discussions on GOS cooperation with
UNAMID. Kim inquired whether there

would be any visa issues for Karti. (Action request: USUN
requests the Department check to see if

there are any visa issues regarding Karti's travel to the
U.S.)



USUN NEW Y 00001221 004 OF 004



7. (U) USUN requests the Department advise relevant embassies
(Cairo, Abuja, Dhaka, Katmandu,

Khartoum, Bangkok, Addis, Moscow) to follow up with host
governments on the outstanding procedural

issues mentioned in this cable. USUN will continue tracking
deployment with DPKO and Permanent

Missions in New York.
Khalilzad