UPDATE ON DARFUR PEACEKEEPING DEPLOYMENT NOVEMBER 8

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000980 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/08/2017 TAGS: AF PGOV PREL SU UNC UN KPKO SUBJECT: UPDATE ON DARFUR PEACEKEEPING DEPLOYMENT NOVEMBER 8 REF: USUN 964 Classified By: Ambassador J. Wolcott for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: AMB Wolcott met with DPKO U/SYG Guehenno November 8 to discuss UNAMID deployment. Guehenno reported that Sudanese Major General had backpedaled on his promise to meet in Addis Ababa after the UN communicated that the meeting would be primarily technical and not an opportunity to renegotiate UNAMID. Guehenno said he would know by noon November 9 whether the meeting would take place. Deployment Updates: --Personnel: AMIS Force Commander Agwai supports contracted US military advisors continuing in their current positions; a shortage of UN staff personnel on the ground is hampering progress toward Transfer of Authority (TOA); --Force Generation: High Ranking Operational and Technical Advisory Team (HROTAT) visits have begun; -- DPKO has not yet identified TCCs to provide helicopters and transportation units as required for UNAMID; --Heavy Support Package (HSP) Deployment Update: The Chinese engineer battalion is currently in the process of deploying into Darfur; --Contracting issues surrounding the Operations and Maintenance (O&M) contract are moving towards resolution. END SUMMARY. -------------- DPKO-GOS Addis Meeting Still Not Confirmed -------------- ¶2. (C) AMB Wolcott met with DPKO U/SYG Guehenno November 8 to discuss UNAMID deployment and Guehenno's plans to meet with Sudanese Major General Maghzoub in Addis Ababa (ref A). Guehenno reported that the Government of Sudan (GOS) had not yet confirmed the meeting after Guehenno had called Sudanese General Maghzough to clarify that the meeting would be primarily technical in nature and not an opportunity for the GOS to renegotiate the TCC list or make changes to the deployment timeline. Guehenno said he expected to receive a response from the GOS regarding the meeting by early November 9 as he is scheduled to depart for Addis Ababa the afternoon of November 9th. If the Sudanese do not confirm the meeting, SRSG Mullet, already scheduled to be in Khartoum November 10th, will engage with the GOS in Khartoum on the need to finalize the TCC list. -------------- Command and Personnel -------------- ¶3. (C) AMIS Force Commander General Agwai reportedly supports the retention of the 16 U.S. Military Observers in their capacity as advisors. Agwai's staff still needs to generate a formal request in order to renew the contract. Sector Commanders have been nominated and are pending final UN approval. -------------- Force generation -------------- ¶4. (C) High Ranking Operational and Technical Advisory Team (HROTAT) visits: The mission of the HROTAT is to determine if potential TCCs meet the equipment and sustainability requirements necessary for the UNAMID Mission. In the event that the minimum requirements are not met, the HROTAT will ascertain if they can achieve suitability with assistance or, they could be removed from the TCC list and the UN and the AU would have to go through the selection process for replacement TCC's again. ¶5. (C) The first round of visits started November 1 with UN DPKO Acting Military Advisor Major General Five traveling to Senegal, Mauritania and Gambia. The team returns 9 November and a briefing from the team has been scheduled for shortly thereafter. Preliminary information indicates that Mauritania is not capable of deploying and sustaining a full infantry battalion. However, Mauritania may be able to contribute a single company. Also, Gambia does not have the capacity to deploy a recon company (NFI). USUN NEW Y 00000980 002 OF 002 ¶6. (C) The second round of visits to Burundi, Tanzania Malawi and Ethiopia is scheduled to begin on 12 November, followed by Mali, Ghana, Burkina Faso and Cameroon from 26 November to 2 December (COMMENT: Ethiopia and Malawi have requested that the U.S. provide equipment in support of their deployment to Darfur. USUN MSC recommends that US Defense Attaches in these countries be tasked to monitor the HROTAT visit and report on outcome and potential shortfalls. END COMMENT.) -------------- UNAMID Shortfalls -------------- ¶7. (C) The UN has not yet identified TCCs for either the attack or utility helicopters, or the required transport units. UN demarches have been issued to potential contributors including Denmark and Egypt, both of which declined to provide support. The offer of helicopters from Jordan was turned down by DPKO because they did not meet mission requirements for flight range or for night capability. ¶8. (C) Ukrainian Pol Counselor approached USUN MSC rep on 8 Nov to acknowledge receipt of another demarche in Kiev from both U.S. and UK concerning the provision of helicopters. The Ukrainian Pol Counsellor stated that the Ukrainian government was reviewing the request but that the Ministry of Defense was adamantly against supporting the mission. -------------- HSP Deployment -------------- ¶9. (C). The deployment of the AMIS HSP force protection battalions from Rwanda and Nigeria was completed on October 31, with 800 personnel and 23 APC's deployed. The Nigerians still need to deploy 13 APCs but are in the process of doing so. The advance party of the Chinese Engineering Company for the HSP has begun to deploy with the first of eleven flights landing in Nyala on November 7. The first tranche of 135 engineers is scheduled to be in sector NLT November 30. -------------- Contracting -------------- ¶10. (C) The UN is addressing the AMIS Operations & Maintenance contract for January through March 2008. The requested contract terms were forwarded from the USG to the UN. Currently, the UN is attempting to translate the contract terms into their own tender and by limiting the number of bids they accept, they could establish their own contract thereby obviating the need to reimburse the USG. If the UN is unable to get their own contract established, they will reconsider the reimbursement plan. Khalilzad