CHINESE REPORTEDLY FUNDING CHADIAN OPPOSITION

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASMARA 000160 SIPDIS SIPDIS FOR AF/SPG LONDON, PARIS FOR AFRICAN WATCHERS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/25/2018 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL SU CD CH ER SUBJECT: CHINESE REPORTEDLY FUNDING CHADIAN OPPOSITION REF: ASMARA 158 Classified By: AMBASSADOR RONALD K. MCMULLEN FOR REASON 1.4(d). ¶1. (C) On March 13, DCM met with Amar Najm Eddine al-Jak (Amar),a Khartoum spokesman for the Sudanese People's Liberation Movement (SPLM),who had been spirited from Sudan to Asmara by the SPLM after being arrested and tortured by Sudanese National Security services (reftel). In the meeting, Amar stated he was detained from November 2007-January 2008 in the Sudanese political prison of Dabak, located in northern Khartoum. While in Dabak, Amar was incarcerated in a shipping container with three men, two of whom were Chadian opposition members. ¶2. (C) One of the Chadian prisoners, Hazaballah Ahmed Adam, told Amar he had been arrested by Sudanese security in Darfur in July and accused of spying for President Deby. Hazaballah claimed that the Sudanese government was not, in fact, funding the Chadian opposition. Rather, the Sudanese were funneling money to the opposition from the Chinese, he purported. According to Hazaballah, the Chinese were backing the opposition in hopes of securing future oil concessions if the rebels were successful in toppling Deby. ¶3. (C) The second Chadian prisoner, Harun Degai, told Amar he was a former officer in the Chadian military and President Deby's cousin. Harun said he had defected from the Chadian army with 86 soldiers several months before. He had become quickly disillusioned with Sudanese backing of Chadian opposition groups, however. According to Harun, Sudanese officials had assured each of the Chadian opposition leaders that Sudan would support their bids to become Chad's new President, a strategy designed to keep the Chadian opposition quarreling and separated. Harun said the Sudanese had arrested him for trying to unify the military commands among these Chadian groups. ¶4. (C) Comment: The meeting with Amar was facilitated by Dr. Taisier Ali, a respected exiled Sudanese academic who runs the Asmara-based NGO, Peacebuilding Center for the Horn of Africa (PCHA). Dr. Taisier and the PCHA staff clearly deemed Amar's narrative to be highly credible. This cable has been coordinated with Embassy Khartoum. MCMULLEN