LONDON-BASED HUMAN RIGHTS NGO CORRUPT, CO-OPTED BY NCP SAY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001280 DEPT FOR AF/SPG, A/S FRAZER, SE WILLIAMSON NSC FOR BPITTMAN AND CHUDSON ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN SENSITIVE SIPDIS C O R R E C T E D C O P Y (GARBLED TEXT) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL KPKO SOCI AU UNSC SU SUBJECT: LONDON-BASED HUMAN RIGHTS NGO CORRUPT, CO-OPTED BY NCP SAY ACTIVISTS REF: KHARTOUM 847 KHARTOUM 00001280 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) Summary: Human rights advocates and Khartoum-based lawyers have revealed that Sudan's highest-profile international NGO, London-based Sudanese Organization Against Torture (SOAT),has stopped transferring grant funds to its Sudan-based representative organizations. Accusing SOAT of falling victim to GOS and NISS interference, activists in Khartoum have released internal documents that reveal an organization internally divided, plagued by petty corruption, and unable to carry out its mission in Sudan. The corruption and stalled funding has effectively shut down the operations of several formerly-effective local human rights NGOs in Khartoum, El Fasher, and Nyala. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) According to Amir Suleiman, director of the Khartoum Center for Human Rights (KCHR),SOAT's key partner organization within Sudan and sister organization to the Amol Centers of El Fasher and Nyala, SOAT ceased transferring funds regularly at the beginning of 2008, and has haltingly fulfilled its obligations since then. Calling SOAT a "problematic partner," Suleiman described his organization as deep in the red because corruption within SOAT has drained international funds earmarked for essential human rights work in Sudan. KCHR depends on SOAT for operational funding guaranteed through an EU grant, funding the organization's monthly rent of $3,000, and $25,000 monthly for salaries and administration costs for KCHR and the centers in Darfur. SOAT's most recent funds transfer, in June 2008, paid KCHR's rent for the first half of 2008, but KCHR received no administrative funds for the same period. Suleiman estimates that KCHR staff, including its full-time lawyers, social workers and physicians, last received their salaries in March. ¶3. (SBU) KCHR employees gave Poloff a sheath of documents in English and Arabic which detailed embezzlement within SOAT, and a copy of a letter signed by 25 Sudanese human rights advocates in which they protested the re-appointment of Dr. Nageeb Najmeldin to the post of general coordinator for SOAT. Najmeldin had been dismissed in 2007 by the SOAT's board of trustees under suspicion of embezzlement. Chief among his transgressions include skimming 40,000 Euros off an account meant to support the Amol Center for Human Rights in El Fasher; forging documents to overcharge KCHR for a Toyota Land Cruiser by $20,000; and withdrawing $25,000 from a London bank account for personal use. ¶4. (SBU) In addition to tracking human rights violations and assisting detainees and victims of torture, KCHR runs a comprehensive information campaign informing the public of their rights under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in northern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains. The $115,000 program, funded in part with assistance from the National Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Institute of Peace, remains under funded by $80,000, money which Suleiman suspects no longer remains in SOAT's London coffers awaiting transfer to Khartoum. KCHR has managed to achieve some modest successes with its program, widely distributing copies of the CPA's Bill of Rights, but the program's more ambitious and wide-researching components that increase awareness of the CPA - including magazines, television and radio programs - go unrealized due to embezzlement within SOAT. ¶5. (SBU) Salih Mahmoud Osman, a well-known Sudanese human rights advocate, told Poloff that he saw trouble coming within the organization several years ago, in 2005. He said he no longer cooperates with SOAT, as he believes the organization is fully co-opted by the GOS. Osman claimed he personally discovered discrepancies in payments made from SOAT to UNHCR to increase legal access in IDP camps in Darfur, and further lost faith in it as it dismissed honest administrators in favor of its current incompetent director and corrupt General Coordinator. "Najmeldin was given the job to destroy the organization from the inside, and he has done his work well," Osman said, adding that while he intends to begin a new organization, SOAT's lost credibility forces the KCHR and the Amol Centers to scale back their operations. ¶6. (SBU) In August, SOAT announced it had awarded Liz Hodgkin of Amnesty International with its Nazik Osman Award for human rights advocacy, but the London-based activist refused to accept the award, citing the conflict that has drastically reduced KCHR's operations. Speaking by telephone with Poloff, Hodgkin described the crisis as a disaster for the cause of human rights in Sudan. "Nothing good will happen to SOAT now, because it has sacked its best people. Khartoum Center for Human Rights is forced to operate without the cover of a formal channel, leaving it in a state of trauma." Hodgkin noted that she has publicly shied away from condemning SOAT, but remains KHARTOUM 00001280 002.2 OF 002 concerned that international funding to support the cause of human rights in Sudan will continue to be channeled through the compromised organization. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: SOAT's partner organizations carry out essential work in Khartoum and Darfur, one of the few organizations providing both legal aid and medical care for victims of GOS brutality and torture. KCHR has incurred large debts already in 2008, spending a significant amount of money treating 20 Darfuri students beaten in a GOS attack on their university dormitory (reftel). Due to their financial woes, the Amol Centers in El Fasher and Nyala are preparing to cease operations in the coming months. SOAT's internal corruption is a huge blow for human rights in Sudan, not only weakening watchdogs in Darfur, but also cutting off what had been a dependable and essential stream of funding from Western donors to Sudanese causes. Post will continue to monitor the situation and seek to find alternate funding for these critical human rights advocacy NGOs in Sudan. ASQUINO