MINAWI CANCELS CHAD TRIP DUE TO REBEL SURGE ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L KHARTOUM 000150

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, S/E WILLIAMSON, AF/SPG, AND
AF/C
NSC FOR PITTMAN AND HUDSON

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/30/2013
TAGS: PREL PGOV MOPS SU CD
SUBJECT: MINAWI CANCELS CHAD TRIP DUE TO REBEL SURGE ON
N'DJAMENA

REF: KHARTOUM 00101

Classified By: CDA Alberto Fernandez, Reason: Sections 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (SBU) Senior Assistant to the President and Chairman of
the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) Minni Minawi canceled his
January 31 trip to N'djamena after Chadian authorities
informed him that President Deby and his senior security
officials were leaving N'djamena to confront advancing
Chadian opposition elements. In a January 31 phone call with
Poloff in Khartoum, Minawi said that the Chadian opposition
were just over 100 kilometers from N'djamena.


2. (C) Chadian officials did not request a delay in the visit
until the morning of January 31, according to Minawi. He
interpreted the late notice as an indication that
opposition's gains over the last 24 hours had caught
N'djamena by surprise. Minawi has been planning his trip to
Chad since a January 14-22 visit to Tripoli during which, he
later reported, Libyan officials had held N'djamena
responsible for rising Sudan-Chad tensions (reftel).


3. (C) Comment: While Minawi's stated purpose for the Chad
visit was to help reduce the confrontation between Deby's
government and Khartoum, Minawi's limited influence within
the Sudanese Government and his own adversarial relationship
with the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) make it more
likely that he intended to request financial support and a
measure of political coordination for the resource-deprived
and beleaguered SLM from his fellow Zaghawa ethnic group. End
comment.


4. (U) Tripoli minimize considered.
FERNANDEZ