DARFUR RIZEIGAT LEADER FEARS BEING PULLED INTO THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L KHARTOUM 000078

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

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

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2013
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREF SU AU UN
SUBJECT: DARFUR RIZEIGAT LEADER FEARS BEING PULLED INTO THE
FRAY

REF: 07 KHARTOUM 1950

Classified By: CDA Alberto M. Fernandez, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Over lunch with emboffs January 16, NGO activist and
leading Rizeigat figure Waleed Madibbo expressed his
frustration with the Wali of South Darfur over his refusal to
allow a planned reconciliation conference to go forward. The
conference, which Madibbo had previewed with CDA Fernandez
last month (reftel),was supported by the Darfur-Darfur
Dialogue and Consultation (DDDC) group and was intended to
bring Baggara Arab Rizeigat, Fur and Massalit leaders into
consultations on possible alliances. At the time of his
meeting with CDA, Madibbo feared that the government would
block his efforts, and apparently he has been proven correct.
Madibbo said that he'd asked DDDC representatives to provide
a letter to the Wali outlining their support for the
conference, but to no avail (poloff will follow up in
upcoming meetings with DDDC).


2. (C) Madibbo also mentioned his fears that his uncle, the
influential and moderate Rizeigat Nazir Said Madibbo, would
be "deposed" by the Sudanese government. The Nazir has
managed to keep the Rizeigat largely out of the fighting in
Darfur, but Madibbo suggested that this restraint could be
short-lived. South Darfur's largest tribe was being
increasingly pulled into the fighting, he said; Madibbo's
analysis was that the Rizeigat would perhaps line up against
the government if pushed hard enough or even worse, split
into warring factions on both sides.


3. (C) Madibbo described the increasingly large numbers of
IDPs around his home base of Ed Daein as being reasonably
well integrated into the larger community, to such an extent
that they might choose not to return to their homes should
the security situation permit. Despite the fact that Ed
Daein is home to the Rizeigat Nazir, Madibbo noted that most
of the inhabitants of the town are now African tribes -
Zaghawa, Fur, and others - while the Rizeigat retain their
nomadic lifestyle outside of the town.


4. (C) Emboffs asked if Madibbo or other civil society
leaders had been approached by the UN/AU mediation team to
solicit their views on the Darfur peace process. Madibbo
said he had not been approached and did not know anything
about the visit by UN/AU Special Envoys Eliasson and Salim to
Darfur, which were underway at the time of his meeting with
emboffs.


5. (C) Comment: For someone of his stature, Madibbo was
surprisingly uninformed of the ongoing AU/UN efforts in the
political process or the status of negotiations. Due to the
AU/UN's single-minded concentration on rebel groups, this is
perhaps not surprising, but could be a major liability moving
forward if the UN/AU team eventually does figure out a
strategy to bring more non-armed Darfurian leaders into the
peace process, especially those who have remained non-aligned
such as the Baggara Rizeigat in South Darfur. The news of the
reconciliation conference being banned is not a surprise as
any sort of political or ethnic reconciliation in Darfur not
organized by the regime makes the authorities extremely
uncomfortable: they fear Darfur's squabbling ethnic groups,
all of them impoverished and marginalized, could unite
against Khartoum. End comment.
FERNANDEZ