CPA IMPLENTATION IN SOUTHERN KORDOFAN STATE PLAGUED BY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000967 FOR SE WILLIAMSON AND AF/SPG DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EAID SOCI KPKO SU SUBJECT: CPA IMPLENTATION IN SOUTHERN KORDOFAN STATE PLAGUED BY INCAPCITY AND MISTRUST ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The SPLM Deputy Governor of Southern Kordofan, the state's Under Secretary for Rural Development, and an UNMIS analyst all agreed that CPA implementation in that state is lagging, with resulting problems in security, but they provided conflicting reasons for the delay. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) On June 26, Emboffs met separately with SPLM Deputy Governor of Southern Kordofan state Daniel Kode and with Jade Duchesneau-Bernier, UNMIS Joint Mission Analysis Center (JMAC) team leader for the Three Areas, to discuss issues CPA implementation in Southern Kordofan, especially the Nuba Mountains region. (Note: Under the CPA, the Governor of Southern Kordofan is named by the GoS, while the Deputy r}[cQ2H9id note.) Bernier had just returned from a visit to Southern Kordofan. ¶3. (SBU) Kodi cited a list of alleged deficiencies in implementing the CPA in his state, including failure by the SAF to reduce its forces in South Kordofan, lack of integration and training for the Joint Integrated Units, lack of DDR and failure to integrate demobilized SPLA veterans and other SPLM civil service candidates into the state civil service, and reactivation of Popular Defense Force militias. ¶4. (SBU) Kodi claimed that while the SPLA had withdrawn its forces south of the 1-1-1956 border in accord with the CPA, the SAF has not made corresponding reductions. He added that SPLA soldiers now are starting to return from Lake Abeyad, south of the 1-1-1956 line, to their native Nuba Mountains, due to lack of adequate living facilities at Lake Abeyad for themselves and their families. (Kodi described it as "Lake Malaria.") Bernier confirmed that JMAC has detected what she said were two companies of SPLA who recently returned to the Nuba Mountains from the Lake. Both Kodi and Bernier also said that the SAF has reinforced along Southern Kordofan's border with neighboring Abyei, following the fighting there in May. (Note: Other UNMIS contacts have confirmed this information as well, and report that senior SPLM officials have claimed to UNMIS that the SPLA soldiers who returned to the Nuba Mountains are "AWOL" and merely wish to see their families and are miserable at Lake Abeyad. Kodi made a similar assertion in our meeting with him. End note.) 
 ¶5. (SBU) Kodi said that a failure to implement DDR is contributing to insecurity in the Nuba Mountains. Kodi also complained that 2400 SPLM\A administrators, and 3000 police have not been integrated into the civil service, as promised. He indicated that 1500 of these police officers were currently being paid by the GOSS. He said that unresolved issues include job protection for existing staff, capacity building, and regularizing ranks and qualifications between the old and new employees. Pressed to identify the source of resistance to the integration of former SPLM\A into the civil service and who the Embassy might approach to try to correct the siuation, od was unable to do so. He finally averred that the problem stemmed from the GNU Ministry of Finance in Khartoum and that the state government, including its NCP members, were supportive of state administrative integration. ¶6. (SBU) Separately, Bernier said that she had observed resistance to police reintegration in the NCP-led state government. She said that the GoS Southern Kordofan chief of police had told her just days before that he would "never" accept former SPLA into the police force because he had concluded that they would maintain their primary allegiance to the SPLA. Bernier noted that this was a change from three months previous, when the same police chief had been fairly optimistic about integrating former SPLA. ¶7. (SBU) Finally, Kodi complained that $20 million transferred from the Multi-Donor Trust Fund to the state had been misused. The money had been intended for development projects in the war-affected areas of the Nuba Mountains, but instead had been spent by the state government in non-war-affected regions. ¶8. (SBU) In a side conversation, the Rural Development U/S told AIDOff that, while the NCP has not been helpful to the administrative integration process, the real problem has been Kodi's own lack of capacity. He indicated that before leaving for Germany, the Deputy Governor arranged for two state committees to be formed: 1) A committee to finalize the recruitment and salary payment of the newly integrated administrative personnel-headed by Dr. Ahmed Saed, the SPLM Minister of Finance for the state; and 2) A committee to travel to Blue Nile state to see how state administrative integration has been able to progress in that state and make recommendations to the Southern Kordofan government-headed by Neroun Phillip, the SPLM co-chair of the Parliamentary Assessment and Evaluation Commission. (Note: That these appointees are the most KHARTOUM 00000967 002 OF 002 capable and active SPLM officials in the state government perhaps shows that the Governor has, after months of inaction, begun to take the issue seriously and realized his inability to carry out the work. End note.) ¶9. (SBU) COMMENT: Deputy Governor Kodi exemplifies the administrative-capacity problems that plague the SPLM. Kodi's mental ability has been deteriorating due to health problems, reportedly compounded by heavy drinking. During much of the conversation, Kodi seemed confused and to have difficulty grasping what was being asked, and he finally deferred questions to the Director General of the state Rural Development Ministry, who accompanied him. On the day following our meetings he flew to Germany for medical treatment. This is a serious issue, as many astute long-term observers of Sudan have predicted that the Nuba Mountains will be the next region to explode after Abyei. The simmering DDR, redeployment, integration and development issues in Southern Kordofan must be credibly addressed soon, lest they boil over into conflict. Emboffs will continue to address these issues with the CPA partners and will travel to Southern Kordofan in the coming weeks and months to pursue these issues at the state level as well. The committees set up to address these issues will be submitting proposals to USAID for technical and operational support to carry out their work. South Kordofan contrasts well with Blue Nile state - NCP behavior, as always is dubious - but effective and empowered SPLM leadership (in Blue Nile in the bulky shape of Governor Malik Agar) can make all the difference. FERNANDEZ