MISSION CANADA OUTREACH TO DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS

UNCLAS OTTAWA 000640 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR DRL/SEA AND WHA/CAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM KDEM PREL CA SUBJECT: MISSION CANADA OUTREACH TO DEMOCRACY ACTIVISTS REF: A. STATE 44903 ¶B. OTTAWA 621 ¶C. QUEBEC CITY 013 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Mission Canada personnel regularly engage democracy activists, notably from Burma, Somalia, Sudan, and Belarus,. Our outreach has helped to empower groups whose links to their home country can make a difference on the margins in the development of democracy and stability. On occasions, our involvement has served to prod the government of Canada to do more. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) BURMA: The Political Section maintains close contact with the "Friends of Burma," an exile group working to raise awareness of the human rights situation inside Burma and to urge the Canadian government to take a stronger stand to help the people of Burma. Its advocacy, along with encouragement from Embassy, led Canada to impose stronger sanctions against the junta, to develop a more forceful policy on Burma, and, most recently, to offer generous humanitarian assistance in the wake of Cyclone Nargis (ref b). ConGen Calgary has met with Burmese dissident leaders from the Shan region. CG Quebec City participated in a Canadian government-organized conference on Burma on March 27 (ref c),featuring UN Special Rapporteur Ibrahim Gambari and numerous Canada-based activists on Burma. ¶3. (SBU) SOMALIA: Ambassador met with visiting Somali official delegations from the Transitional Federal Government (TFG),including the Minister of Trade and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Emboffs have been the only foreign diplomats invited to join dinners and discussions with these delegations that Members of Parliament (MPs) have organized. Poloffs recently worked closely with the Friends of Somalia to help the NGO achieve a higher profile in support of the TFG. At our suggestion, the group will host a conference in mid-May to raise awareness of the problems faced by the TFG; a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs has agreed to represent the State Department (after we forwarded the invitation),along with a former Canadian Prime Minister, six MPs, several Somali ministers, and Diaspora leaders from Canada. ConGen Toronto also meets frequently with Somali leaders from the sizable Somali Diaspora community in suburban Toronto. ¶4. (SBU) SUDAN: Poloffs meet often with the Sudanese exile who heads the Ottawa-based Canadian Friends of Sudan, which advocates greater awareness of the Darfur genocide and problems in ending the North-South conflict. The Friends of Sudan is an apolitical NGO with considerable support on Parliament Hill, linked into the wider international effort to pressure the Sudanese government. It has been very effective in Canada in raising the profile of the Sudan issue and countering propaganda by the Khartoum regime. ¶5. (SBU) BELARUS: Emboffs have met with a variety of Belarussian dissidents resident in Canada, usually when they are in Ottawa for meetings with Canadian government officials and MPs, and have helped them to set up appropriate meetings in Washington. ¶6. (SBU) TIBET: PolMinCouns has met with the head of the Parliamentary Friends of Tibet, who is also the chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, to discuss USG concerns about recent events. Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/can ada RODDY