EXECUTION OF FORMER EMBASSY GUARD AND MEMBER OF THE FUR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000524 DEPT FOR SE GRATION, S/USSES, AF A A/S CARTER, AF/C, AF/EX, DS, DS/IP/AF, CA, HR/ER NSC FOR MGAVIN AND CHUDSON DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ASEC APER AMGT PGOV PREL AU UNSC SU SUBJECT: EXECUTION OF FORMER EMBASSY GUARD AND MEMBER OF THE FUR COMMUNITY ADAM IBRAHIM ELHAJ REF: A) BERNSTEIN-GILPIN E-MAIL, 03/01/07 B) 08 KHARTOUM 1709 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On April 13, 2009, former Embassy guard Adam Ibrahim El-Haj was executed by hanging for conspiracy to commit murder along with eight other members of Khartoum's Fur community. The accused were charged with the September 6 2006 beheading of prominent Sudanese journalist Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed. The Government of Sudan (GoS) deployed additional security forces around Khartoum on April 13 and 14 in response to reports of possible demonstrations and retaliatory actions by members of the Fur community, who responded with anger following the executions. Embassy Khartoum received several unconfirmed reports of civil unrest in the Al Sahafa neighborhood of south Khartoum where El-Haj and the others executed were buried during the early morning of April 14. Sudanese National Police (SNP) contacts informed RSO Locally Engaged Staff (LES) that Fur leaders intended to demonstrate against the Sudanese Government's actions in front of the U.S. Embassy on April 14, but that the SNP refused to allow them to do so. By close of business on April 14 the al-Sahafa neighborhood was reportedly calm but tense. El-Haj had been placed on leave-without-pay (LWOP) status following his arrest in 2006 (ref). The Post's Human Resource Office is coordinating the payment of death benefits to El-Haj's widow. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) On the evening of October 19, 2006, Adam Ibrahim El-Haj, a senior guard at the US Embassy in Khartoum, was arrested at his home by Sudanese police who initially rounded up more than 18 members of the Fur community during an extensive raid in the al-Sahafa neighborhood of south Khartoum. On October 20, 2006, Sudanese authorities returned to El-Haj's home, located in southern Khartoum, and arrested several of his family members, including two children. Approximately 60 other individuals were arrested in connection with this case, but they were subsequently released for unspecified reasons. The GoS eventually released all but 10 individuals. ¶3. (SBU) The trial of the ten men accused of Ahmed's murder commenced in the fall of 2007 and was attended by the RSO Foreign Service National Investigator (FSNI). Sudanese authorities charged el-Haj with being complicit in the beheading of journalist Mohamed Taha Mohamed Ahmed, an employee of the Arabic-language newspaper, Al Wifaq. Ahmed was reportedly murdered on September 6, 2006 after he was kidnapped and allegedly brought before a private tribunal of Fur leaders, which according to the charges, ordered his execution. His body was later found decapitated in a ditch along a roadway in the Al-Sahafa district of south Khartoum. The murder shocked the country, drawing parallels to Al Qaeda killings in Iraq. The editor had faced criminal charges in May 2005 after republishing an article on the origins of the Prophet Mohamed, and a court had ordered Al Wafaq to suspend publication for three months. The editor had also angered many Darfuris after publishing articles criticizing the morals of Darfuri women. Following the editor's murder, a Khartoum court barred newspapers from reporting on the criminal investigation; this ban continued throughout the trial as well. Ten defendants were indicted on felony murder charges in November 2007. Reporting at the time indicated the accused were tortured and their confessions made under duress. One of the ten, a minor reported to be 17 years old, was later acquitted due to his age and is now serving a four year prison sentence. On April 2, 2009, the Sudanese Supreme Court found the conviction for the other nine defendants to be constitutional and upheld the death sentence. ¶4. (SBU) On 14 April the nine men, all members of the Fur tribe, were put to death at the Kober prison in northern Khartoum shortly after 1:00 p.m. Embassy Khartoum received reports that protestors rioted and threw stones at vehicles in the Al-Sahafa neighborhood of south Khartoum following the executions and caused other, substantial material damage. No casualties have been reported thus far. Several media outlets reported that demonstrators also set shops and vehicles on fire at a local market in response to the executions. There were reports of the police using tear gas to disperse the protesters, who allegedly rioted and threw stones at vehicles on their way to the funeral of the executed men. Approximately 5,000 people attended the burials. ¶5. (SBU) Sudanese National Police (SNP) contacts informed an RSO FSNI that Fur leaders had intended to demonstrate against the Sudanese Government's actions in front of the U.S. Embassy on April 14, but that the SNP refused and riot police established barriers to confine them to the al-Sahafa neighborhood. As of April 15, the neighborhood is reportedly calm but tense with a large number of uniformed and plain-clothed police and security officers deployed in the area. Prominent Fur leader from East Jebel Marra Abdalla KHARTOUM 00000524 002 OF 002 Khalil, who recently met with the President's Special Envoy to Sudan General Scott Gration in Jebel Marra, called Embassy political LES to express concern about the execution of the nine Fur accused of beheading Ahmed. Khalil claimed that the arrests and subsequent executions were "engineered" by the National Congress Party (NCP) in order to punish the Fur, while allowing the "real perpetrators" to walk free. Khalil said that he is reaching out to various human rights groups in order to convey his movement's stance on the executions. ¶6. (SBU) El-Haj had been placed on leave-without-pay (LWOP) status since his arrest in 2006 in accordance with L/M/DS' recommendation (ref). Post's FSN Committee collected contributions for El-Haj's family, and the RSO sent a condolence letter to the family. Post's HRO has also coordinated the payment of death benefits. ¶7. (SBU) Comment: Regardless of the guilt or innocence of the defendants, the vast majority of the Fur community in Sudan believes that the men were wrongly accused, and that the case against them was a sham. Certainly the case raises serious questions about due process, as post reported previously in reftel. The executions have had a chilling effect on the Darfuri community in Khartoum (and the rest of Sudan,) but we do not expect any violence or unrest due to the repressive police control exercised by the regime. UN SRSG Qazi told us on April 15 that the UNMIS human rights section also continues to question whether due process was followed in this case and intends to raise this issue with the government. End comment. FERNANDEZ