CHAD HUMANITARIAN UPDATE, 09 - 15 NOV 2009

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NDJAMENA 000539 SIPDIS SENSITIVE STATE FOR AF/C STATE ALSO FOR S/USSES STATE ALSO FOR PRM/AFR NSC FOR GAVIN GENEVA FOR RMA LONDON FOR POL - LORD PARIS FOR POL - BAIN AND KANEDA ADDIS ABABA FOR AU E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF ASEC PREL PHUM SU CD SUBJECT: CHAD HUMANITARIAN UPDATE, 09 - 15 NOV 2009 ¶1. (U) The following is an update of N'Djamena RefCoord's activities for the period of 09 - 15 NOV 2009. ¶2. (U) In this edition: -- CONTINUED FOCUS ON EASTERN CHAD SECURITY (PARA 3) -- UN ACTION LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF UNSCR 1888 IMPLEMENTATION (PARA 5) -- CONAFIT URGES NGO COOPERATION ON SECURITY; ICRC REPORTS ON KIDNAPPING (PARA 6) -- UNHCR-CHAD'S UNCOORDINATED PLANNING FOR 2010 PROGRAMS (PARA 8) -- NGO NEWS (PARA 10) -- CALENDAR -------------- CONTINUED FOCUS ON EASTERN CHAD SECURITY -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Violent criminality continued to focus attention at the 10 November bi-weekly security exchange meeting, chaired by the SRSG and attended by all UN and non-governmental humanitarian organizations represented in N'Djamena. SRSG Victor Angelo urged representatives from UN Security Council Permanent Representatives to advocate at the UN for rapid deployment of fresh troop rotations, and delayed departure for those in the field. He reported that he had received the commitment of the Governor of Ouaddai Province (the area of greatest current insecurity) to conduct security sweeps in refugee camps and areas of the city of Abeche where armed criminals were known to seek shelter, as well as to increase gendarme and police patrols in towns near refugee and IDP population concentrations in supplement to the Detachement Integre de Securite -- "DIS". The UNPOL Police Commissioner reported that the DIS units were very lightly armed, and that UNPOL had made representations to CONAFIT, the interlocutor between the GoC and MINURCAT, for heavier weaponry to be issued. He said another 90 vehicles -- open-bed pick-up trucks that Chadians prefer to use in rough terrain -- were to be arriving end-December to improve DIS mobility. The MINURCAT Force representative reported that Croatian and Austrian troops and equipment had departed by the end of October, while the Polish contingent had been pressed to extend their stay to end-December. Deployment of Mongolian troops is still awaited; dates for equipment arrival are uncertain. ¶4. (SBU) Some NGO reps deplored the fact that, although they have always conducted operations via convoys escorted by armed DIS agents or MINURCAT troops, there has not been sufficient troops to meet the need for vehicle movements. IRC, a PRM partner NGO and a major provider of basic and emergency health services, reported being forced to run vehicles without security into camps on life-saving missions, and asked for the establishment of static posts along heavily used routes between camps and offices and residential compounds as a stop-gap measure. Solidarite, who works in the far border regions without escort, since neither MINURCAT nor the DIS go so close to Sudan, and whose driver was killed in a spray of automatic weapons fire on their van in the Sudan border region, the work of men wearing ANT uniforms, asked that the International Community join in lobbying the GoC for reinforced police presence in the border areas where IDP populations receive services from NGOs. Replying to the OCHA Deputy Representative's comment that the GoC must take seriously its responsibility for the security of the country, the SRSG characterized the authorities as "operationally incapable", and urged all to be as realistic as possible in their expectations of the available security forces in the region. ECHO, a major donor, urged all humanitarian organizations to conduct a new cost-benefit analysis to weigh the urgency and benefits of each activity against the risks run in implementations. -------------- UN ACTION LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF UNSCR 1888 IMPLEMENTATION -------------- ¶5. (SBU) RefCoord met 10 November with representatives of the UN Action group, described in their handout uniting "the work of 12 UN entities with the goal of ending sexual violence during and in the NDJAMENA 00000539 002 OF 004 wake of conflict" The UN Action team of Kate Burns, Senior Policy Officer at OCHA, and Gillians Holmes, Coordinator of UN Action, were accompanied by UNFPA Gender Advisor Fabiola Wizeye Ngeruka, as well as Ute Kollies, Office Head for UN OCHA. They questioned RefCoord to determine what, if any, instructions for significant new or changed activities had been received in order to ensure the prompt implementation of UNSCR 1888 of 30 September 2009. They were particularly interested in efforts to strengthen national protection mechanisms, especially processes for judicial redress. RefCoord noted that he had been tasked with exploring the division of labor currently in effect on questions of gender based violence among UN partners in Chad; the UNFPA Gender Advisor stressed that her organization was trying to do the same, to the extent of drawing up an organizational chart to make sense of all the actors in the field. RefCoord explored the issue of activities focused on judicial structures, and suggested that the UN Action team spend time in Abeche -- their next stop -- discussing the cooperative activities of UNDP and MINURCAT's Rule of Law team. -------------- CONAFIT URGES NGO COOPERATION ON SECURITY; ICRC REPORTS ON KIDNAPPING -------------- ¶6. (SBU) General Oki Mahamat Yaya Dagache, the Sepcial Representative of the President in charge of the National Coordinator for Support to the International Force in Eastern Chad (Coordination Nationale d'Appui a la Force International a l'Est du Tchad -- "CONAFIT"),convoked on 12 November all non-governmental and UN humanitarian organizations and major donors represented in N'Djamena, to discuss the current security situation. Gen Dagache read from a prepared statement, then had the statement handed out as a circular, with the request that all comments on its content be submitted in writing. Gen. Dagache in his prepared statement reminded the recipients that the security situation in eastern Chad is sufficiently "fluctuating" to require humanitarian organizations to take "preventative measures" in order to protect their personnel. He oddly characterized some organizations' behavior as "liberticide" (a term coined around the time of the French revolution, defined as causing the destruction of liberty),and requested all organizations to "coordinate movements with the CONAFIT regional representative and the DIS. He stated that non-respect for this request increased the danger to the lives of staff in the field, and that all incidents that occur were black marks on Chad's image. He finished his statement by saying noting that the GoC has primary responsibility for security on Chadian territory, and stated that organizations not conforming to this request would see their activities called into question ("remises en cause"). ¶7. (SBU) Despite the request that all comments be submitted in writing, the Country Director for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) intervened to stress that, indeed, security in Chad is the responsibility of the authorities. She recalled to all that ICRC's world-wide practice is to work in all countries where they have permission without armed escorts, putting the onus squarely on the authorities to provide for the security of the Geneva-based international organization for the protection of conflict victims and individuals deprived of their freedom. She emphasized the non-presence of MINURCAT and the DIS in the areas along the border where ICRC is active, in full consultation and coordination with CONAFIT, as well as the regional political and military authorities. She recalled her frequent requests for national police and gendarme forces to be deployed to these areas. She then reported that ICRC had been able to contact the perpetrators of the 09-10 November staff member kidnapping in the border area, in close coordination with the GoC. She stated her confidence that the victim was in good health, and characterized him as a hostage for ransom. She reminded the gathering that ICRC never pays ransoms, and has in the past had a very good record of obtaining the release of their personnel unharmed in similar circumstances. Gen. Degache ended the session by saying that Chadian forces would do whatever they could to obtain the release of the ICRC staffer, if he were being held in Chad, but then opined that the problems that had been occurring in the east, including the most recent kidnapping, were all connected to Sudanese elements operating in the area. -------------- UNHCR-CHAD'S UNCOORDINATED NDJAMENA 00000539 003 OF 004 PLANNING FOR 2010 PROGRAMS -------------- ¶8. (SBU) RefCoord met 13 November with the Abeche-based Senior Program Officer for UNHCR in Chad, to discuss several reports from PRM Partners of suddenly announced changes to funding and activities to be implemented as of 01 January 2009. RefCoord reported that partners had telephoned and emailed during the week of 09 November to relay that UNHCR had announced an end to UNHCR's funding of the NGO's activities in one or more camps from the first of the year -- activities the conduct of which PRM has a cooperative agreement with the same NGO that is in effect to 31 July 2010 (See next item, "NGO News"). The Program Officer described the UNHCR-Chad planning process for the next calendar year as having been fraught with delay and procrastination over the last six months, followed by a crash effort to catch up that began in November. She said that programming discussions to move from the Global Needs Assessment to a prioritized Country Needs Assessment integrated into the "FOCUS" results-based management software should have been undertaken through the summer months. Instead, the entire process was put off to the beginning of November, did not involve NGO partners until a hastily organized coordination meeting on 09 - 10 November, and resulted in a "take-it-or-leave-it" dictation to NGOs as to the activities UNHCR would fund and coordinate. ¶9. (SBU) The Program Officer told RefCoord that there was some method to the planning madness, with a strong effort to move national government structures, especially the National Commission for the Welcome and Reinsertion of Refugees (Commission Nationale d'Accueil et de Reinsertion des Refugies -- "CNAR") into a more active role in refugee camp management. She said UNHCR wanted to increase refugee populations' overall capacity for greater self reliance in the coming year, which included favoring national NGOs to take on significant new activities in the place of international NGOs. Nonetheless, she reported that the possible impact of these potentially sweeping decisions on continuing PRM-funded activities hadn't come up in the UNHCR planning process. She encouraged RefCoord to request a coordination session with UNHCR senior staff for a camp-by-camp and partner-by-partner explanation of how UNHCR saw activities going forward. -------------- NGO NEWS -------------- ¶10. (SBU) RefCoord held individual partner coordination meetings during the week with country directors or other officials from Architects d'Urgence (AU),International Medical Corps (IMC),the Foundation for the Refugee Education Trust (RET),and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). ¶11. (SBU) AU reported on 09 November that their school-building activities in the Oure Cassoni camp are completely stalled, awaiting some kind of clarity as to whether or not the camp will be moved 45 kms to the west. RefCoord provided a hard copy of PRM Comptroller's approval for funding for two staff members to remain in place until some kind of decision is made as to the camp's fate. RefCoord encouraged AU to begin building timelines out to the end of the cooperative agreement period, which would help in determining at what date it would no longer be possible to begin construction and meet a significant level of performance indicators for the project. ¶12. (SBU) IMC's Acting Country Director told RefCoord on 10 November that the NGO's security precautions in Iriba and Guereda area camps are already at a very high level, but that he would conduct a re-assessment in the coming days. He noted that the NGO's staff avail themselves of the MINURCAT and DIS convoy escorts whenever possible, and reduces non-escorted road movements by reimbursing patients and their care-givers for car rental and other transportation costs when patients must be moved in the absence of an escort -- a very common occurrence. He noted that rented vehicles are often not targeted by carjacking gangs, and that in cases with less urgency and shorter distances patients are moved by donkey cart. ¶13. (SBU) RET's Country Director updated RefCoord on 12 November NDJAMENA 00000539 004 OF 004 on progress toward establishing a new secondary school center in Hadjer Hadid. He said the original idea to purchase a site with two classroom structures from a local religious community would be put aside in favor of what would be an essentiall no-fee lease of the ste for five years. RET would compensate the religous community by refurbishing the two classroom tructures, to be used for Grade 9 instruction, an building for more classrooms for Grades 10 and 1, using the construction budget in the cooperatie agreement. ¶14. (SBU) HIAS visiting Associat Director for International Operations reported to RefCoord on 15 November the details of UNHCR's sudden announcement of changes to their funding to the NGO. She said that the NGO has been instructed to stop all provision of all psycho-social and community services in Djabal camp and psycho-social services in Gaga camp. She said HIAS was told UNHCR would continue funding HIAS community services only in Treguine, Bredjing, Goz Amer, and Gaga camps. The Associate Director said she was struck by the "unilateral, almost dictatorial" nature of the decisions, with no prior consultations or coordination. -------------- CALENDAR -------------- 11 -- 18 NOV: RefCoord's Embassy Duty Officer Week 23 -- 30 NOV: (TBC) Proposed M&E travel to Iriba, Farchana NIGRO