SE WOLPE'S CONSULTATIONS WITH THE EU 31 AUGUST - 1

C O N F I D E N T I A L USEU BRUSSELS 001234 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/10/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID MOPS MARR SOCI CG BE SUBJECT: SE WOLPE'S CONSULTATIONS WITH THE EU 31 AUGUST - 1 SEPTEMBER Classified By: Charge D'Affaires, Christopher W. Murray, for reasons 1. 4(b) and (d) ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: U.S. Special Envoy to the African Great Lakes, Howard Wolpe, met with development and humanitarian aid officials from the Commission, and security and defense officials at the Council Secretariat. He also met with the Secretariat's Africa Task Force and attended a lunch meeting with several Political and Security Committee (PSC) Ambassadors from the EU member states. Wolpe also had a productive dinner meeting with EU Special Representative to the African Great Lakes, Roeland van de Geer, which will be reported SEPTEL. In all meetings, his interlocutors expressed both appreciation that the United States had appointed a Special Envoy to the region and a strong desire to increase U.S.-EU coordination on the issues. END SUMMARY. Development and Humanitarian Aid -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Special Envoy Wolpe and USEU POLOFF met with Joaquim Salgueiro, Deputy Head of Unit for Central Africa and the Great Lakes Region and Caroline Lopes, Great Lakes Desk Officer, both from the Directorate General for Development, and Patrick Lambrechts, the DRC Desk Officer from the EC Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). Wolpe began by laying out his top priorities, as envisioned by the Administration. The first is peace consolidation, a topic that includes the upcoming elections in Burundi and DRC, dealing with the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),and working to alleviate gender-based violence (GBV). The second is regional economic integration and coordinating the work of the many organizations in that field. The third priority is building inter-state cohesion and the development of a new security architecture for Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and the DRC. He also stressed the importance of rebuilding U.S.-EU collaboration in the Great Lakes. ¶3. (C) Salgeiro welcomed the prospect of working more closely together. He felt the Western powers had lost ground in the Congo and was glad to see the U.S. appoint a Special Envoy for the Great Lakes. In his view, solutions to other problems - minerals feeding the conflict, the violence - require establishing rule of law and rebuilding the capacity of the state, which are long-term, bottom-up struggles. The international community has been focused too short-term, and needs the long view. He said the army was created for political ends, rather than with a defense function, so any attempt at security sector reform must acknowledge that. He posited that "what is going on with the FDLR" in Kivus is a deliberate strategy and the international community needs to declare that these are war crimes. We need to have the same standards for everyone. He did not believe that dialogue with the FDLR would work, as we would lose ground with Rwanda, and the international comepared for dialogue witpociated with the geno`s said ECHO was very pea II military operationot been as bad as they e allowed prior knowledge`ever, so cannot anticipover, the additional 3,re not French speaking dvel they were expecting`e said if Kony is not takewill continue. On GBV,lsaid the Swedes have put GBV as a hQgh priority and the Germans also strongly Qegistered Secretary Clinton's message. One concern he raised was air transport, which is crucial for access. They want to increase the air transport system, but it is a question of funding. ¶5. (C) Wolpe then described a highly-successful training initiative undertaken in Burundi to build trust and cooperation among various actors. Billed as collaborative capacity training, it brings together leaders from competing groups and helps create a sense of cohesion and common enterprise. He explained its potential relevance for the DRC, and other post-conflict societies where the dominant view of politics is as a zero-sum game. Lambrechts opined that it would have been important to include Nkunda. Wolpe agreed and said there were rumors that Nkunda was now re-emerging as a political player inside Rwanda. The Africa Task Force -------------- ¶6. (C) Wolpe and POLOFF then met with Jose Costa Pereira, Head of Africa Policy Unit, and Sandra Paesen, DRC Desk Officer in the Africa Task Force at the Council Secretariat. Costa Pereira laid out his views on the FDLR, saying things were not going well with the repatriation of the rank and file back to Rwanda, and cited a lack of political will in Kinshasa. He said a consensus is forming that a second Rwanda military operation is the only solution. Another problem, in his view, is "the way the cake was sliced" in that it did not include the (Banyamulenge) Tutsis. The solution is simple: give them a slice. He said movement of resources in Kivus led them to believe that some agreement had been reached between Kabila and Kagame, but the substance of the agreement was not known. He felt the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL) could help with stability. ¶7. (C) Costa Pereira said that the issue of the FDLR leaders and "genocidaires" in Europe is more sensitive. He explained there is a lack of pan-European cooperation on crimes that took place outside of their borders, but is hoping Europe can move from political cooperation to legal cooperation. Regarding the LRA, MONUC may review its mandate and make it more robust. The operation was a disaster; it was good for Uganda, but not anyone else. Paesen pointed out that the EU started an "Article 8 Dialogue" with the DRC under the Cotonou Agreement last October. She said the 27 member states will discuss soon the question of FDLR leaders living in Europe in September, but will not reach consensus. ¶8. (C) Wolpe laid out for them his three priorities in the region and described the collaborative capacity training in Burundi and its application to the DRC. He also noted that some analysts had recently raised the view that the only way to address the FDLR problem would be a trained, properly equipped battalion with extractive capacity to pull out key FDLR leaders, whose whereabouts were known. Costa Pereira said to get support for this sort of operation, it would be better to pursue it bilaterally, not through the EU. ¶9. (C) Paesen brought up the problems of payment to the army, saying that the integration process is unraveling. Wolpe noted that there had been some discussion regarding the use of cell phone technology to transfer money directly to soldiers, bypassing commanders. Costa Pereira also raised the issue of increased tensions with Angola stemming from the Rwanda-DRC rapprochement. He felt that Angola may view with suspicion any attempt to build a new regional security architecture, and so discussing the process with Luanda early may help. PSC Ambassadors -------------- ¶10. (C) The USEU Charge then hosted a luncheon with PSC Ambassadors from the Netherlands, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, and the British Counselor for Trade and Development. Wolpe laid out his three priorities in the region, and shared his views on the value of the collaboration training used in Burundi. He argued that while the army is key to the Congolese future, the training being done now will not hold without the development of a sense of national cohesion and common purpose within the high command. ¶11. (C) Geert Muylle of Belgium acknowledged there has been some "Congo fatigue" in the PSC, but said that Wolpe's appointment as Special Envoy will help maintain awareness and focus. Carlos Fernandez of Spain agreed, welcoming both the appointment and Secretary Clinton's trip. He raised other actors he felt should be involved, specifically China, the AU, South Africa and possibly Nigeria. Olof Skoog of Sweden said the September 10 EU-South Africa summit might provide an opportunity for raising this and considered China a possible positive player. ¶12. (C) Muylle said the Commission is refusing to support local elections, and asked about election fatigue in the local population. Referring back to his discussion of the training in Burundi, Wolpe said the problem in Congo, as elsewhere in Africa, is the absence of collaborative capacity. When asked for his views on the Rwanda-Congo rapprochement, Wolpe characterized it as a positive but still fragile development, saying the population in Eastern Congo is uneasy, but the distrust is manageable. He cited possible initiatives that would bring together Rwandan and Congolese parliamentarians and possibly key security sector players from the DRC, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda to strengthen interstate cohesion. Skoog asked if there was a proposed action plan on gender-based violence. Wolpe said the USG is committing new resources, and is in the process of developing programs. He noted that, to date, there appeared to be more focus on the treatment of victims than on prevention. ¶13. (C) The PSC Ambassadors asked how best to act on the desire to work together. Skoog said that Roeland van de Geer, the EUSR for the Great Lakes, is the EU's focal point. Wolpe indicated he looked forward to working with van de Geer to build mechanisms to permit the closest possible collaboration. Civilian Crisis Management, EUPOL -------------- ¶14. (C) Wolpe had a productive meeting with Mika-Markus Leinonen, Director of Civilian Crisis Management and Marco Solaini, Head of the Africa Section of Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability (CPCC) at the Council Secretariat. Leinonen outlined the history and growth of the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) and the CPCC's role. He said the CPCC is operating in more non-benign environments than their military ESDP colleagues. He said adding Justice elements to police training caused some friction with the Commission, which considers that their prerogative. The CPCC is looking for new ways to fight GBV impunity. They provided Wolpe with an options paper, presenting ideas to the PSC on countering GBV. (NOTE: The paper is restricted, but had been cleared for release to Wolpe.) Defense Issues, EUSEC -------------- ¶15. (C) The last EU meeting was with Claude-France Arnould, Director of Defense Issues at the Council Secretariat, and her operational planner, Ken Hume. As before, Wolpe reviewed his three top priorities in the region, and elaborated on the value of the collaboration training used in Burundi. Arnould opined that the revised army reform plan can work, adding that collaboration training as described by Wolpe could provide good atmospherics. The main focus of the EUSEC mandate now is to help implement the reform plan, she said; however, this effort is impeded by Congolese politics, so any effort to get buy-in would help. ¶16. (C) Hume mentioned that EUSEC had offered a participating role to the Unites States. Arnould confirmed that they are still open to full participation by the United States, as it would improve coordination. Wolpe responded that the Contact Group may be the best forum to improve coordination on security sector reform. Arnould said previously there had been differences within the EU member states, but that has now changed; even the Belgians are on track with the EU. ¶17. (C) Wolpe asked their views on the FDLR, saying the Rwanda/Congo rapprochement was helpful politically, but not in the security realm and had had a negative impact on humanitarian issues. He shared that some analysts have suggested that the best way to address this is not more troops, but the development of a professionally trained battalion with special forces capabilities. Hume responded, "Good luck!" and added it would be difficult to find the leaders to target them for extraction, and that would require added resources. He said the current strategy plan (to isolate core leadership, strip away those others who could be stripped away, and then move in) was solid, but implementation was poor. The EU offered planners but the UN turned them down, saying they onlywanted soldiers. He feltpressured sufficiently, food and other supplies.ised the issue of Chinese `egion, which Wolpe said wtive. Hume noted thatn low-level officers,n coordinating their efphat, being in crisis managnot have a systematic relaese, but they want to@hat fighting piracy in@agement. They closed by QQnd the EU Special R%he Great Lakes region in late October. ¶19. (U) SE Wolpe has cleared this message. MURRAY .