UN BELIEVES GOS BEHIND ATTACK ON UNAMID

C O N F I D E N T I A L USUN NEW YORK 001107 SIPDIS PLEASE PASS TO NSC GAVIN, POWER, SMITH, DONILON AND TO STATE S/USSES GRATION, AF/CARSON, D/S STEINBERG E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL KPKO SU AF SUBJECT: UN BELIEVES GOS BEHIND ATTACK ON UNAMID PEACEKEEPERS Classified By: Ambassador Susan E. Rice for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Under Secretary General for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) Alain Le Roy told Ambassador Rice that the UN is convinced that the Government of Sudan orchestrated the December 4-5 two separate attacks on Rwandan peacekeepers in the UN/AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). Le Roy spoke privately with Ambassador Rice on the margins of the Secretary-General's December 8 lunch with Security Council members. He said that he had met with Rwandan Ambassador Nsengimana who insisted that Rwanda is "one-hundred percent certain" that these attacks were directly ordered by President Bashir and were orchestrated by the Government of Sudan to provoke Rwanda into returning fire into an area densely populated by civilians. Nsengimana told Le Roy that the GoS intent was to turn the population in Darfur against Rwandan peacekeepers and UNAMID, because Rwandan troops cannot be controlled by Khartoum. ¶2. (C) Le Roy stressed that the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) believes the quality of Rwandan intelligence is high and fully agrees with the Rwandan assessment. Le Roy further stated that the UN suspects that the GoS had been paying off some Nigerian peacekeepers in UNAMID to not cause trouble. Le Roy briefly discussed the Secretary-General's phone call to Bashir and said that the UN also has reason to believe that Bashir is behind the kidnapping of two UNAMID officers, who have been in captivity since August 29. Le Roy stated that the best hope for securing release of the hostages and for ensuring safety of UNAMID workers would be for member states to pressure China into convincing Bashir to stop fomenting violence in Darfur and to get serious about implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. RICE