UGANDA SHOPPING FOR HELP ON SOMALIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000630 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2019 TAGS: PREL MARR MOPS PTER ASEC KPKO UNSC ER SO SUBJECT: UGANDA SHOPPING FOR HELP ON SOMALIA Classified By: Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo for Reasons 1.4 B/D. ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. Ugandan Defense Minister Kiyonga told Ambassador DiCarlo on June 24 that Uganda still strongly favors a UNPKO for Somalia and that, in the meantime, AMISOM needs to push the envelope on services provided by a U.S. contractor in Mogadishu to allow more troops, better communications, training to build the capacity of Somali security forces, more international community money, and close air support. Ugandan PermRep Rugunda said Uganda expects to bring soon to the Security Council a proposal for sanctions against Eritrea for its support of Al-Shabbab in Somalia. Kiyonga said Uganda's campaign against the Lord's Resistance Army had succeeded in pushing the LRA far to the northwest and now needed infrastructure and surveillance support to solidify the gains achieved. Ambassador DiCarlo replied that the USG was already working with the UN's Department of Field Support to push the envelope on services provided to AMISOM under our contract with Dyncorp as UN/DFS geared up to assume those responsibilities but cautioned that combat air support was not a possible contract provision. She told Rugunda that the USG would be very interested in any Ugandan proposal for sanctioning Eritrea. Kiyonga and Rugunda concluded with effusive praise for U.S. efforts on Somalia, in the Council and otherwise. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Ambassador DiCarlo met with visiting Ugandan Defense Minister Cispus Kiyonga on June 24 to discuss Somalia. Kiyonga was joined by Ugandan PermRep Ruhakana Rugunda, and DPR Patrick Mugoya. DepPolCouns and DepMSC participated for USUN. Uganda Presents Lengthy AMISOM Wish List -------------- ¶3. (C) Minister Kiyonga summarized his recent meetings in Washington, saying he had visited the Department, DOD, and NSC to tell the USG that AMISOM is overstretched and underresourced. He said Ugandan forces have been deployed with AMISOM for three years and needed other African troop contributors to step forward. He thought only rehatting AMISOM as a UN peacekeeping operation (UNPKO) would motivate other TCCs. ¶4. (C) Recognizing that AMISOM would not be replaced by a UNPKO any time soon, Kiyonga lobbied for a greater flow of resources to AMISOM. He praised the USG for provision of basic services to AMISOM via contractor Dyncorp in Mogadishu and urged that this channel be expanded. He said supplies take too long to reach AMISOM, that communications needed improvement, that compensation and reimbursements to troops took too long or didn't come at all, and that Somali security forces, who he said seem to have little capacity for sustained fighting, urgently needed training. He said he had lobbied UN under secretary-generals Malcorra (field support), Le Roy (peacekeeping operations),and Pascoe (political affairs) on June 24 to work with the U.S. to "strengthen the bridging arrangement" as he called the Dyncorp contract. Expanding on the enhanced-resources theme, Kiyonga said AMISOM was in need of attack helicopters for close air support in Mogadishu. When Amb DiCarlo and DepMSC replied that close air support could not be contracted and that, as military assets, were in scarce supply and raised concerns regarding collateral casualties, Kiyonga did not pursue the matter. ¶5. (C) Kiyonga also reported on Uganda's campaign to eliminate the threat posed by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda, saying that the Ugandan military had succeeded in largely pushing the LRA northwest towards the Central African Republic. He said Ugandan forces had killed 180 LRA operatives in recent weeks and rescued more than 300 people the LRA had abducted. He said Uganda is looking to consolidate these gains and urgently needs assistance in building roads and airfields and needs unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for surveillance. Uganda Preparing Sanctions Package Against Eritrea -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) Ambassador Rugunda said Uganda would be bringing the question of Somalia before the Security Council after the early-July African Union Summit. (NOTE. A Council session on Somalia has been tentatively scheduled for July 10. END NOTE.) He said the TFG President Sherif was increasingly aware of the need to increase AMISOM's ranks -- which Rugunda called a change in an earlier Sherif earlier view that AMISOM needed no more than its present 4,200 troops -- and would eventually agree that a UNPKO is needed. Rugunda expects the AU to consider these matters and to create an opportunity for the Security Council to weigh in on them. Rugunda said Uganda was similarly preparing the ground for Security USUN NEW Y 00000630 002 OF 002 Council measures against Eritrea after the Council's Sanctions Committee produces a report in the near future documenting Eritrean support for Al-Shabbab in Somalia. ¶7. (C) Ambassador DiCarlo replied with a summary of past Security Council consideration of a UNPKO for Somalia, concluding that the 2009 Council was considerably less sanguine about a UNPKO in Somalia than even the 2008 Council had been, especially with the departure of Italy. She said the Council, on the other hand, was united in support on AMISOM, as witnessed by the significant technical and logistical support package undergoing implementation. She shared Kiyonga's desire that UN/DFS quickly take over from the USG responsibility for contracting for basic services for AMISOM so that the U.S. could reprogram funds elsewhere in Somalia, especially in the training of TFG security forces. As the USG and UN/DFS completed this hand-off, DiCarlo added, both parties were looking to build on the Dyncorp contract to provide broader services and potentially provide them for more troops as AMISOM generated more forces as originally envisioned. ¶8. (C) DiCarlo said that the U.S. would be very interested in Uganda's proposals regarding sanctions against Eritrea, noting that the Council's Sanctions Committee had jurisdiction to sanction individuals and companies rather than countries as such. Rugunda replied that his hope is that the committee's report, prepared as the basis for possible sanctions against individuals, would provide evidence of Eritrea's activities that could support a broader sanctions regime against Eritrea itself. ¶9. (SBU) Kiyonga and Rugunda concluded with effusive praise for U.S. efforts in Somalia on piracy, AMISOM support, and TFG support and expressed confidence that it would be sustained and deepened. DiCarlo acknowledged Uganda's courage and sacrifice within AMISOM, assuring the visitors that those efforts were sustaining the TFG and the hopes of the Somali people. RICE