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C O N F I D E N T I A L ASMARA 000625 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/01/2016 
TAGS: PREL PGOV UNSC ETTC ER SU
SUBJECT: EF/GNU NEGOTIATIONS UPDATE: REASONABLE 
PROGRESS BUT TALKS NOW ON HOLD 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: AMB Scott H. DeLisi, for reasons 1.4 
(b) and (d). 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary:  According to both Eastern Front 
(EF) contacts and Government of the State of 
Eritrea (GSE) officials, there has been reasonable 
progress on the Eastern Front/Government of 
National Unity (EF/GNU) negotiations so far.  The 
two trickiest issues are no surprise: whether to 
unify the three eastern Sudan states into a single 
political entity and how to hit the right balance 
between revenue sharing and government funding for 
development.  Separate committees will address 
these questions.  Surprisingly, however, the talks 
were unexpectedly adjourned on July 31, possibly 
for a few weeks.  We have received no clear 
explanation yet for the adjournment but, based on 
what we have heard from the parties, have no reason 
at this point to believe there are serious 
problems.  We will advise as further information 
becomes available. End Summary. 
 
MEETING WITH DR. AMNA DIRAR 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2. (C) Dr. Amna Dirar, vice-chairman of the Eastern 
Front and chairman of the Beja Congress, met with 
PolOff on July 26 to provide an update on the 
EF/GNU talks.  She stated that while negotiations 
seemed to be going well, she fears some outstanding 
issues may be difficult to resolve, such as the 
formation of one state for the east or tackling the 
problem of revenue and wealth sharing.  She was 
also concerned about getting buy-in from the 
international community in light of the fact that 
there are no observers involved. 
 
¶3. (C) The creation of one region in eastern Sudan 
from the current states of Kasala, Gederaf and Red 
Sea has been a focal point for the Eastern Front 
since the outset.  They believe that the three 
states in eastern Sudan are not sustainable on 
their own.  Moreover, as Dirar suggested, many of 
the people in eastern Sudan - and Sudan in general 
- are nomads, and the current set-up hurts them in 
a number of ways, taxation by the government being 
the hardest. 
 
¶4. (C) Dirar stated that the Eastern Front wants 
representation from the local level up to the 
presidential institution.  While not seemingly 
focused on percentages, EF representatives claim 
that they want a just and fair share of 
representation.  They believe they may face 
resistance from the GNU, as the GNU has expressed 
the view that the east is already represented. 
Dirar explained that most of those individuals are 
National Congress Party (NCP) members and do not 
represent the people of the east. 
 
¶5. (C) On wealth sharing, Dirar and other Eastern 
Front members have stipulated that a certain 
percentage of the revenues generated in the east, 
must be used to provide education, health and 
development assistance to the entire region, as 
well as provide compensation to some of the people 
in the east especially near Hamesh Koreib and South 
Tokar.  Dirar also believes that a certain 
percentage of the revenues should be used for the 
environment and be focused on reversing the 
degradation caused by some of the mining, 
refineries and other industry in eastern Sudan. 
She noted that one of the biggest obstacles for the 
Eastern Front at this stage is having a better 
sense of the actual amounts of revenues generated 
in eastern Sudan.  They have asked the diplomatic 
community for assistance in trying to gauge how 
much gas, gold and minerals are actually in eastern 
Sudan, as well as how much revenue is generated by 
Port Sudan and the mineral wealth that is exported. 
The GNU has not provided the Eastern Front, or to 
our knowledge the GSE, with any hard data on 
 
revenues.  Dirar has heard that the World Bank did 
a survey in eastern Sudan a few years back, but no 
one has been able to access such a report. 
 
¶6. (C) Once the issue of power and wealth sharing 
are resolved, negotiations are planned for 
finalizing a security arrangement.  Thus far, the 
cessation of hostilities agreement from June has 
held.  The Eastern Front believes that the GNU will 
take over positions formerly held by the SPLM, but 
will not move into Eastern Front areas.  Dirar 
indicated that the security arrangement talks would 
need to focus on the implementation of a 
joint/integrated army.  The creation of such an 
army would need to be gradual and take place over 
an 18-24 month period. 
 
¶7. (C) Dirar also provided a sense of the actual 
mediation process.  She explained that the Eritrean 
mediator spent the first week meeting individually 
with both sides.  The mediator requested each side 
to provide papers and input on the three main 
issues - power sharing, wealth sharing and security 
arrangements.  The second week, beginning July 24, 
the mediator brought both sides together to discuss 
each of the issues and some of the input provided. 
(Note: Other Sudanese sources who have met with the 
mediator explained that the GSE took this approach 
because they believed the Eastern Front's 
expectations were unrealistic. End Note.) 
 
¶8. (C) Dirar indicated that the initial meetings 
with the GNU went well and they were expecting to 
start delving into each of the three areas over the 
next three weeks, starting with power sharing, and 
concluding with security arrangements.  She 
explained that the GNU had wanted to discuss the 
issues simultaneously in smaller groups, but that 
the Eastern Front and mediator had pushed back due 
to the Eastern Front's lack of capacity.  Dirar 
added that she and other Eastern Front members were 
also meeting with SPLM delegates, Malik Agar in 
particular, to seek advice on some of these issues. 
She noted that the Eastern Front had lost a strong 
supporter from the GNU side with the absence of 
SPLM advisor Yasir Arman. 
 
GSE BRIEFING TO THE ASMARA DIPLOMATIC COMMUNITY 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶9. (C) On July 28, Yemane Ghebreab briefed the 
Asmara diplomatic corps on the progress of the 
talks which he categorized as "serious but without 
high levels of conflict."  Confirming the 
information provided by Dr. Dirar, Yemane noted the 
parties had agreed on general overarching 
principles in the three main areas under discussion 
to include for the east: greater representation 
within the government, greater social equity to 
include "affirmative action plans" to redress 
development and representational imbalances and 
fairer distribution of revenues with a focus on 
developmental issues.  He noted that the 
discussions are still in early stages and have not 
yet touched on modalities for implementation. 
 
¶10. (C) From the GSE perspective, two issues stand 
out as the most critical at this point.  The 
parties have yet to agree whether eastern Sudan 
will be recognized as one state, although Yemane 
stated both sides were "determined" to find a 
solution. Secondly, the parties are discussing a 
"holistic" approach to the distribution of revenues 
to promote development programs in the east.  As 
the next step, Yemane said the parties had agreed 
to the formation of two committees to work out the 
details of these issues. 
 
POSTPONEMENT OF NEGOTIATIONS? 
----------------------------- 
 
¶11. (C) As of July 31, Post has heard that 
negotiations will be postponed one to two weeks. 
The reasons for postponement are unclear.  While 
some rumors suggest that the delay could be related 
to Eastern Front unreadiness, we also understand 
that the head of the GNU delegation, who was called 
back to Sudan July 25 supposedly on a short trip, 
has yet to return from Khartoum.  Whatever the 
reason for the postponement, the Eastern Front 
could use the time effectively to continue its own 
efforts to educate its negotiators both on the 
substantive issues and on the art of negotiation. 
The imbalance between the expertise of the two 
delegations is, according to the GSE's Yemane 
Ghebreab, quite clear, although he noted that with 
the help of UN and Norwegian advisors, the EF has 
so far proven surprisingly capable. 
 
DELISI