VZCZCXYZ0003
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHLO #7206/01 2791655
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061655Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY LONDON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9615
INFO RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 2686
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW PRIORITY 2056
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 0982
RUEHOT/AMEMBASSY OTTAWA PRIORITY 0960
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 3183
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN PRIORITY 2312
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0815

UNCLAS LONDON 007206 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR S/CRS, AF/SPG, AF/SE, SCA/INS, AF/C, AF/W, 
NEA/ELA, SCA/A 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL EAID UK
SUBJECT: (U) S/CRS HERBST MEETS WITH DFID AND FCO OFFICIALS 
 
 
(U) SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.  NOT FOR 
INTERNET DISTRIBUTION. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  S/CRS Ambassador John Herbst met in 
London October 5 with the UK's Department for International 
Development (DFID) and Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). 
 In both meetings, the two sides updated each other on their 
respective efforts to improve coordination of the civilian 
aspects of reconstruction and stabilization efforts abroad. 
At FCO, they discussed how to make the October 10 G8 meeting 
in Moscow as productive as possible, and touched upon 
activities both governments are undertaking in the field. 
Both sides agreed to stay in touch, and Ambassador Herbst 
particularly encouraged cross-training between his staff and 
UK counterparts.  END SUMMARY. 
 
(U) DFID 
-------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Prior to meetings in London, Ambassador Herbst had 
already met with Richard Teuten, head of the Post-Conflict 
Reconstruction Unit (PCRU) and his team on the margins of a 
conference they all attended October 3-4 at Wilton Park, the 
FCO conference center in West Sussex.  (NOTE:  PCRU is the 
UK's counterpart to S/CRS; it is a joint venture of FCO, MOD 
and DFID.  END NOTE.)  On October 5, Ambassador Herbst came 
to London to meet with Jim Drummond, Director of DFID's UN, 
Conflict and Humanitarian Division.  Ambassador Herbst 
briefed on S/CRS and his plans for the coming two years. 
Drummond's main points: 
 
- He chairs the board that oversees PCRU and manages the UK's 
Global Conflict Prevention Pool (GCPP, an interagency fund of 
FCO, DFID and MOD, covers all the world except Africa, which 
has a separate Pool managed by the Africa Department); 
 
- PCRU is a "child of Iraq" but is expected to also address 
smaller stabilization and reconstruction (S&R) challenges; 
 
- PCRU was not intended to deal with Iraq or Afghanistan but 
it is active in Basrah (Iraq), Helmand and Kabul 
(Afghanistan), and "a bit in Darfur"; it also sent a team to 
Lebanon; 
 
- Around 160 DFID staff have volunteered for a Crisis 
Response Pool which has not been used operationally yet; 
 
- A database of 300 - 400 experts is being compiled, although 
it is difficult to find qualified people to lead the teams; 
 
- Policy lead remains with the various government 
departments; PCRU is a service provider and center of 
expertise; 
 
- The UK has pressed UN Deputy SYG Mark Malloch Brown to get 
the Peacebuilding Commission up and running; Burundi and 
Sierra Leone will be the first two countries the Commission 
deals with; and 
 
- The UK is considering how much it will contribute to the UN 
Peacebuilding Fund that will be launched October 10-11. 
 
(U) FCO 
------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Ambassador Herbst then proceeded to FCO, where Joan 
Link, head of the FCO Conflict Issues Group (CIG), chaired a 
two-hour meeting in two parts.  The first focused on 
multilateral aspects of S&R, with the participation of Link's 
Deputy, Matthew Johnson; CIG Team Leaders Rob Holland 
(International Secondments), David Lelliott (Conflict 
Prevention) and David Belgrove (Peacekeeping and 
Peacebuilding); David Arkley (Operations and Exercises team 
of the Security Policy Group); Peter O'Rourke (Security 
Policy Team Leader of the Afghanistan Group); and Jennifer 
Cole (Civilian Crisis Management Team Leader of the Europe 
Directorate's Common Foreign and Security Policy Group). 
Again, Ambassador Herbst briefed on S/CRS and his plans for 
the coming two years.  His hosts' main points: 
 
- Stephen Pattison, FCO International Security Director, is 
 
the senior official who oversees the CIG; his portfolio 
includes International Organizations and Human Rights and 
Governance; he would have chaired this meeting if he were not 
out of the country; 
 
- The UK is keen on rule-of-law aspects of S&R - specifically 
police and justice issues; 
 
- CIG manages the 100 million British Pound Sterling (BPS) 
Global Conflict Prevention Pool at the macro level (that is, 
it allocates budgets totalling 100 million BPS/year), and 
serves the same function for the UK's contributions to 
peacekeeping (UN assessments of about 350 million BPS/year 
and voluntary contributions of about 100 million BPS/year); 
 
- The UK sees potential in the UN Peacebuilding Commission 
and wants to identify three priority areas for concrete 
action by the Commission in each of the two selected 
countries (Burundi and Sierra Leone); one thing the 
Commission could do would be to press development agencies to 
support short-term job programs to address the huge problem 
of youth unemployment, drawing on the S/CRS-Harvard study; 
 
- Under the EU's Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), Rapid 
Response Teams are being formed that should be able to field 
100 trained experts as of next year; the EU is open to 
building a surge capacity and demonstrated in Lebanon that it 
was willing to cut through the usual rules and move more 
quickly; 
 
- CIG is trying to identify who in the UK does conflict 
analysis and early warning, so as to move towards more 
consistent methodology and terminology; through the Cabinet 
Office it is plugging into the U.S. system for conflict 
analysis and early warning. 
 
(U) MOSCOW G8 MEETING OCT. 10 
----------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Turning to the October 10 G8 meeting in Moscow, 
Ambassador Herbst noted that he would be arriving by 1:00 
p.m. October 9 and hoped to meet with other delegation heads 
that day, to try to push the G8 S&R agenda forward as much as 
possible.  For instance, the G8 might: 
 
- propose that G8 members and the EU and the UN participate 
in joint training with the U.S., UK and Canada; 
 
- create a website clearinghouse accessible to anyone, for 
stability and reconstruction materials; and 
 
- expand the curriculum at the Italian police training center 
to include additional security issues. 
 
Link welcomed these ideas and Ambassador Herbst's inclusive 
vision, notably his assurance that the USG sees a role too 
for the UN.  She stressed the importance of including NATO in 
coordination efforts along with the EU and UN (Darfur being 
the case in point).  Unfortunately, she said, Pattison would 
arrive in Moscow too late to meet October 9, but she would 
make sure he was fully briefed on these ideas. 
 
(U) ACTIVITIES IN THE FIELD 
--------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Link then brought into the meeting FCO desk 
officers for Nepal, Lebanon, Afghanistan and Sudan. 
 
- On Lebanon:  PCRU has found a niche, identifying bridges 
(destroyed by Israel to prevent Hizbollah resupply, but 
hampering humanitarian movements as well) as a key need, and 
providing five temporary bridges that are now in use.  The UK 
has provided 22.5 million GBS for humanitarian reconstruction 
and 2.5 million for security sector reform.  It also 
undertook a study to identify equipment and training needs 
for the Lebanese Armed Forces and match those needs to 
potential donors.  The fact that the GCPP and PCRU were in 
place helped the UK move quickly. 
 
- On Afghanistan:  It has been a real struggle to find enough 
international civilian police (civpol).  CIG has done helpful 
work systematizing policies and procedures for civpol 
deployments. 
 
- On Nepal:  FCO and PCRU are still in the early stages of 
exploring how PCRU may be able to help. 
 
- On Darfur:  CIG has helped find military observers for the 
African Union (AU)'s AMIS peacekeeping mission, and police 
for the EU's civpol mission in support of AMIS.  PCRU helped 
find public-relations consultants to help inform the 
population of Darfur about the Darfur Peace Agreement and try 
to build support for it; this activity was carried out by the 
AU, and the Netherlands contributed to the funding. 
 
(U) STRENGTHENING TIES 
---------------------- 
 
¶6.  (U) Both sides agreed on the importance of staying in 
close contact.  Ambassador Herbst shared a copy of the 
synopsis of a BearingPoint study on creating a Civilian 
Reserve Corps of up to 3,500 experts.  He also shared lists 
of training courses offered by S/CRS, reiterating his desire 
for cross-training between his staff and UK counterparts, 
which Link welcomed.  He extended to CIG the invitation he 
had made to PCRU to visit Washington and the U.S. Joint 
Forces Command. 
 
¶7.  (U) Ambassador Herbst has cleared this cable. 
 
Visit London's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/london/index. cfm 
Tuttle