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Viewing cable 08KHARTOUM925, ABYEI ROADMAP IMPLENTATION: DSRSG HAQ OUTLINES UN

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
08KHARTOUM925 2008-06-22 14:46 2011-08-24 16:30 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Khartoum
VZCZCXRO0486
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0925/01 1741446
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221446Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1118
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 000925 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, SE WILLIAMSON, AF/SPG, IO/PSC, NSC FOR 
BPITTMAN AND CHUDSON 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF EAID SOCI KPKO SU
SUBJECT: ABYEI ROADMAP IMPLENTATION: DSRSG HAQ OUTLINES UN 
EFFORTS/PLANS ON THE GROUND 
 
1.  (SBU) SUMMARY: On June 21, DSRSG for Humanitarian Affairs for 
told CDA that security is gradually being reestablished in Abyei as 
the JIU moves into position.  The UN expects about half of the IDPs 
to begin to return immediately when they are told it is safe.  UN 
priorities are to assist IDPs in their current locations, prepare 
for their return to Abyei, and prepare for continuing assistance and 
reconstruction efforts in the region.  The DSRSG agreed that many of 
the existing irritants and flashpoints remain unresolved and the 
potential for renewed violence is high.  END SUMMARY. 
 
Security Slowly Returning to Abyei 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
2.  (SBU) On June 21, Charge Fernandez discussed implementation of 
the Abyei Roadmap and the humanitarian situation there with Deputy 
Special Representative of the UNSYG (DSRSG) Ameerah Haq.  CDA 
Fernandez was accompanied by EconOff and AIDOff.  Ms. Haq said that 
deployment of the Joint Integrated Unit (JIU) to Abyei was 
proceeding relatively smoothly.  (Note:  On June 22, the UNMIS Force 
Commander told Emboffs that the JIU is now fully deployed. 
Following a ten day period of training, it is scheduled to take over 
security responsibilities by July 1, and both SAF (including the 
notorious 31st SAF Brigade) and SPLA units are to withdraw from the 
region.  The UNMIS FC also said that UNMIS now is able to patrol 
outside the town without restrictions for the first time.  End 
note.)  In addition, UN demining engineers had arrived, confirming 
that both sides had laid mines during the May fighting.  She related 
that the previous day, she had requested a map of the location of 
SPLA-laid mine fields from GoSS Minister of Presidential Affairs 
Luka Biong Deng, which he had promptly agreed to provide. 
 
3.  (SBU) The DSRSG said that GNU and GoSS are cooperating well on 
forming the Abyei police unit, with half to come from the north and 
half from the south.  The GoSS had agreed that the new unit will be 
trained in Khartoum because it has better training facilities. 
Similarly, they had agreed to establish a regional humanitarian 
assistance agency (combining HAC and SSRC), which they also will 
staff on a 50-50 basis.  Collection of the dead in Abyei town also 
has begun after securing permission from both sides. 
 
Preparing for IDP Returns 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - 
4. (SBU) DSRSG Haq said that humanitarian relief for the IDPs in 
Agok, to which the majority had fled, is hampered by the total lack 
of infrastructure there and the fact that IDPs are dispersed.  She 
noted that UN humanitarian workers in Agok have been sleeping in 
their vehicles.  Therefore, now that security is being reestablished 
in Abyei, the UN plans to begin operating initially from the UNMIS 
camp there. (Note: Abyei is about 45 kms. from Agok. End note.)  She 
added that the UN also is fully aware of the need not to neglect the 
5000-7000 local Misseriya IDPs who fled north to Mulglad. 
 
5. (SBU) With the return of security to Abyei, the UN expects IDPs 
to begin to return home, probably in greater numbers than originally 
anticipated, possibly 50% of the total.  UN forecasts had envisioned 
the initial return only of adult men, but surveys of the IDPs now 
indicate that many entire families plan to return as soon as 
possible.  Ms. Haq noted that it is the women who traditionally 
construct the family shelters ("tukuls"), many of which had actually 
not been destroyed.  Education is another major factor.  The 
Sudanese school year already (on June 22) has begun and families are 
anxious to get their children in class.  Therefore, the UN is making 
reconstruction of the rustic Abyei school system a priority. 
 
GoSS Plans Town's Reconstruction 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
6. (SBU) DSRSG Haq said that in their previous meeting, GOSS 
Presidential Affairs Minister Luka Biong Deng outlined the GoSS's 
plans for Abyei's reconstruction once the interim administration is 
up and running.  Luka told her that the SPLM plans to employ a town 
planning advisor to assist in reconfiguring Abyei town's layout, 
including relocating the town market, which was destroyed in the 
fighting and the looting and fire that followed.  This would have to 
be done before the traders returned and occupied their previous 
locations in the market, he noted.  The DSRSG said she had cautioned 
Luka not to delay the voluntary return of IDPs pending the 
reconfiguration of the town.  Ms. Haq said she also had discouraged 
Deng from a proposal to construct housing for the returning IDPs 
using prefabricated structures and had encouraged the use of local 
materials instead.  The CDA remarked that "a tukul is probably 
better than a prefab." 
 
7. (SBU) CDA Fernandez noted that during his April visit to Abyei, 
he was told that many town residents then were in fact IDPs unable 
to continue on to their homes in outlying areas and stranded in the 
town.  DSRSG Haq confirmed this, saying that the return of many 
 
KHARTOUM 00000925  002 OF 002 
 
 
earlier IDPs had been stalled by insecurity in their home areas, 
especially to the north of the town.  Many of the current IDPs in 
Agok were in that situation and will return to it when they go back 
to Abyei. 
 
8. (SBU) The DSRSG expressed concern at the SPLM's intention to 
limit full citizenship under the interim administration to long-term 
residents of Abyei.  The DSRSG said she had pressed Luka on whether 
this would not favor Ngok Dinka at the expense of the Misseriya.  He 
replied that the Misseriya "come and go" during the year and thus 
are not full-time residents of Abyei.  The CDA commented that among 
the SPLM leadership, Luka always has pressed hardest for the most 
literal reading of the Abyei Protocol definition of "residents" as 
only "members of the Ngok Dinka community and other Sudanese 
residing in the area" (Para. 6.1 (a)).  Luka's interpretation tends 
to marginalize the Misseriya as merely "other Sudanese" with no 
special ties to the region. 
 
UN Humanitarian Priorities 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
9. (SBU) DSRSG Haq outlined the UN's three priorities on which she 
would brief the major donors at a meeting the following day.  The 
most immediate priority is humanitarian assistance for the IDPs at 
their current locations in Agok, Muglad, and elsewhere.  The second 
priority is to prepare for their return to Abyei by de-mining, and 
rebuilding the town's infrastructure, including electrical power, 
water and the market, which were destroyed, and perhaps assisting 
the interim administration with reconfiguring the town's layout. 
The third top priority is to reestablish the UN agencies that were 
diminished by looting and displaced by the conflict in order to 
continue and expand humanitarian and development assistance, and 
prevent future conflicts. 
 
Potential Flashpoints Remain 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
10. (SBU) AIDOff noted that Misseriya militia had looted the town 
following the inhabitants' flight and had vandalized anything they 
could not carry off.  The town's brand new USAID-funded power 
station, for example, had been deliberately burned.  When IDPs 
return to find this destruction, it will further stoke Dinka 
bitterness at the Misseriya in general.  He noted the danger that 
the Ngok Dinka may respond by seeking to use this current situation 
as an opportunity to keep ethnic Misseriya with local ties from 
returning.  If the Dinka do respond by blocking Misseriya returnees, 
he commented, it will tend to marginalize moderate Misseriya leaders 
and drive the majority of Misseriya toward extremists, such as 
Mohammed Al Ansari. 
 
11. (SBU) AIDOff also noted that the UN Regional Coordinators office 
has reported that most potential returnees want to go straight to 
their villages, rather than Abyei town.  Ms. Haq agreed that this 
will create more potential flashpoints in the areas north of the 
town.  This is the area where Ngok Dinka farmers and Misseriya 
herdsmen are in closest contact and where a clash is most likely to 
occur.  (Note:  The recent round of fighting was sparked initially 
by a clash north of the town on May 13.  End note.) 
 
Comment 
- - - - 
12. (SBU) The Abyei roadmap's most basic and most concrete building 
blocks - security and humanitarian relief - appear to be very 
gradually getting in place on the ground.  However, the more 
problematic political aspects, such as forming the new interim 
administration, are taking longer.  Post will report separately on 
the latest developments in NCP-SPLM negotiations in Juba, which have 
focused primarily on the arbitration mechanism for the ABC report. 
Even when all of the roadmap components are in place, many of the 
underlining sources of conflict will remain and threaten to explode 
again unless carefully managed.  It is actually in both parties 
financial interests to contain the conflict, but as many of our 
contacts have noted in the last two weeks, there is no logic to 
conflict. 
 
FERNANDEZ