VZCZCXRO7332
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #1693/01 3261128
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 211128Z NOV 08 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2375
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001693 
 
DEPT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, SE WILLIAMSON, AF/SPG, DRL 
NSC FOR PITTMAN AND HUDSON 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
DEPT PLS PASS USAID FOR AFR/SUDAN 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL KPKO SOCI AU UNSC SU
SUBJECT: WAU: ALL QUIET IN THE HINTERLANDS, BUT IN NEED OF MORE 
ATTENTION AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The capital of Western Bahr al-Ghazal state in 
South Sudan, Wau is both secure and eager for international 
assistance.  Operating in an ad hoc manner, local police have 
managed to control tribal conflict and keep down petty crime, but 
local government incompetence has hindered work by UN police 
advisors to increase the professionalism of police officers.  Wau's 
Catholic bishop reported that the Comprehensive Peace Agreement 
(CPA) has guaranteed religious freedom in the area, and the post-CPA 
peace has provided the region with an influx of well-trained, if 
somewhat pessimistic, young professionals. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) In speaking with poloff November 17-19, numerous local 
officials, UNMIS and NGOs confirmed that Wau and Western Bahr 
al-Ghazal states in general boast secure roads, good cooperation 
among government security organs, and a low level of tribal 
conflict.  To date, Wau has avoided the high incidence of crime and 
traffic fatalities that plague Juba, and conflicts from neighboring 
flashpoints, namely Abyei and Warrab, have yet to spill over to Wau. 
 Soldiers and militias from the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army 
(SPLA) do not oppose the activities of the South Sudan Police 
Services (SSPS), and there is little armed activity or cattle 
rustling found in the surrounding areas.  UNMIS's Sector II 
headquarters' apparent lackadaisical security reinforces this 
general perception, as the compound itself lacks armed gun turrets 
at its corners, and relies only on a makeshift fence of local 
materials and barbed wire for perimeter protection. 
 
¶3. (SBU) SSPS Major Lino Angui, chief of Wau's downtown police 
station and single city jail, explained to poloff that, in contrast 
to other Sudanese cities, rival Sudanese security organs tend to 
cooperate in Wau, and his office actually relies on them for 
assistance.  Both the Sudanese National Intelligence and Security 
Services and the SPLA regularly bring suspects to the city jail, 
calling on the SSPS to then open an investigation. With no official 
vehicles, and most of his staff coming to work by bicycle, Angui 
said he is limited in his capacity to police the town and performs 
mostly reactive services. However, as a claim to his law enforcement 
prowess, Angui cited the recent conservative backlash in Juba over 
pants-wearing and "hip-hop"-style youth mannerisms, saying that his 
office had personally solved the same problem in Wau without having 
to issue edicts.  Claiming that young men in Wau, under the 
influence of American rap music, had attempted to abscond with 
underage girls into the forest, Angui counseled the boys about the 
dangers of alcohol and pre-marital sex before releasing them to 
their parents.  Angui said he believes that his pro-active policing 
reduced the chance of future bloodshed in the conservative town, 
adding, "We must stop them before they take a Dinka girl into the 
forest, because then the Dinkas will start fighting." 
 
¶3. (SBU) Mike Taylor, a UNMIS Civilian Police Advisor working for 
UNPOL in Sector II for the last year, said that the local government 
has acted as a stabilizing mechanism, even contributing to stability 
in the rural areas of the Bahr al-Ghazal region.  "Within Sector II, 
we have a lot of knowledgeable and forward-thinking people who want 
to progress," and these factors, combined with a low level of tribal 
conflict between the dominant Dinka, Luol and Balanda tribes, have 
turned Wau into a fairly placid African savannah town. Taylor summed 
up the situation plainly: "Even when the rest of the country goes to 
hell, I don't see it going to helle here." 
 
¶4. (SBU) Taylor called Wau "fertile soil" for international efforts 
to train SSPS officers and recruits, but was disappointed that UNMIS 
lacked a clear strategy for increasing the overall professionalism 
of the SSPS.  "These are by far the most eager police recruits I've 
ever seen," said the former Virginia deputy sheriff who previously 
worked with UNPOL in Baghdad and Kosovo.  "UNMIS, however, is 
incredibly under-resourced in terms of police training and 
equipment.  We train 225 students but have no handcuffs, no training 
guns, no batons.  We teach them how to avoid using a gun, and at the 
end of training the only tool we then give them is a gun." Taylor 
said that to round out the SSPS's proto-military training for all 
recruits, his office managed to initiate a nascent police academy 
for 225 new officers in a tent on the grounds of police headquarters 
in Wau, in addition to training for 300-plus recruits in the open 
air in the nearby town of Kujok.  But when the police ran out of 
money to feed the recruits, four weeks into a 16-week program, UNPOL 
had to suspend the program and send the recruits home until funds 
arrive following the new year. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Head of UNICEF's efforts in Wau, Resident Program Officer 
Carmen Garrigos told poloff that her staff maintains a very positive 
relationship with the local government and enjoys a high level of 
humanitarian security.  UNICEF considers its biggest challenge in 
Wau as ensuring that the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) develops 
 
KHARTOUM 00001693  002 OF 002 
 
 
the region's health and education infrastructure, investing as much 
there as they do in greater Equatoria.  Regarding the "lost 
generation" of youth who spent their formative years in the bush, 
Garrigos said, "The lost generation is lost, but now no partner is 
doing enough to build vocational training centers for them," she 
said, adding, "There are not enough funds for alternative learning 
and adult education."  Lucia Soleti, UNICEF's child protection 
officer in Wau, cited as an example that in the greater Bahr 
al-Ghazal region, fewer than ten percent of all births are 
registered with the government.  "Resources are not completely 
trickling down to Wau - the efforts to intervene are strong, and the 
interest is strong, but the capacity of the GOSS is weak." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Bishop Rudolf Deng, bishop of the Catholic diocese of Wau, 
spoke with poloff to express optimism that the CPA has guaranteed 
religious freedom in western South Sudan, even while the area has 
yet to fully recover from the ravages of 50 years of war.  "It is 
very difficult to reconstitute the size and the shape of our diocese 
following the civil war," he said, as the diocese, once 24 church 
parishes strong, is now currently composed of 8 parishes. "But now 
we can hold assemblies, and I don't have to look over my shoulder. 
For the first time in 50 years we can enjoy religious freedom."  As 
head of the Catholic Bishops' Committee of South Sudan, Deng said he 
and his fellow bishops are most concerned that parties within South 
Sudan, including the SPLM, are not working for the proper 
implementation of peace accords. In response to this, the bishops 
issued a letter to be read this Sunday at all masses in South Sudan, 
urging all parties not to distract themselves from the ultimate goal 
of lasting peace accords. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Poloff spoke with two former child soldiers and refugees 
who recently returned to Wau after attending high school and 
university in Uganda.  Romano Opiyo and Martin Nyuyio, employees at 
the Ministry of Information and the South Sudan Disarmament, 
Demobilization and Resettlement Committee, respectively, began by 
expressing their thanks to the U.S. for the CPA.  "We never imagined 
we would see peace in our home," said Opiyo, who at 27 has lived in 
Sudan for the last two years after fleeing at age 12.  Both young 
professionals said they returned home to contribute to the 
development of Wau, and had even started their own registered NGO 
with several friends.  But neither was optimistic that the 
authorities would succeed in tackling the problems of unemployment, 
poverty and underdevelopment. "They can't help because they don't 
know what to do," Nyuyio said. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Comment: Wau is a model in South Sudan for how important 
goals of the CPA - good governance, religious freedom, humanitarian 
security - can successfully be accomplished by state governments. 
However even here there is still much that remains to be done to 
consolidate the CPA and build capacity.  But this is true not just 
in Wau, but all across Southern Sudan, one of the least developed 
places on earth, where due to decades of war capacity is weak and 
the potential for conflict remains strong.  Continuing plans to 
decentralize power and funding from the central government in Juba 
to the states should continue, which allows for places like Wau to 
better manage their own affairs.  The problem will be in states with 
weaker and more corrupt state governments, where mismanagement could 
well lead to increased tribal and ethnic tensions.  The lessons 
learned in Wau, however, show how it can and should be done, and can 
serve as a model for other states. 
 
FERNANDEZ