VZCZCXRO5645
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #0218 0491425
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 181425Z FEB 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2997
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA

UNCLAS KHARTOUM 000218 
 
DEPT FOR AF/SPG AND IO 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC PGOV PREL KPKO SOCI AU UNSC SU
SUBJECT: SUDAN RESPONSE: EFFORTS TO COMBAT SEXUAL ABUSE AND 
EXPLOITATION BY UNAMID PEACEKEEPERS 
 
REF: A) 2008 STATE 125595 
B) 2008 KHARTOUM 139 
C) KHARTOUM 201 
 
¶1. (SBU) UNAMID requires all military personnel, civilian employees 
and UN Volunteers to undergo training to recognize, report and 
prevent sexual exploitation and abuse.  John Alstrom, UNAMID Chief 
of Staff, and Wayne Hyde, head of the UNAMID Conduct and Discipline 
Unit (CDU), said that UNAMID's 12,000 plus peacekeepers in Darfur 
are held to strict standards that prohibit and, if violated, 
penalize any sexual exploitation and abuse of local populations. 
Allegations of UNAMID peacekeepers engaging in abuse are 
investigated thoroughly, and if allegations are substantiated, the 
investigation is followed by repatriation of the individual involved 
in the incident.  UNAMID leadership treats the prevention of sexual 
exploitation and abuse by its peacekeepers as a high priority in 
implementing the organization's mandate in Sudan. 
 
¶2. (SBU) As a veteran of the MONUC peacekeeping mission in Congo, 
Alstrom reported that his first priority upon arrival in Darfur was 
to establish the CDU and create a central database to track conduct 
and discipline issues within the ranks of UNAMID international staff 
and peacekeepers.  Not content to rely on the training that 
peacekeepers may receive in their home countries, the CDU trains 
them on prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse immediately upon 
their arrival in Darfur.  The CDU is currently conducting a 
train-the-trainers exercise to expand its reach into individual 
units of peacekeepers. 
UNAMID CDU conducts regular outreach to UNAMID team sites throughout 
Darfur, and Alstrom said UNAMID plans to deploy CDU officers to be 
based full-time in the Darfur cities of Nyala, El Geneina and 
Zalingei. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Sudanese human rights activists do not consider UNAMID 
peacekeepers to be engaged in widespread sexual abuse and 
exploitation of local populations.  Amir Suleiman, director of the 
independent Khartoum Center for Human Rights, said that his 
organization tracked no sexual exploitation cases involving UNAMID 
peacekeepers in 2008.  Khalil Tukras, an independent Darfuri human 
rights activist, had likewise received no reports of UNAMID 
peacekeepers engaged in sexual abuse and exploitation, but he 
commented that El Fasher residents remain suspicious that 
international workers, including UN staff based at the UNAMID 
compound there, solicit local women as prostitutes.  He suggested 
that UN officials conduct better outreach to residents of El Fasher, 
and coordinate with local law enforcement to stem the practice, if 
it does exist. 
 
FERNANDEZ