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OO RUEHBC RUEHBZ RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHKUK RUEHMA
RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNJ #0355/01 2371626
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 251626Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7184
RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 NDJAMENA 000355 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/S AND S/USSES 
NSC FOR GAVIN 
LONDON FOR POL - LORD 
PARIS FOR POL - BAIN AND KANEDA 
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR AU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF PHUM PINR SU LY CD
SUBJECT: CHAD'S NATIONAL MEDIATOR ON A ROLL:  GOUKOUNI, SOUBIANE 
RETURN TO CHAD, OTHERS WOOED. 
 
REF: (A) NDJAMENA 353, (B) NDJAMENA 343, 
C) NDJAMENA 306, (D) 2008 NDJAMENA 274 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Chad's National Mediator Abderamane Moussa told Ambassador 
and visiting SFRC Staffdel August 24 that the GOC was fully 
committed to national reconciliation with Chad rebels and to 
facilitating similar reconciliation in Darfur.  Moussa described his 
role in bringing ex-rebel Ahmat Soubiane and ex-President and 
long-time opposition figure Goukouni Oueddei back to Chad recently; 
detailed other recent defections from rebel ranks and projected 
optimism regarding future defections from the Chad rebels in Sudan. 
He also noted apparently successful ongoing talks between JEM and 
Sudanese government officials in Tripoli; implicitly validated the 
positive role the Libyans were playing in trying to end the 
Chad-Sudan proxy war and normalize Chad-Sudan relations; and 
speculated that either Salah Ghosh was paying politically either for 
having played his "American card" -- claiming that he could win 
major concessions from the USG by offering counter-terrorism 
cooperation, while seeking immunity for himself from future ICC 
action regarding Darfur; or for his failure to direct the Chad 
rebels to victory over Deby's forces and replace him with a 
Khartoum-friendly regime. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Moussa projected pride in past accomplishments and 
confidence in his and the GOC's ability to make further inroads into 
the rebellion and consolidate national reconciliation throughout our 
meeting.  An ethnic Kanembou from the southern edge of Chad's far 
north, Abderaman Moussa has been an insider in Chadian politics 
since the 1970s.  He has been Ambassador to Sudan twice, serving a 
total of seven years in Khartoum.  He has held high office 
continually under Deby since 1991:  Ambassador to Nigeria; Mayor of 
N'Djamena; Interior Minister; Minister of Territorial 
Administration; Director of National Intelligence; and Presidential 
Counselor for Public Security and Military Affairs.  National 
Mediator since March 2007, Moussa remains close to Deby, who relies 
on his loyalty and experience for advice and for sensitive missions 
inside and outside Chad.  END SUMMARY. 
 
----------------- 
NATIONAL MEDIATOR 
ABDERAMAN MOUSSA 
----------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Chad's National Mediator Abderamane Moussa told Ambassador 
and visiting SFRC Staffdel August 24 that the GOC was fully 
committed to national reconciliation with Chad rebels and to 
facilitating similar reconciliation in Darfur.  Moussa described his 
role in bringing ex-rebel Ahmat Soubiane and ex-President and 
long-time opposition figure Goukouni Oueddei back to Chad recently. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Regarding Soubiane (Ref B), Moussa confirmed that after 
his return to Chad last month, Soubiane traveled to Sudan to prepare 
for his mostly Arab troops' reentry into Chad, then went again to 
Tripoli to sign an accord with the GOC governing his final return, 
including some 57 vehicles that he is prepared to hand over to the 
GOC.  Chad rebel die-hards Timan Erdimi and Mahamat Nouri, however, 
feared the impact of Soubiane's actions, complained to the Sudanese 
that there was the danger all the rebel fighters would follow 
Soubiane back into Chad from Sudan.  As a result, Sudan seems to be 
blocking Soubiane's final effort to get his troops safely and 
peacefully across the border.  So Soubiane had sent representatives 
to the Chad-Sudan border to facilitate the return of his troops. 
 
----------------- 
THE GOUKOUNI CARD 
----------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Regarding Goukouni (Ref A), Moussa said that he had been 
instrumental in the ex-President's apparently permanent return, 
having personally traveled from Algiers with Goukouni.  Moussa 
accompanied Goukouni to the latter's ethnic homeland in extreme 
northwest Tibesti, where the latter delivered a clear message to his 
fellow Teda/Toubou clansmen that they must desist from opposition to 
the Deby regime and join in efforts to develop the country, rather 
than dividing it.  (NOTE:  The Teda/Toubou-based armed opposition 
group, the MDJT, long has been losing support and effectiveness, but 
was still viable enough to be able to hold an AMCIT hostage in the 
 
NDJAMENA 00000355  002 OF 003 
 
 
Tibesti in 2007-2008.  END NOTE.) 
 
---------------- 
MORE DEFECTIONS 
FROM REBEL RANKS 
---------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Moussa mentioned other recent defections from rebel ranks. 
 He said that two Paris-based and ethnically Kreda members of 
Mahamat Nouri's UFDD had come back to Chad in recent weeks.  He 
asserted that numbers of (not better identified) southern rebels who 
had been operating along and across the Chad-CAR border had also 
come back to Chad recently.  Moussa claimed as well that he was in 
contact with former national trade union federation leader, Djibrine 
Assali, who fled Chad last year after being suspected of involvement 
in the "Mahdi Movement," a millennial and violent religious cult 
that was suppressed with great force by government security forces 
in March 2008 (Ref D). 
 
-------------- 
NOTE TO PARA 6 
-------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) NOTE: The Kreda are branch of the broader Gorane ethnic 
group to which the Teda/Toubou also belong.  The southern rebels 
Moussa cited may be associated with the long-lived but relatively 
low-intensity rebel movement led by Djibrine Dassert, a former Deby 
Defence Ministry official.  END NOTE. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Besides the more prominent returnees like Soubiane and 
Goukouni, Moussa claimed that some 5,000 rank-and-file rebels had 
returned to Chad since last year.  He admitted however that some of 
them had returned only to go back to Sudan and to the rebellion, 
while others "made a habit and a business" by defecting multiple 
times, taking advantage of both the GOC and the rebel chiefs. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Moussa said that the extent of the Deby regime's 
"open-hand policy" toward rebels was "absolute:"  Any Chadian who 
laid down arms and sought to return would be received, pardoned or 
amnestied, and allowed to return to normal life.  "There will be no 
punishment, no humiliations," he said, "for returned rebels just on 
account of having been in the rebellion, despite the fact that they 
had been responsible for the deaths of Chadian soldiers defending 
their homeland."  But those who had committed "common crimes" might 
face the justice system. 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Moussa complained, however, that the additional demands 
of many of the returning rebels were unrealistic.  Some who had 
finished their education wanted a high-level ministerial post or 
even a seat in the National Assembly, which is an elected body. 
Some rebels who had deserted from the Chadian military wanted to 
reintegrate as colonel or general officers, to keep up with their 
contemporaries who had remained loyal.  Moussa declared that Chad 
needed more teachers and doctors and agricultural specialists -- but 
not more senior administrators or senior military officers.  Moussa 
sniffed that some rebels even wanted GOC reimbursement for the 
supplies and weapons they had bought to arm and equip themselves to 
fight against the GOC. 
 
--------------------- 
JEM, SUDAN, AND LIBYA 
--------------------- 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Moussa noted with satisfaction what he described as 
apparently successful ongoing talks between JEM and Sudanese 
government officials in Tripoli.  He implicitly credited the 
positive role the Libyans were playing in trying to end the 
Chad-Sudan proxy war and normalize Chad-Sudan relations.  He 
speculated that recently removed NISS chief Salah Ghosh was paying 
politically for having played his "American card" -- claiming that 
he could win major concessions from the USG by offering 
counter-terrorism cooperation, while seeking immunity for himself 
from future ICC action regarding Darfur.  Moussa also offered the 
possibility that Ghosh's failure to direct the Chad rebels to 
victory over Deby's forces and replace him with a Khartoum-friendly 
regime was behind his removal. 
 
-------------------- 
A DEBY "CONSIGLIERE" 
-------------------- 
 
 
NDJAMENA 00000355  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶12. (SBU) Moussa projected pride in past accomplishments and 
confidence in his and the GOC's ability to make further inroads into 
the rebellion and consolidate national reconciliation throughout our 
meeting.  An ethnic Kanembou from the southern edge of Chad's far 
north, Abderaman Moussa has been an insider in Chadian politics 
since the 1960s.  He has been Ambassador to Sudan twice, serving a 
total of seven years in Khartoum.  He has held high office 
continually under Deby since 1991:  Ambassador to Nigeria; Mayor of 
N'Djamena; Interior Minister; Minister of Territorial 
Administration; Director of National Intelligence; and Presidential 
Counselor for Public Security and Military Affairs.  National 
Mediator since March 2007, Moussa remains close to Deby, who relies 
on his loyalty and experience for advice and for sensitive missions 
inside and outside Chad. 
 
¶13.  (U) Minimize considered. 
 
NIGRO