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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NDJAMENA 000456 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR AF/C AND AF/RSA, DOD FOR DASD HUDDLESTON, NSC FOR 
GAVIN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV MASS MARR PREF PTER PINR CD
SUBJECT: CHAD POLMIL ISSUES:  C-27JS VICE C-130JS? AND NEW 
ARMY COMMANDER SPEAKS DEFMIN'S LANGUAGE 
 
REF: NDJAMENA 0433 
 
NDJAMENA 00000456  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) The GOC is exploring the purchase of C-27J 
"Spartan" military transport aircraft, a joint Italian 
(Alenia) and U.S. (Lockheed Martin) product, in place of or 
to complement the C-130Js it long has sought to buy.  If the 
Lockheed Martin connection with Alenia permits the USG to 
help Chad, through FMS or otherwise, to satisfy its 
legitimate need for strategic air transport by purchasing 
C-27Js, this would be a win-win situation from the USG policy 
perspective. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Outgoing Chief of General Staff Al-Djinedi, who 
speaks no French, was replaced because he could not 
communicate with his boss, DEFMIN Kamougue, who speaks no 
Arabic, rather than for any reasons related to his politics 
or performance.  Fairly frequent rotation of Chiefs of 
General Staff is not uncommon in Chad.  Despite his abrupt 
destitution, Al-Djinedi may well continue to hold important 
positions here, reflecting his status as a model former rebel 
chieftain who renounced violence and returned to the Deby 
regime's fold, to which he as so far been loyal.  END SUMMARY. 
 
-------------------- 
C-27JS VICE C-130JS? 
-------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Visiting Knights of Malta Ambassador 
Jean-Christophe Heidsiek told Ambassador October 14 that the 
GOC is interested in exploring the purchase of C-27J 
"Spartan" transport aircraft, to satisfy part or all of its 
strategic air transport needs.  The Spartan is a joint 
Italian (Alenia) and U.S. (Lockheed Martin) product, through 
partnership of Italy's Alenia and our Lockheed Martin 
companies.  Heidsieck said that he would accompany Chad Air 
Force Chief General Mahamat Tahir Orozi to Turin and Rome 
next week for talks with Alenia.  (We note that the U.S. 
military has recently purchased several hundred of these 
Spartans, which underlines their technical efficiency and 
tactical usefulness.) 
 
------------------------------------------- 
NEW ARMY COMMANDER SPEAKS DEFMIN'S LANGUAGE 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4. Outgoing Chief of General Staff Hassan Algadam Al-Djinedi, 
who speaks no French, was replaced because he could not 
communicate with his boss, DEFMIN Kamougue, who speaks no 
Arabic, rather than for any reasons related to his politics 
or performance, according to diplomats here familiar with the 
case.  The French had tried to remedy the situation by 
sending Al-Djinedi to Paris to study French, but were 
chagrined when the DEFMIN prevailed on President Deby to 
replace him abruptly with a French- and Sara-speaking 
officer, General Mbaiomdenande Dionadji Alain, who hails from 
Kamougue's native southern Chad. 
 
-------- 
BIO INFO 
-------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) JEAN-CHRISTOPHE HEIDSIECK:  A scion of the 
well-known champagne-producing family, Ambassador Heidsieck 
is based in Yaounde and accredited to Chad (since 2008) and 
other countries in the region by the Sovereign Military Order 
of Malta (SMOM).  He receives no remuneration from the SMOM 
for his diplomatic efforts.  In Chad, the SMOM supports a 
small medical assistance program (popular charitable clinics 
in the capital and one southern town) in Chad.)  Heidsieck 
has long been active as a businessman in the region:  He was 
Lockheed regional representative when the Chadians bought 
their first two C-130s in 1990.  (We invite Embassy Yaounde 
and other embassies where Heidsieck might be accredited to 
expand or correct the information on him we provide here.) 
 
¶6. (SBU) HASSAN AL-DJINEDI.   The former Chief of General 
Staff is an ethnic "Arab." (This is an ethnic category in the 
Chadian national census that refers to various tribal groups, 
mostly nomadic or semi-nomadic, that inhabit the central 
Sahelian regions of Chad from east to west, comprising 10 to 
 
NDJAMENA 00000456  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
15 percent of the national population.)  Al-Djinedi has a 
long history as an actor in Chad's perpetual civil wars since 
¶1975.  He was associated with pro-Libyan, anti-Chad forces in 
the 1979-80 war between Chad and Libya, where he fled in 
¶1980.  Al-Djinedi returned to Chad in 1992 but became 
disaffected and fled to Sudan in 1994, forming a rebel 
movement known as the Concorde Nationale du Tchad. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  In late 2007, Al-Djinedi signed the Sirte Accord 
between the GOC and an array of Chad rebel leaders and was 
one of the first rebel chiefs to return to Chad under its 
auspices.  He was appointed Secretary of State for Defense 
(the number two position in the Defense Ministry) in January 
¶2008.  He remained loyal to Deby throughout the violent 
events of 2008 and was rewarded by being appointed Chief of 
General Staff in April 2009, just in time for him to command 
the Chadian Army in its victorious campaign to repulse a 
major rebel offensive in May 2009, winning the Battle of Am 
Dam in eastern Chad that shattered the invading rebel forces. 
 
 
-------- 
COMMENTS 
-------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) If the Lockheed Martin connection with Alenia 
permits the USG to help Chad, through FMS or otherwise, to 
satisfy its legitimate need for strategic air transport by 
purchasing C-27Js, this would be a win-win situation from the 
perspective of USG Chad policy.  Purchasing C-27Js would be 
more economical for the GOC than buying C-130Js and might be 
no more expensive than buying refitted C-130Hs.  The C-27Js 
can land at many more airports in Chad than the bigger 
C-130s, either Js or Hs, thus complementing USG efforts to 
make the Chadian military capable of combating terrorism in 
Chad's vast, remote, under-populated, and under-governed 
northern Saharan and Sahelian regions. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Despite his abrupt destitution as Chief of General 
Staff, Al-Djinedi may well continue to hold important 
positions in the GOC, reflecting his status as a model former 
rebel chieftain who renounced violence and returned to the 
Deby regime's fold, to which he as so far been loyal.  Fairly 
frequent rotation of Chiefs of General Staff is not uncommon 
in the Chadian military and ensures that the prestige and 
perks of high military position are shared among as many 
aspirants as possible and that no incumbent stays long enough 
to use it as a political power base. 
 
¶10.  (U)  Minimize considered. 
 
NIGRO