VZCZCXRO0304
PP RUEHBC RUEHBZ RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHKUK RUEHMA
RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNJ #0539/01 3211306
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 171306Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7440
INFO RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0955
RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NDJAMENA 000539 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/C 
STATE ALSO FOR S/USSES 
STATE ALSO FOR PRM/AFR 
NSC FOR GAVIN 
GENEVA FOR RMA 
LONDON FOR POL - LORD 
PARIS FOR POL - BAIN AND KANEDA 
ADDIS ABABA FOR AU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF ASEC PREL PHUM SU CD
SUBJECT: CHAD HUMANITARIAN UPDATE, 09 - 15 NOV 2009 
 
¶1. (U) The following is an update of N'Djamena RefCoord's activities 
for the period of 09 - 15 NOV 2009. 
 
¶2. (U) In this edition: 
 
-- CONTINUED FOCUS ON EASTERN CHAD SECURITY (PARA 3) 
-- UN ACTION LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF UNSCR 1888 IMPLEMENTATION (PARA 
5) 
--  CONAFIT URGES NGO COOPERATION ON SECURITY; ICRC REPORTS ON 
KIDNAPPING (PARA 6) 
--  UNHCR-CHAD'S UNCOORDINATED PLANNING FOR 2010 PROGRAMS (PARA 8) 
--  NGO NEWS (PARA 10) 
--  CALENDAR 
 
 
--------------------------- 
CONTINUED FOCUS ON EASTERN 
CHAD SECURITY 
--------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Violent criminality continued to focus attention at the 
10 November bi-weekly security exchange meeting, chaired by the SRSG 
and attended by all UN and non-governmental humanitarian 
organizations represented in N'Djamena.  SRSG Victor Angelo urged 
representatives from UN Security Council Permanent Representatives 
to advocate at the UN for rapid deployment of fresh troop rotations, 
and delayed departure for those in the field.  He reported that he 
had received the commitment of the Governor of Ouaddai Province (the 
area of greatest current insecurity) to conduct security sweeps in 
refugee camps and areas of the city of Abeche where armed criminals 
were known to seek shelter, as well as to increase gendarme and 
police patrols in towns near refugee and IDP population 
concentrations in supplement to the Detachement Integre de Securite 
-- "DIS".  The UNPOL Police Commissioner reported that the DIS units 
were very lightly armed, and that UNPOL had made representations to 
CONAFIT, the interlocutor between the GoC and MINURCAT, for heavier 
weaponry to be issued.  He said another 90 vehicles -- open-bed 
pick-up trucks that Chadians prefer to use in rough terrain -- were 
to be arriving end-December to improve DIS mobility.  The MINURCAT 
Force representative reported that Croatian and Austrian troops and 
equipment had departed by the end of October, while the Polish 
contingent had been pressed to extend their stay to end-December. 
Deployment of Mongolian troops is still awaited; dates for equipment 
arrival are uncertain. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Some NGO reps deplored the fact that, although they have 
always conducted operations via convoys escorted by armed DIS agents 
or MINURCAT troops, there has not been sufficient troops to meet the 
need for vehicle movements.  IRC, a PRM partner NGO and a major 
provider of basic and emergency health services, reported being 
forced to run vehicles without security into camps on life-saving 
missions, and asked for the establishment of static posts along 
heavily used routes between camps and offices and residential 
compounds as a stop-gap measure.  Solidarite, who works in the far 
border regions without escort, since neither MINURCAT nor the DIS go 
so close to Sudan, and whose driver was killed in a spray of 
automatic weapons fire on their van in the Sudan border region, the 
work of men wearing ANT uniforms, asked that the International 
Community join in lobbying the GoC for reinforced police presence in 
the border areas where IDP populations receive services from NGOs. 
Replying to the OCHA Deputy Representative's comment that the GoC 
must take seriously its responsibility for the security of the 
country, the SRSG characterized the authorities as "operationally 
incapable", and urged all to be as realistic as possible in their 
expectations of the available security forces in the region.  ECHO, 
a major donor, urged all humanitarian organizations to conduct a new 
cost-benefit analysis to weigh the urgency and benefits of each 
activity against the risks run in implementations. 
 
----------------------------- 
UN ACTION LOOKING FOR SIGNS 
OF UNSCR 1888 IMPLEMENTATION 
----------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  RefCoord met 10 November with representatives of the UN 
Action group, described in their handout uniting "the work of 12 UN 
entities with the goal of ending sexual violence during and in the 
 
NDJAMENA 00000539  002 OF 004 
 
 
wake of conflict"  The UN Action team of Kate Burns, Senior Policy 
Officer at OCHA, and Gillians Holmes, Coordinator of UN Action, were 
accompanied by UNFPA Gender Advisor Fabiola Wizeye Ngeruka, as well 
as Ute Kollies, Office Head for UN OCHA.  They questioned RefCoord 
to determine what, if any, instructions for significant new or 
changed activities had been received in order to ensure the prompt 
implementation of UNSCR 1888 of 30 September 2009.  They were 
particularly interested in efforts to strengthen national protection 
mechanisms, especially processes for judicial redress. RefCoord 
noted that he had been tasked with exploring the division of labor 
currently in effect on questions of gender based violence among UN 
partners in Chad; the UNFPA Gender Advisor stressed that her 
organization was trying to do the same, to the extent of drawing up 
an organizational chart to make sense of all the actors in the 
field.  RefCoord explored the issue of activities focused on 
judicial structures, and suggested that the UN Action team spend 
time in Abeche -- their next stop -- discussing the cooperative 
activities of UNDP and MINURCAT's Rule of Law team. 
 
--------------------------- 
CONAFIT URGES NGO 
COOPERATION ON SECURITY; 
ICRC REPORTS ON KIDNAPPING 
--------------------------- 
¶6.  (SBU)  General Oki Mahamat Yaya Dagache, the Sepcial 
Representative of the President in charge of the National 
Coordinator for Support to the International Force in Eastern Chad 
(Coordination Nationale d'Appui a la Force International a l'Est du 
Tchad -- "CONAFIT"), convoked on 12 November all non-governmental 
and UN humanitarian organizations and major donors represented in 
N'Djamena, to discuss the current security situation.  Gen Dagache 
read from a prepared statement, then had the statement handed out as 
a circular, with the request that all comments on its content be 
submitted in writing.  Gen. Dagache in his prepared statement 
reminded the recipients that the security situation in eastern Chad 
is sufficiently "fluctuating" to require humanitarian organizations 
to take "preventative measures" in order to protect their personnel. 
 He oddly characterized some organizations' behavior as 
"liberticide" (a term coined around the time of the French 
revolution, defined as causing the destruction of liberty), and 
requested all organizations to "coordinate movements with the 
CONAFIT regional representative and the DIS.  He stated that 
non-respect for this request increased the danger to the lives of 
staff in the field, and that all incidents that occur were black 
marks on Chad's image.  He finished his statement by saying noting 
that the GoC has primary responsibility for security on Chadian 
territory, and stated that organizations not conforming to this 
request would see their activities called into question ("remises en 
cause"). 
¶7.  (SBU)  Despite the request that all comments be submitted in 
writing, the Country Director for the International Committee of the 
Red Cross (ICRC) intervened to stress that, indeed, security in Chad 
is the responsibility of the authorities.  She recalled to all that 
ICRC's world-wide practice is to work in all countries where they 
have permission without armed escorts, putting the onus squarely on 
the authorities to provide for the security of the Geneva-based 
international organization for the protection of conflict victims 
and individuals deprived of their freedom.  She emphasized the 
non-presence of MINURCAT and the DIS in the areas along the border 
where ICRC is active, in full consultation and coordination with 
CONAFIT, as well as the regional political and military authorities. 
 She recalled her frequent requests for national police and gendarme 
forces to be deployed to these areas.  She then reported that ICRC 
had been able to contact the perpetrators of the 09-10 November 
staff member kidnapping in the border area, in close coordination 
with the GoC.  She stated her confidence that the victim was in good 
health, and characterized him as a hostage for ransom.  She reminded 
the gathering that ICRC never pays ransoms, and has in the past had 
a very good record of obtaining the release of their personnel 
unharmed in similar circumstances.  Gen. Degache ended the session 
by saying that Chadian forces would do whatever they could to obtain 
the release of the ICRC staffer, if he were being held in Chad, but 
then opined that the problems that had been occurring in the east, 
including the most recent kidnapping, were all connected to Sudanese 
elements operating in the area. 
--------------------------- 
UNHCR-CHAD'S UNCOORDINATED 
 
NDJAMENA 00000539  003 OF 004 
 
 
PLANNING FOR 2010 PROGRAMS 
--------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  RefCoord met 13 November with the Abeche-based Senior 
Program Officer for UNHCR in Chad, to discuss several reports from 
PRM Partners of suddenly announced changes to funding and activities 
to be implemented as of 01 January 2009.  RefCoord reported that 
partners had telephoned and emailed during the week of 09 November 
to relay that UNHCR had announced an end to UNHCR's funding of the 
NGO's activities in one or more camps from the first of the year -- 
activities the conduct of which PRM has a cooperative agreement with 
the same NGO that is in effect to 31 July 2010 (See next item, "NGO 
News").  The Program Officer described the UNHCR-Chad planning 
process for the next calendar year as having been fraught with delay 
and procrastination over the last six months, followed by a crash 
effort to catch up that began in November.  She said that 
programming discussions to move from the Global Needs Assessment to 
a prioritized Country Needs Assessment integrated into the "FOCUS" 
results-based management software should have been undertaken 
through the summer months.  Instead, the entire process was put off 
to the beginning of November, did not involve NGO partners until a 
hastily organized coordination meeting on 09 - 10 November, and 
resulted in a "take-it-or-leave-it" dictation to NGOs as to the 
activities UNHCR would fund and coordinate. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  The Program Officer told RefCoord that there was some 
method to the planning madness, with a strong effort to move 
national government structures, especially the National Commission 
for the Welcome and Reinsertion of Refugees (Commission Nationale 
d'Accueil et de Reinsertion des Refugies  -- "CNAR") into a more 
active role in refugee camp management.  She said UNHCR wanted to 
increase refugee populations' overall capacity for greater self 
reliance in the coming year, which included favoring national NGOs 
to take on significant new activities in the place of international 
NGOs.  Nonetheless, she reported that the possible impact of these 
potentially sweeping decisions on continuing PRM-funded activities 
hadn't come up in the UNHCR planning process.  She encouraged 
RefCoord to request a coordination session with UNHCR senior staff 
for a camp-by-camp and partner-by-partner explanation of how UNHCR 
saw activities going forward. 
 
--------- 
NGO NEWS 
--------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU)  RefCoord held individual partner coordination meetings 
during the week with country directors or other officials from 
Architects d'Urgence (AU), International Medical Corps (IMC), the 
Foundation for the Refugee Education Trust (RET), and the Hebrew 
Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). 
 
¶11.  (SBU)  AU reported on 09 November that their school-building 
activities in the Oure Cassoni camp are completely stalled, awaiting 
some kind of clarity as to whether or not the camp will be moved 45 
kms to the west.  RefCoord provided a hard copy of PRM Comptroller's 
approval for funding for two staff members to remain in place until 
some kind of decision is made as to the camp's fate.  RefCoord 
encouraged AU to begin building timelines out to the end of the 
cooperative agreement period, which would help in determining at 
what date it would no longer be possible to begin construction and 
meet a significant level of performance indicators for the project. 
 
 
¶12.  (SBU)  IMC's Acting Country Director told RefCoord on 10 
November that the NGO's security precautions in Iriba and Guereda 
area camps are already at a very high level, but that he would 
conduct a re-assessment in the coming days.  He noted that the NGO's 
staff avail themselves of the MINURCAT and DIS convoy escorts 
whenever possible, and reduces non-escorted road movements by 
reimbursing patients and their care-givers for car rental and other 
transportation costs when patients must be moved in the absence of 
an escort -- a very common occurrence.  He noted that rented 
vehicles are often not targeted by carjacking gangs, and that in 
cases with less urgency and shorter distances patients are moved by 
donkey cart. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  RET's Country Director updated RefCoord on 12 November 
 
NDJAMENA 00000539  004 OF 004 
 
 
on progress toward establishing a new secondary school center in 
Hadjer Hadid.  He said the original idea to purchase a site with two 
classroom structures from a local religious community would be put 
aside in favor of what would be an essentiall no-fee lease of the 
ste for five years.  RET would compensate the religous community 
by refurbishing the two classroom tructures, to be used for Grade 9 
instruction, an building for more classrooms for Grades 10 and 1, 
using the construction budget in the cooperatie agreement. 
 
¶14.  (SBU)  HIAS visiting Associat Director for International 
Operations reported to RefCoord on 15 November the details of 
UNHCR's sudden announcement of changes to their funding to the NGO. 
She said that the NGO has been instructed to stop all provision of 
all psycho-social and community services in Djabal camp and 
psycho-social services in Gaga camp.  She said HIAS was told UNHCR 
would continue funding HIAS community services only in Treguine, 
Bredjing, Goz Amer, and Gaga camps.  The Associate Director said she 
was struck by the "unilateral, almost dictatorial" nature of the 
decisions, with no prior consultations or coordination. 
 
--------- 
CALENDAR 
--------- 
 
11 -- 18 NOV: RefCoord's Embassy Duty Officer Week 
 
23 -- 30 NOV: (TBC) Proposed M&E travel to Iriba, Farchana 
 
NIGRO