VZCZCXRO6185
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHKH #0126/01 0241210
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 241209Z JAN 10
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0054
INFO AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 KHARTOUM 000126 
 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR S/USSES 
INL 
NSC FOR MICHELLE GAVIN 
ADDIS ABABA PASS USAU, AMBASSADOR BATTLE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SU OAU
SUBJECT: African Union High Level Implementation Panel for Sudan 
Brief P-5 Ambassadors 
 
¶1.  Summary.  Ambassadors and Charges from the P-5 met on January 
23 with the African Union High Level Implementation Panel (AUHIP) 
at the latter's request.  AUHIP Chairman Thabo Mbeki presented the 
panel's proposed action plan for future involvement in Sudan and 
provided a detailed briefing on what AUHIP hopes to achieve.  He 
staked out a broad AUHIP mandate that extended from the peace 
process in Darfur to conflict mitigation in the South, from 
post-referendum issues to the coordination of international action 
on Sudan.  Mbeki said that he had presented his nine-point work 
plan to both the National Congress Party (NCP) and Sudanese 
People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) and anticipated their 
respective responses within the following days.  Mbeki made a good 
case for a wider AUHIP role in Sudan, although the scope of the 
proposed work plan is extremely ambitious and some timelines seem 
overly optimistic.  He acknowledged that the AU would require a 
beefed-up presence on the ground in Sudan and elsewhere but did not 
address either exact numbers or costs.  End summary. 
 
 
 
¶2.  Former South African President Thabo Mbeki, former Burundian 
President Pierre Buyoya and former Nigerian President Abdulsalami 
Abubakar briefed P-5 Chiefs of Mission January 23 on The AUHIP's 
proposed role in Sudan from January 2010 through July 2011.  Mbeki, 
who conducted the briefing for the AU side, stressed the urgency of 
action to help Sudan overcome its problems during the period ahead. 
Mbeki handed out copies of the AUHIP work plan and said that he had 
already sent a short note to  special envoys involved in Sudan to 
report where things stand.  He said that the AU was interested in 
value-added implementation tasks that did not duplicate other 
initiatives already underway.  He noted that AUHIP had not yet met 
with Joint Chief Mediator (JCM) Djibril Bassole or the Qataris but 
hoped to do so soon.  An anticipated meeting with the respective 
heads of the UN and AU peacekeeping departments had not come off as 
scheduled on January 18 because the UN's Alain Le Roy had been 
unable to break away from the situation in Haiti.  Mbeki said he 
had met with Sir Derek Plumbly, the Chairman of the Assessment and 
Evaluation Commission (AEC) and hoped AUHIP would be able to 
collaborate closely with that body, as there was to need to 
duplicate the ongoing AEC role in monitoring implementation of the 
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) between the North and South. 
Most importantly, Mbeki concluded, he had met with and presented 
the work plan to both the NCP and SPLM and requested their views on 
the proposal.  He expected their respective specific replies- 
within the next three days, at which time AUHIP would immediately 
get to work. 
 
 
 
¶3.  Mbeki next turned to the work plan and discussed the nine 
proposed areas in which AUHIP hopes to engage, as follow. 
 
 
 
0   Helping accelerate the resolution of the conflict in Darfur. 
The most expansive point in the plan included assistance to JCM 
Bassole and Qatar; establishment of a permanent AUHIP presence in 
Doha; engagement with armed opposition (to convince them to 
negotiate); engagement with a range of Darfur communities, plus 
preparing for a major Darfur-Darfur Conference to search for 
consensus on ways forward, creation of a suitable electoral 
environment, post-conflict issues, and unmet gaps; prepare and set 
a date for the DDC; work with UNAMID to improve the security 
environment with community policing of IDP camps, facilitation of 
expanded UAMID patrols, etc; and join action by the Government of 
Sudan, the AU and UNAMID that would support voluntary returns, deal 
with land ownership claims and provide compensation.  Mbeki said 
that he hoped a political settlement could be brokered in advance 
of April elections. 
 
 
 
0   Implementation of the CPA.  AUHIP planned to engage with the 
AEC and establish close liaison with UNMIS, IGAD and special envoys 
to assist the NCP and SPLM in resolving outstanding CPA matters. 
Mbeki was a bit fuzzy on some of the details, such as the use of 
the disputed 2008 census for the April elections.  He noted that 
the NCP had made a proposal to the SPLM on supplemental SPLM 
members of the National Assembly but said he was not clear on the 
details and did not think the SPLM had yet responded. 
 
KHARTOUM 00000126  002 OF 003 
 
 
0   Facilitation of post-referendum issues.  Mbeki said the NCP and 
SPLM had agreed to a AUHIP role but did not specify what.  He 
observed that both parties had created task forces to define their 
positions and noted that the AEC could play an expanded role by 
serving as the secretariat for dealing with these issues. 
 
 
 
0   Making unity attractive.  AUHIP hoped to convene a National 
Summit Meeting of Sudanese political parties to achieve a national 
consensus of the major challenges facing the country.  He cited a 
2007 agreement on national reconciliations that the NCP and SPLM 
had adopted but never implemented, and referred to this as a 
possible starting point. 
 
 
 
0   Southern Sudanese consensus.  He noted that AUHIP had met with 
southern parties in Juba the prior month and gotten broad agreement 
on opening democratic space and providing funding to opposition 
parties that the elections would pass muster.  The work plan called 
for a summit meeting on these and related issues by the end of 
February.  Mbeki referred to a 2008 decision by a meeting of 
Southern Sudanese political parties that GOSS President Kiir 
admitted had not been implemented. 
 
 
 
0   Tackling ethnic conflicts in Southern Sudan.  AUHIP hoped to 
engage with the Government of Southern Sudan (GOSS) on how to 
foster inter-ethnic reconciliation in the South.  Mbeki noted that 
the ongoing conflicts were nothing new and that reconciliation was 
needed whether or not Sudan remains united. 
 
 
 
0   The April 10 general elections.  Mbeki said that AUHIP planned 
to meet with the National Elections Commission (NEC) on a paper the 
NEC had sent to the panel in Addis Ababa.  All matters relating to 
free, fair and inclusive elections would be on the table, including 
disputed legislations and the vote in Darfur. 
 
 
 
0   Sudan's neighbors.  Mbeki said that AUHIP had its own program 
to engage with all of Sudan's neighbors as well as the UN and other 
interested international partners. 
 
 
 
0   Coordinated international action.  Mbeki said that AUHIP 
envisaged an international consultative mechanism that would meet 
regularly in Addis.  He said that the UN would be included and 
noted that under each of the nine work categories there was a point 
about liaison with special envoys.  He said that he wanted the 
comments of special envoys on the work plan, specifically how they 
could work together with the AUHIP to help Sudan, and requested 
that the G-5 ambassadors transmit this document to their envoys. 
He observed that organization of a Khartoum-based "Friends of 
Sudan" coordinating group might also be useful.  Mbeki said that he 
would move ahead on these issues only after receiving a green light 
from the NCP and SPLM. 
 
 
 
¶4.  Mbeki said that AUHIP realized that in addition to deploying a 
permanent presence to Doha, it would need to develop a time-line in 
order to deal with short-fuse priority issues and to beef up the 
staff of Ambassador Mahmoud Kane's AU Liaison Office in Khartoum. 
He said that the EU had already said it could assist with this 
initiative.  Mbeki opened a question and answer session in which he 
said AUHIP would be unable to meet with the special envoys in Addis 
Ababa on January 31 because of prior commitments.  Mbeki strongly 
agreed that setting up referendum commissions for Southern Sudan 
and Abyei should take place immediately, and not after an elected 
government was in place in April - that would be far too late.  He 
responded that AUHIP foresaw a role in setting up a justice 
mechanism for Darfur but that the GOS had said that first it needed 
additional engagement with the panel.  Mbeki confirmed that AUHIP 
had thus far met separately with the NCP and SPLM and would do so 
again in fielding the reaction of the two parties to the work plan. 
The three-AUHIP members were accompanied by Ambassador Kane, AU 
staff from Addis Ababa and Khartoum, and renowned Sudan expert Alex 
 
KHARTOUM 00000126  003 OF 003 
 
 
de Wall, who is assisting the panel. 
 
 
 
¶5.  (sbu)  Comment.  The work plan is comprehensive, perhaps too 
much so.  Close collaboration, including pre-agreed task-sharing by 
stakeholders, will be necessary to realize this very ambitious 
program.  The optimistic time-lines for some initiatives, such as a 
political agreement in Darfur, will be difficult to realize.  We 
strongly agree that a "Friends of Sudan" working group in Sudan can 
be helpful in keeping the array of competing/ complementary 
initiatives to help Sudan remain on track. 
WHITEHEAD