VZCZCXRO6155
OO RUEHGI RUEHMA RUEHROV
DE RUEHKH #1646/01 2951629
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 221629Z OCT 07
FM AMEMBASSY KHARTOUM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8909
INFO RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI IMMEDIATE 0253
RHMFISS/CJTF HOA IMMEDIATE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001646
SIPDIS
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
DEPARTMENT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, AF S/E NATSIOS, AND AF/SPG
ADDIS ABABA ALSO FOR USAU
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPKO UN AU SU
SUBJECT: SLM ADOPTS LEGALISTIC APPROACH TO LIBYA TALKS,
REJECTS ATTENDANCE WITHIN GNU
REF: KHARTOUM 01488
KHARTOUM 00001646 001.2 OF 002
-------------------
"Political Suicide"
-------------------
1. (SBU) Despite UN and African Union efforts to invite the
Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM)/Minawi to the upcoming Darfur
peace negotiations in Libya as a member of the Government of
National Unity (GNU), the SLM characterizes this formulation
as "political suicide," three senior SLM leaders told Poloff
on October 20. Following the National Congress Party (NCP)'s
designation of Presidential Assistant Nafie Ali Nafie as the
head of the GNU delegation to the talks, direct association
with Nafie would undermine the movement's credibility in
Darfur and prevent them from advocating their positions
during the negotiations. The SLM is only prepared to attend
the talks in its capacity as a signatory to the Darfur Peace
Agreement (DPA). The GNU is a fiction, they said, given the
current crisis between the NCP and the Sudan People's
Liberation Movement (SPLM), and a GNU delegation will in
reality be "100 percent" NCP.
-----------------
An "Enhanced" DPA
-----------------
2. (SBU) Echoing the position of SLM Chairman Minni Minawi
(reftel), SLM leaders maintain that the current process
should result in an "enhanced" DPA rather than a new
agreement. While flexible on many components of the
DPA--including giving up the position of Senior Assistant to
the President--the SLM leaders stated that the focus of the
negotiations should be on establishing effective security
arrangements and further delineating the power and
wealth-sharing provisions of the agreement to address the
concerns of the non-signatories. These more specific power
and wealth-sharing elements should then be codified, they
argue, within the national legal framework. According to the
SLM, DPA implementation stalled because President Bashir
delayed the integration of its provisions into the Interim
National Constitution, despite ratification by the National
Assembly and the Council of Ministers.
3. (SBU) The SLM leaders explained that an enhanced DPA could
provide legal powers to the Senior Assistant and the chairmen
of the commissions of the Transitional Darfur Regional
Authority (TDRA) so that they can address the marginalization
of the people of Darfur. Wealth-sharing could be addressed
by fixing specific amounts of compensation, creating a
credible mechanism for distributing the funds, and unifying
the development budgets of the three Darfur states. The SLM
leaders contended that a peace process with this approach
would accommodate the concerns of the DPA non-signatories
without alienating the SLM. (Note: Following the
UN/AU-organized meeting of several rebel movements in Arusha
in early August, UN/AU officials cited the movements'
acceptance of "80 to 90 percent" of the DPA as one of the
principal successes of the event. End note.)
----------------------
A Doctrinaire Approach
----------------------
4. (SBU) An example of the SLM's doctrinaire approach to the
upcoming negotiations is their technical objections to the
draft cessation of hostilities agreement that the UN/AU
presented to senior SLM officials on October 18, which the
UN/AU intends as the first order of business in Libya. The
title--"Declaration on a Cessation of Hostilities"--and the
absence of any reference to the DPA or the N'djamena
Humanitarian Cease-fire Agreement ignored the existence of
previous cease-fire mechanisms that were still binding on all
of the parties, according to the SLM leaders. They suggested
that "commitment" replace "declaration" in order to account
for these prior documents. The SLM representatives further
objected to the use of "renewed" in reference to the upcoming
negotiations, as it inaccurately implies that the
negotiations were "between the same parties" as the Abuja
process.
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Comment
-------
5. (SBU) The SLM considers any changes to the DPA without
KHARTOUM 00001646 002.2 OF 002
their consent to be a violation of a legally binding
agreement and resents the UN/AU's lack of consultation with
them as the peace process unfolds. By the UN/AU's own
admission, their October 18 meeting with the SLM was the
first time that the movement's participation in the talks and
its position on the issues were discussed in detail. The SLM
finds the absence of UN/AU consultation particularly
insulting given Minawi's public support for the UN/AU process
and private efforts to convince non-signatories, such as
Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) faction leaders Bahar Abu
Gharda and Abdullah Banda, to attend the talks. End comment.
6. (U) Tripoli minimize considered.
POWERS