04 Khartoum 0451: Sudan-Violence Creates New Flow of IDPs in Upper Nile

04 Khartoum 0341: GOS Now Says Sabotage, Not Coup Plot; Turabi's Party Says GOS moves Are Aginst Them*

* Note:  On April 4, I met with the Speaker of Parliament, to deliver our relevant standard messages plus noted that we were watching the case of arrested MP. He thanked me for my "frankness."

04 Khartoum 0342: Visit of Romanian Special Envoy

From my Journal for March 17 & 19: Dealing with Government treatment of darfur IDPs in Mayo Camp, Khartoum

March 17: Shit is getting pretty near hitting the fan here. Spent the evening hearing reports of police violence against Darfur displaced persons at a camp near Khartoum. We made plans to be part of a dip convoy to the camp first thing tomorrow morning. Then we hear that eight have been killed and the violence is continuing. Tried to reach someone in GOS to ask them to intercede. Nothing accomplished. Tomorrow, at nine, off we go. The thugs are out of the closet and daring us not to dance with them.

March 19: Been an interesting 24 hours. Began yesterday with meeting a group of Western diplomatic colleagues at the Dutch embassy. We rendezvoused and set off for Mayo Camp to see if there was anything we could do to help the Darfur refugees there. We heard that some were being taken elsewhere and that the violence had continued through the night. The government now admitted to three killed, two women and a man. But we had reports that 15 had been killed and more wounded. The government was clearly trying to get rid of the camp before it attracted any more attention to the war in Darfur. We – US, French, British, Dutch and others – wanted to get there before they could do any more harm or erase the evidence. We failed. A couple of miles or so from the camp, near a market on a road full of traffic, we ran into a police roadblock, laid just for us. Not waiting for the usual bullshit explanations, I jumped from the car and started walking down the road. The police caught up to me. They tried to tell me that I could not go on, that I did not have permission. As the others caught up to me – I also had my bodyguards – I explained that we did not need permission. I said I would continue walking down the road. They said they could not allow that. I said they would have to detain me to stop me and continued walking. The police began to threaten and I paused to allow my security to explain to them that they could not impede or touch a diplomat. Things got heated. I made some calls to government people who eventually told me that I had permission. I also took a picture of the police block. This led to the police seeking to take my camera away from me. I eventually agreed to erase the picture and before being physically assaulted by a plainclothes policeman who was threatening me – he was a thug – I gave the police a memory chip that I had switched for the real one. A police general arrived with a pickup full of plainclothes thugs. He explained that the police were carrying out an “operation” at the camp and needed more time to “clean up.” They could not allow us to go any further for our own security. He assured me everything would be okay in a few hours and we could return then. We then agreed to turn back. As we were doing this, a UN team got a bit closer to the camp via another route and smelled tear gas and saw people fleeing. Later, a team did reach the camp but found it by that time deserted. Also latter, the foreign minister passed a message saying he was angry with me for trying to force the police to let us through. I rejected his position and instead said that we were protesting our treatment by the police.

04 Khartoum 0271: Sudanese Exporting "Moderate" Islam?

Note:  The conversation reported in this cable was with then-Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail.

04 Khartou 0148: GOS on Darfur Negotiations

04 Khartoum 0147: AF Acting A/AS Snyder and USAID A/A Winter Press Darfur and Abyei with Sudanese Foreign Minister

Also see journal entries below.

 

Journal entry for February 12:  It's been an intense 48 hours. Some of the most intensive bureaucratics I've ever seen and with the good guys -- Charlie -- on the ropes and the bad guys -- USAID -- running the ship toward an iceberg. Not sure where things stand or will stand when the dust settles.

I'm tired but have to await two visitors return. Charlie leaves at 2am but I have said my good-byes. This has been too intense for me, not the diplomacy or policy stuff but the shear degree of human stupidity, smallness and meanness involved while real people struggle with life and death matters.

See also:  Journal Entries for February 13 & 14 and note for 04 Khartoum 0252

04 Khartoum 0108: Supporting Human Right and Democracy*

* The next three cables were overlooked earlier.

04 Khartoum 0171 - A Darfur Primer

04 Khartoum 0161 -- Washington delegation travels to Darfur (plus note from journal)

Journal entry for January 15:  I can hardly remember how I started the day, some meeting at the UN, I believe. I had two there today and then ended up at the UN rep's for dinner. (He is being canned, in part because USAID doesn't like him.) In between, I had Ken Bacon to my house for a meeting with him and his staff. He was press spokesman for the Pentagon under Clinton.... We had a good chat; he is CEO of some refugee-related NGO, maybe a Demo front organization. I sought to put out a balanced, nuanced picture of reality here. He seemed to buy it.

Mikie (Mckinley) and Mike (Ranneberger) come back tomorrow for one more day of trying to micro-manage my embassy and me. I sent a few cables this weekend that may take some of the wind from USAID's sails as they try to parley seeing burning villages into a declaration of war against the thugs we happen to be working with now. But tomorrow I plan to sleep in and find some time to open my present.

Journal Entries for February 13 & 14, 2004:

February 13:  The house is empty again and I'm fading already.  It was an exciting few days.  Between USAID and State fighting it out and at the same time trying to end two wars, there were moments of interest.  Was fun watching McKinley operating.  He can't stand to see a moment go by without launching a bureaucratic or policy-oriented action of some sort.  Compared to him, I am a watcher and I draw lines that he fudges with ease.  Though to be fair to myself, I have been doing pretty well here with the little info that filters to me from DC.  Armed with the information gleaned from my visitors and their "elephant love-making," I believe we can stay a bit ahead of the home office.  The next two months will tell if the peace process will work out or not.  After that, US domestic politics, the elections and the coming of a new Assistant Secretary from USAID will pull the rug out from under a balanced approach to Sudan.  I alerted my CT guys here to beef up cooperation so we can create some countervailing facts on the ground.

I plan to sleep in tomorrow and then do nothing.  Even closed the Embassy comms so no one has an excuse to work.

February 14:  Meant to do nothing but spent most of the day working on getting government people to understand that my visitors in Darfur did not get arrested and to let them know they will have big political problems with the US if they don't move quickly to stop the violence.  Finally did get to relax with dinner of stuffed peppers from the food stash left by James.  Then went out onto my patio for a martini, which I am hoping will depress my system somewhat.  Running on adrenalin and 5 hours sleep, I need to come down a bit.

04 Khartoum 0144 -- Meeting President Bashir

04 Khartoum 0119 -- Trip to Juba

03 Khartoum 1091

Note: Cardinal Wako was the target of a failed assassination attempt in Khartoum on October 14, 2010.

03 Khartoum 1075

03Khartoum 0971