04 Khartoum 0536: Sudan-Darfur-DART Sitrep #5 (The humanitarian situation during a ceaseifre

04 Khartoum 0367: April 7, 2004 Meeting with Sudan's Foreign Minister*

* From my journal for April 7:  Met with the foreign minister and tried to find a way forward vis-à-vis the Chad talks. Maybe found one. Accepted his offer to have someone from the Embassy travel with him to Darfur. Meanwhile, the talks in Kenya maybe/maybe not have a breakthrough. Went to dinner on the Nile despite the heat. The warm breeze carried the smell of animal waste. Some kind of bug was out flying around the lights. But it actually wasn’t that bad. And sometimes a slightly cool, fresh breeze came along (helped by huge fans going at a respectful distance). Took the opportunity to try a waterpipe. Not bad. The slightly past full moon rose in the east over the Nile.

From my Journal for the end of March 2004: Trying to Set up Talks with Darfur Rebels

March 23: Had junior officers over for dinner tonight, part of charm offensive and my new approach to trying to have and encourage fun. Went well I think but I had two martinis. At ten, USAID Roger arrived and we chatted and did some business till just late. We get on fine but I had two martinis. Rest of USAID probably still hates me. Can't please everyone and still do good. Busy day.

March 24: It was a crazy day but worked out ok. Chasing Salah [Gosh]. Looks like the Darfur talks may get off the ground sometime early next week. We launch our group from here early tomorrow. I have to get up at six to say goodbye to Roger [Winter]. Janice, our poloff, is going too. I played a big role in arranging this possibility but few will ever know. But it'll be good if it works to bring peace.

March 26: Had a nice dinner last night with my IGAD colleagues -- Kenya, Uganda, Eritrea and Ethiopia. Kenyan host invited Somalia rep and South African. I really like the Africans. Stayed later than I expected cause Elijah, the Kenyan, wanted to talk more about Somalia. The IGAD countries want US help. Maybe I'll volunteer to do Somalia after Sudan.

March 27: Combined work with napping today. Tried to chase down a rebel leader not yet committed to talks. Also attended a UN reception for the departing UN chief. Standing for two hours was a killer. Last night was the excellent Rec Site dance. Sore knees but good time.

March 29: It seems like the work we did has managed to avoid being derailed by [USAID and French]. Darfur talks look to start tomorrow in Chad. Last minute efforts made here seem to have gotten chief rebel holdout to go. Now if the USAID/French crew don't fuck up the actual talks, there may be hope. But I feel good that the last month of effort has gotten to this point. Sure too bad that god isn't keeping score because that'd be all the credit I ever get. I made this happen in my typical way, mostly invisible but enough showed to get me more enmity than anything else from the USAID shits.

Met with leaders of chief opposition parties today including useful lunch with Sadiq El Mahdi in his pavilion in his back garden. Janice called from N’djamena to say that the arrival of the rebels was a scene out of Lawrence of Arabia. Ah what times we live in here along the margins of the Sahara.

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 0254: Darfur Diplomacy Update

 Also, see note below.

From my journal of March 2:

"Had a pleasant and productive lunch with the Foreign Minister at his Blue Nile-side residence. With British ambassador and Dutch charge. Lasted three hours. We refined the formula for the meeting in Chad. When I got back, learned that USAID is still doing some free-lancing, except since they are in charge, they think it's me doing the free-lancing. But we appear to be on track. In the end, may have to bow out and let them take the seats and – they think – the glory. The way we do foreign policy has degraded mightily in the years I have been in the business."

04 Khartoum 0252: Government and Darfur Rebels Accept Chad Plus Meeting

Also, see note below.

Note:  The reference to an "external player" mentioned in para 2 was to political appointees from USAID.  They were trying to prevent a Darfur negotiation from moving forward unless it was folded into the North-South peace process.  These USAID officials were pro-SPLM and very much opposed to the Khartoum regime.  They saw bringing the Darfur conflict into the wider negotiations with the government as a way to increase pressure on it and perhaps further dismember Sudan.  These USAID appointees came from the Christian fundamentalist NGO community supportive of the SPLM as Christian black Africans vs Islamic Arabs.  They originally sought to keep Darfur off our agenda because they saw it as a distraction to the "main show."

The following is from my journal entry for March 8.  The "perfect storm" I was hoping to avoid was the reaction from USAID Washington to our joint EU/US effort to get Darfur talks going without bringing in extra issues.

"I think missed a weekend somewhere. I had 15 minutes of free time in the office today and didn't know what to do with it. Started at 8:15 with the UK ambassador and wound up at 8pm after a two hour meeting with a senior official. Along the way, spent another 1½ hours with the French Ambassador. Got home to a dark house and microwaved one of the dishes James left for me. Of course, at least I have a cook and don't have to clean my own dishes.

I've been doing a bunch of stuff – to avoid a “perfect storm” – without DC reaction. Won't have any until tomorrow given time difference. Another consequence of not having a weekend."

04 Khartoum 0215: The Darfur Rebels Call*

*  This cable posted a bit out of sequence.

Journal Entry for February 26, 2004: Trying to Catch Up with USAID

Started the day running a bit late because I actually slept until my alarm. Checked the email, used my exercise bike and took a shower, leaving a bare 15 minutes for breakfast. At ten, I met the leaders of the new SPLM office in Khartoum. They were clandestine but now the youth and women’s section had become open. I made them feel welcome (and reported same). Bright, committed and focused. It was a pleasure to meet them. For lunch, I went to [my military attaché's] house to meet a couple of Sudanese generals and the local military attaches. Spent some time talking with the PLO attaché. He was polite and likable. I am glad I don’t defend US policy on Palestine for a living. Spoke to Pasquale a couple of times by phone to do him a favor – get extra pages into his passport – and about leaving for the Nile on Sunday. Did some office work and eventually wound up at the British ambassador’s place to hear from him – he was just back from Kenya – what USAID policy on Darfur is. What I mean by that, is that USAID – one part of the USG – is not telling the State Department – another part of the USG – what it is doing about meeting Darfur rebels but is talking to Her Majesty’s Government. After leaving, and on the way to the Japanese Ambassador’s for dinner, I managed to call Nairobi via Washington and transmit the intelligence on USAID to my State Department boss soon to arrive in Kenya. (He had earlier called me from Amsterdam to see what I knew.) Dinner was quite excellent Japanese food including sushi and tempura. The Ambassador had actually brought a Japanese chef with him, the only one to apply for the job. Also at dinner were the Libyan, quite jovial, and his wife, a UN person from Yemen and the Greek Ambassador. The Greek looks dour all the time but is simply Greek – cynical about everything but also with a happy appreciation of the absurd. The Yemeni had a simply endless list of problems that would make the peace process in Sudan “much more difficult than everyone believes.” Another day in the life.

04 Khartoum 0175 - Meeting with Darfur Tribe Leaders (plus journal entry)

Journal Entry for Feb 20:   

Didn't write last night cause I was too tired. High point of day was speaking with five senior Darfurians representing the rebels and non-Arab tribes. Making policy as I go fully aware of the many crosscutting forces working right now. Cautioned them to focus on immediate agenda take up EU offer to meet. Of course, as of now the GOS my be pulling plug on that.

04 Khartoum 0162 -- EU Pressing on Darfur, Meeting Rebels

03 Khartoum 1061

03 Khartoum 1060