Cablegate: Darfur: Rwandans Driving Hard Apc Bargain with Un

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RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHTRO RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUCNDT #0895/01 2930025
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O 200025Z OCT 07
FM USMISSION USUN NEW YORK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2838
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUEHGG/UN SECURITY COUNCIL COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000895

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: AF PGOV PHUM PREL SU
SUBJECT: DARFUR: RWANDANS DRIVING HARD APC BARGAIN WITH UN

SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; PROTECT ACCORDINGLY.

1. (SBU) SUMMARY. With United States Air Force C-17's
standing by on October 19 in Kigali to facilitate transport
to Darfur, a Rwandan infantry battalion balked at boarding.
The Rwandans wanted an assurance that any damage in Darfur to
the 18 armored personnel carriers they were bringing with
them would be reimbursed by the United Nations. When a
memorandum of understanding on these liability issues, under
negotiation for the past three months, could not be concluded
before the C-17's arrived, USUN intervened with senior UN
leadership to help craft a letter, borrowing language from
the UN model MOU, explaining that the UN was undertaking to
cover damage to the vehicles not caused by fault of the
Rwandans. The UN has transmitted that letter to the Rwandan
Mission in New York. The text of the letter follows in
paragraph 6. END SUMMARY.

2. (SBU) Throughout the day of October 19, USUN received
reports from the Department and elsewhere that two Air Force
C-17 aircraft were standing by in Kigali to transport an
infantry battalion of Rwandan troops to Darfur where they
were slated to provide force protection for the Heavy Support
Package (HSP) to the African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS).
The aircraft were also to transport 18 Rwanda-owned armored
personnel carriers to Darfur for use by the deploying troops.
The transport of the troops and APC's to Darfur and
redeployment of Rwandan troops serving with AMIS was to
require ten days with two round-trips per day.

3. (SBU) Evidently the Government of Rwanda refused to order
the troops to deploy from Kigali because three months of
UN-GOR negotiations had failed to produce an agreement
regarding liability for any deployment-related damage to the
18 APC's. The negotiation impasse, according to UN sources,
stemmed from vastly different UN and Rwandan appraisals of
the value of the APC's.

4. (SBU) When the Department informed USUN that the GOR would
be willing to accept a stopgap UN letter assuming liability
in principle with the values to be worked out subsequently,
Ambassador Wolcott contacted UN Office of Mission Support
A/SYG Jane Holl Lute, on travel in Europe, and convinced her
that the deployment window offered by the dedicated C-17's
was rapidly closing. Lute charged Maxwell Kerley, Acting
Logistics Support Director, with coordinating with the UN
Office of Legal Affairs and USUN the drafting of a letter
addressing the Rwandan concerns as reported. Kerley
ultimately produced and signed the letter reprinted in
paragraph 6 below and delivered it to the Rwandan Mission in
New York.

5. (SBU) Kerley explained that the second paragraph of the
letter is based on a UN model MOU and has the UN assuming
liability for any damage to any of the APC's not caused by
fault of the Rwandans themselves. He added that "any APC
anywhere in the world has a value greater than $250,000" so
that the UN thereby clearly assumes responsibility for the
full value of the APC's, whatever that exact value is later
determined to be.

6. (SBU)

Begin Text:

The Secretariat of the United Nations presents its
compliments to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of
Rwanda to the United Nations and has the honour to assure you
that with respect to your deployment of 18 APC Wheeled
Infantry Carrier-armed to DARFUR the following regulations
apply with regards to liability;

Under the wet lease arrangement the rates include a no fault
factor whereby the UN undertakes to cover loss of or damage
to equipment in a no-fault incident. In the case of loss or
damage from a single hostile action or forced abandonment,
the United Nations will assume liability for each item of
major equipment when the collective generic value is above
$250,000.

In this regard a draft Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has
been prepared which forms the basis for formal negotiations
leading to a signed MOU.

The Secretariat of the United Nations avails itself of this
opportunity to renew to the Permanent Mission of the Republic
of Rwanda to the United Nations the assurances of its highest
consideration.

USUN NEW Y 00000895 002 OF 002

S/ MK

19 October 2007

End Text.

KHALILZAD

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