US embassy cable - 05ABUJA59

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 000059 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/14/2015 
TAGS: PREL, KAWC, SU, NI, DARFUR 
SUBJECT: OBASANJO ON SUDAN TRIBUNAL CONCEPT 
 
REF: STATE 8981 
 
Classified By: Ambassador John Campbell for Reasons 1.5 (B & D). 
 
1. (C) Ambassador presented the Sudan Tribunal Concept 
demarche to the Foreign Ministry and National Security 
Advisor, and then to President Obasanjo, on January 14. 
After explaining where he was going on the Darfur talks 
(below), Obasanjo asked how it would be decided who would be 
prosecuted by the Tribunal.  While Obasanjo was friendly 
during the entire conversation, he clearly said that "how 
suspects will be identified, arrested and brought to the 
Tribunal must be answered before we move forward." 
 
2. (C) "Rwanda (the ICTR) was easy, as everyone involved 
agreed there had been a genocide," Obasanjo explained.  "If 
the UN Darfur Commission of Inquiry (COI) decided that there 
had been genocide in Darfur, then the COI could identify 
those to be pursued, he continued, "But if the COI did not, 
how would suspects be procured for the court?"  It was the 
key to the process and to AU involvement, Obasanjo said, 
because Sudan is a member of the AU and has never denied 
arming the Janjawiid.  Disarming the Janjawiid would be 
difficult enough as it was, as the GOS was naturally 
protective of the Janjawiid for having helped GOS forces 
against the rebellion. 
 
ON THE NEXT ROUND OF DARFUR TALKS 
 
3. (C) Obasanjo said that he had been in Darfur and met with 
President Bashir on January 8, and then flew to Libreville 
where Darfur was at the top of the AU peace and security 
summit agenda.  He had stopped in Libya on the way, and made 
the point (again) to Qadhafi that everything done on Darfur 
politically must be within the Abuja talks framework. 
Qadhafi at the time was meeting with around 400 notables from 
Darfur, and kept Obasanjo waiting for an hour -- for the 
first time.  Obasanjo said he would stop in Libya again on 
January 27 or 28 just before the AU Summit in Abuja to find 
out what Qadhafi had been up to since, and would be prepared 
to engage on the Tribunal at that point (assuming his 
question on how suspects would be identified had been 
answered by then). 
 
4. (C) Obasanjo said he has decided to hold off re-starting 
the Darfur talks until the first week of February, to give 
SPLA leader Garang an opportunity to use his good offices 
with the various Darfur parties.  Obasanjo said he was 
thinking of holding the next round of talks outside Abuja 
(although within Nigeria), to get the rebels away from the 
press.  Without that distraction, he believed all sides might 
be able to come to agreement in about four weeks.  He thought 
a four week period from the first week of February might also 
fit well with the north-south agreement implementation 
schedule in Sudan.  Obasanjo had heard from Garang that the 
SPLA leader would go to Khartoum only after the new 
constitution had been passed by the National Assembly, which 
Garang thought would be in April, and Obasanjo thought 
holding the Darfur talks from the first week of February 
would allow them to feed into the constitution-making process. 
 
5. (U) Minimize considered. 
CAMPBELL