US embassy cable - 05VIENNA907

UNCLAS VIENNA 000907 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E, IO/UNP, EUR/ERA AND EUR/AGS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, SO, AF, AU, UNSC, EUN 
SUBJECT: SOMALIA - IGAD DEPLOYMENT: AUSTRIAN RESPONSE 
 
REF: STATE 47850 
 
This message is sensitive but unclassified. 
 
1.  (SBU) Pol Unit Chief discussed reftel points with 
Austrian MFA DAS-equivalent for Sub-Saharan Africa Caroline 
Gudenus on March 18.  Gudenus related that an EU fact-finding 
mission to Somalia in mid-February had found some positive 
developments.  While acceptance of a possible African 
Union-sponsored mission was still spotty, it was slowly 
increasing.  The debrief of this mission had been the subject 
of a recent discussion within the EU's Africa working group. 
 
2.  (SBU) Gudenus confided that the EU shared our 
reservations about an IGAD deployment, although, she noted, 
the EU meeting she was referring to predated the IGAD 
proposal.  The EU felt that any peacekeeping deployment must 
be the result of a consensus among all the players in the 
region, including the African Union.  It would require broad 
support from the various Somali factions.  The EU believed 
that a troop presence of Somalia's neighbors (especially 
Ethiopia) would provoke "strong resentments."  However, 
Ethiopia did not appear to be insisting on participation.  In 
any case, Gudenus continued, the African Union would have to 
help plan and coordinate the execution of any stabilization 
activities involving IGAD or its member states. 
Brown