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Viewing cable 09NAIROBI2499, Somalia - Security Meeting Delivers Modest Results

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
09NAIROBI2499 2009-12-17 08:28 2011-08-24 01:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Nairobi
VZCZCXRO8697
RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSL RUEHSR RUEHTRO
RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHNR #2499/01 3510829
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 170828Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY NAIROBI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0147
INFO EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
SOMALIA COLLECTIVE
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC
RUEPADJ/CJTF-HOA J2X CAMP LEMONIER DJ
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NAIROBI 002499 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
STATE FOR AF/E, AF/RSA, AND A/S CARSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV SO MOPS UG BY
SUBJECT: Somalia - Security Meeting Delivers Modest Results 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary. Key security sector donors, as well as 
representatives from the UN, AMISOM and the Transitional Federal 
Government (TFG) gathered in Kampala on December 9 for a Joint 
Security Committee.  The committee is a forum to coordinate 
activity to assist the TFG's security sector.  The committee met 
its modest goals of addressing stipend payment and training 
problems among the police, and eliciting commitment from the TFG to 
publish an already-drafted National Security Plan.  In the plenary 
session the AMISOM Force Commander (FC) briefed us on his 
assistance to recently trained TFG forces bivouacked in his camps. 
The meeting's communiquC) follows in para 10.  End Summary. 
 
 
 
2.  (SBU) On December 9 in Kampala we attended a meeting of the 
Joint Security Committee of security sector donors and the 
Transitional Federal Government (TFG).  The meeting's agenda was 
modest, but action oriented.  It succeeded in resolving police 
payment and training problems and gaining a TFG commitment to begin 
drafting a National Security Plan as called for in the 
just-completed Security Sector Assessment. 
 
 
 
3.  (U) At the beginning of the day participants formed two working 
groups before the plenary session.  One group, chaired by the UN 
Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General Charles 
Petrie addressed urgent TFG police payment and training problems. 
Representatives from the European Union, UNDP, AMISOM, TFG, UNPOS, 
France and we attended.  A second Military Working Group gathered 
under direction of UNPOS Security Sector Advisor Colonel Paul 
Kellet.  Representatives from AMISOM, UNPOS, TFG, Italy, Sweden and 
we participated. 
 
 
 
4.  (SBU) The Police Working Group discussed the decision by 
newly-appointed TFG national police commissioner Ali Hassan 
Mohammed Loyan to delay by two weeks the resumption of salary 
payments to 2,700 UNDP-trained police using EU funds.  According to 
Police Commissioner Loyan, he ordered the pause to prevent non-UNDP 
trained police from publicly agitating for salaries.  According to 
our contacts, 1,280 Kenya- and Ethiopian-trained police, who are in 
uniform and on duty in Mogadishu, are disgruntled by lack of 
salaries and delays in beginning a three-week human rights training 
course that would make them eligible for UNDP-administered 
stipends.  In the police working group, the EU agreed to pay a 
reduced stipend to the 1,280 while they awaited their human rights 
course.  The working group also agreed to set a deadline for AMISOM 
to decide if it could commence with the human rights training by 
February 1.  If not, UNDP will conduct it. 
 
 
 
5.  (U) The Military Working Group used the draft Somali Training 
Policy as the basis for a discussion of the requirements of the 
National Security Force (NSF).  Attending the session were the 
Minister of National Security Abdulahi Ali and the Deputy Chief of 
Staff of the Somali Army General Mohamed Sheik "Madobe," as well as 
AMISOM Force Commander (FC)General Mungisha and UNPOS.  The working 
group agreed that an organized approach to National Security Force 
training was a good idea, but it was unclear to us the number and 
location of the NSF outlined in the draft.  On this issue Security 
Minister Ali and Deputy Chief of Staff "Madobe" deferred to the 
Defense Minister, who was not present. 
 
 
 
6.  (U) In the working group the AMISOM FC gave a brief on his 
activities in support of the Selection/Induction training prior to 
a foreign training phase, and then the Reintegration Training upon 
the trainees returning to Somali.  The Force Commander agreed to 
detail the requirements for AMISOM's continued support of this 
training by December 18.  We made a strong appeal for the 
publication of the TFG National Security Plan (NSP) which should 
include the size, structure and proposed management oversight of 
the proposed NSF. The NSP should also propose the number of 
soldiers to be trained, in what disciplines and over what time 
 
NAIROBI 00002499  002 OF 004 
 
 
frame, the working group suggested. The commitment to distribute 
the TFG NSP, including the recommended components, was endorsed by 
the Minister of National Security at the afternoon plenary. 
 
 
 
7.  (U) At the afternoon plenary session JSC participants addressed 
the group.  Co-chair AMISOM General Mungisha briefly described the 
security situation.  Al-Shabaab had strengthend its hold on the 
Middle Shabelle region, and seized the initiative in Lower Juba 
(reftel and previous), he said.  Shabaab had taken to charging aid 
agencies from $20,000-$60,000 per year to operate in Bay, Bakool, 
and Gedo regions, according to the Force Commander.  (Note:  the 
demand for aid agencies to pay fees to operate was made in a recent 
letter to NGOs from an al-Shabaab political leader.  Shabaab 
commanders in those regions have not enforced the decree and our 
partner aid organizations have not paid any fees. End Note.) 
Al-Shabaab is ratcheting up the pressure on the TFG and AMISOM, and 
it may soon launch a concerted offensive, the FC said.  Shabaab 
and/or Hizbul Islam firmly control large portions of the Mogadishu 
districts of Deyninle, Hawl Wadag, Wardhigley, Shibis, Karan, 
Yaqshid, Abdi Aziz and part of Bondhere. 
 
 
 
8.  (U) General Mungisha endorsed international efforts to train 
the Somali police and military, and reiterated AMISOM's offer to 
aid with recruitment and reintegration, especially of military 
recruits.  He confirmed he was hosting some 1,900 recently returned 
trainees and other TFG soldiers, assisting with their continued 
training, organization, feeding and housing.  He said newly 
returned trainees were going without many essentials, including 
lethal and non-lethal equipment and stipends. 
 
 
 
9.  (U) SRSG Ould-Abdullah and others made comments.  The SRS 
Ould-Abdullah celebrated the TFG's resilience, and said Somalia is 
a front line state in the war on terror, just as Iraq, Afghanistan, 
Pakistan, and Yemen are.  The European Union rep reiterated that 
Brussels had agreed to plan and launch a TFG training effort in 
Uganda.  The EU military advisor and EU member state diplomats 
speculated that the EU training would prompt bilateral member state 
commitments to pay and equip the Somali military.  Sweden and Italy 
were specifically mentioned.  In our statement we elicited 
agreement from the TFG on the utility of the Security Sector 
Assessment, and urged the TFG to present a convincing political 
vision in at the ICG in Jeddah.  We regretted that AMISOM troops 
had not been paid since June, per an EU decision.  We also 
announced we were moving forward with our next tranche of 
assistance to the TFG via the PricewaterhouseCoopers mechanism. 
 
 
 
10.         (U) The JSC participants issued a communique, which 
follows: 
 
 
 
Begin Text 
 
 
 
FINAL COMMUNIQUE 
 
JOINT SECURITY COMMITTEE MEETING 
 
KAMPALA, 09 DECEMBER 2009 
 
 
 
Members of the Joint Security Committee (JSC) met in Kampala 
(UGANDA) on 09 December 2009. Participants to the meeting included: 
The Minister of National Security of Somalia; The Minister of 
Defense of Burundi; UNPOS as Chair; AMISOM FC as co-chair; 
Representatives of France, Italy, Kenya, Sweden, UK, US, EU, 
AMISOM, and UNDP. 
 
NAIROBI 00002499  003 OF 004 
 
 
The meeting was briefed on the Security situation in the country by 
the Minister of National Security of Somalia and AMISOM Force 
Commander and received report from the two working groups on Police 
and Military.  The JSC agreed on the following: 
 
 
 
National Security Plan: 
 
Acknowledged and welcomed efforts by the TFG to develop a National 
Security Plan. 
 
 
 
Welcomed the decision of the TFG to convene before the next JSC, a 
meeting of experts to discuss the Draft TFG National Security Plan 
in order to incorporate the relevant recommendations of the 
Security Sector Assessment recently completed, the draft training 
policy document and other initiatives by international experts. 
 
 
 
Police: 
 
AMISOM shall report within 15 days on its availability to undertake 
the three-week refresher course for pre-trained Police. To commence 
no later than 1 February 2010. 
 
 
 
UNDP's support to AMISOM to assist in providing the three-week 
training course or if necessary take on the responsibility. 
 
 
 
Prior to the commencement of the refresher course, UNPOS shall 
support for a period of up to two months the provision of a 
subsistence allowance to non-UNDP trained Police Officers, in 
recognition of their current services. 
 
 
 
As regards the training of the 1000 new recruits already screened 
by the SPF and UNDP, the latter shall assess and provide a plan to 
train this group in Armo and in conjunction with Djibouti or/and 
Uganda by the end of December. 
 
 
 
UNDP with the agreement of the TFG shall resume as soon as possible 
the payments of stipend to the UNDP registered Somali Police Force. 
 
 
 
Military: 
 
The TFG shall address as a matter of urgency the issue of punctual 
and consistent payment of stipends to the trained and registered 
Somali Security Forces using both national as well as international 
funding. 
 
 
 
The TFG, AMISOM and UNPOS submit within 60 days an assessment of 
military training capability in Mogadishu. 
 
 
 
AMISOM Force Commander with the assistance of UNPOS produces within 
10 days, a requirement plan to operationalize the training facility 
at Al Jazeera for TFG reintegration and induction training. 
 
 
 
The African Union Peace and Security Council facilitate the 
processing of the EU training programme for Somali Forces in 
 
NAIROBI 00002499  004 OF 004 
 
 
liaison with AMISOM and the TFG which is currently planning and 
could start in April 2010. 
 
 
 
The Joint security Committee continues to support TFG's efforts to 
ensure minimum stability in the country and calls on the 
international community to expedite the disbursement and delivery 
of its commitment to the TFG. 
 
 
 
Kampala, 09 December 2009 
 
 
 
End Text. 
RANNEBERGER