problem with iChat administration

Okay Mac heads, here's one for you,

We use iChat AV 3.1.1 as Jabber clients on Macs running OS X 10.4.5,
and the iChat server that comes with Mac OS X Server v10.4 as the
Jabber server (which allows us SSL encrypted instant messaging).

We decided to script the addition of new users to each of our 50+
users' buddy lists. We found these are held on the server in
/private/var/jabber/spool/[hostname]/[accountname].xml

We shut down all iChat clients, shut the iChat server, and run our
perl script, which appears to build perfectly well-formed files for
each user's account (see example below). But as soon as any user logs
on to Jabber, her file on the server is immediately over-written with
the client-side preferences (from
~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iChat.Jabber.plist) -- erasing the
buddy list.

Why isn't the client accepting the config the server provides?

tia,
Russ

---
Here's the file our script produces, the buddy list 
("jabber:iq:roster" query and all it's enclosed items) is added, with 
the account's existing vCard and "jabber:iq:last" query retained.
<xdb>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:roster' xdbns='jabber:iq:roster'>
     <item jid='AprylGuisasola@camp-47-2-11.ls-advise.berkeley.edu' 
subscription='both'>
         <group>Buddies</group>
     </item>
     <item jid='AvisHinkson@camp-47-2-11.ls-advise.berkeley.edu' 
subscription='both'>
         <group>Buddies</group>
     </item>
     (etc...)
</query>
<vCard xmlns='vcard-temp' xdbns='vcard-temp'>
<PHOTO>
<TYPE>image/jpeg</TYPE>
<BINVAL>
   (binary representation of photo removed for brevity)
</BINVAL>
</PHOTO>
</vCard>
<query xmlns='jabber:iq:last' last='1141325674' 
xdbns='jabber:iq:last'>Disconnected</query>
</xdb>
-- 
Russell Connacher                   113 Campbell Hall # 2924
Information Systems                 Berkeley, CA 94720-2924
Undergraduate Advising              (510)643-9892, 642-2372(FAX)
College of Letters & Science, UCB   russellc@berkeley.edu
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