C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001048

SIPDIS


E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/08/2011
TAGS: PREL PBTS MASS SL GV NI
SUBJECT: OBASANJO ON LIBERIA SANCTIONS, CONTE AND THE RUF


REF: ABUJA 959
CLASSIFIED BY CDA ANDREWS. REASON: 1.5 (B) AND (D)



1. (C) President Obasanjo told Ambassador Jeter May 5 that
he was increasingly optimistic that the GOSL and the RUF
could reach an accommodation. At the conclusion of their
visit to Abuja (reftel), the two sides had decided to
return to Sierra Leone on the same aircraft. Obasanjo
opined that the RUF had made a shrewd choice in bringing
Omrie Golley forward as their leader. He had not been
impressed with Issa Sesay.



2. (C) Obasanjo said he planned to tell Charles Taylor
that ECOWAS would support UN sanctions and that these would
be "nothing" by comparison to what would come if Taylor did
not change his behavior.



3. (C) Nigeria President sought U.S. assistance to
encourage Lansana Conte toward greater flexibility.
Obasanjo believed that, at this point, Guinea President
(who did not send a representative from Conakry or even
from the Guinean Mission in Abuja), was exhibiting
"unreasonable intransigence."


Andrews