NIGERIA: LIBYAN CHAIR

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 000113

SIPDIS


FOR IO AND AF


E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2013
TAGS: PHUM PREL LY NI UNHRC
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: LIBYAN CHAIR

REF: (A) State 5849
- (B) 02 Abuja 3310


Classified by DCM Andrews: Reason: 1.5(d)



1. (C) Summary: Nigerian President Obasanjo reportedly is
making telephone calls in an effort to replace Libya with
Mozambique as the Africa Group's candidate to chair the 2003
CHR session. End Summary.



2. (U) DCM Andrews delivered ref A demarche by phone to
Presidential International Affairs Advisor Ad'Obe Obe the
morning of January 17. An appointment had been scheduled,
but Obe telephoned to say the President had called him.



3. (C) While a poor connection and Obe's short fuse for
seeing the President precluded making the entire demarche,
all key points got across. DCM put particular emphasis on
Libya's violation of the human rights of Nigerian citizens.
Obe undertook to raise the issue with Obasanjo.



4. (C) Obe contacted us in the this afternoon after talking
to Obasanjo. Obe said the President would contact the AU
Chairman to see if Mozambique (the next AU Chairman) might
replace Libya. Obe hoped to provide us further "feedback"
on Obasanjo's efforts later in the day.



5. (C) COMENT: We believe that the GON has never been happy
with the prospect of a Libyan CHR Chair (see also ref B),
but Foreign Minister Sule Lamido attended the Ministerial,
and he may not have resisted as strongly as Obasanjo would
have liked. Libya's announcement that it planned to
execute a Nigerian citizen raised Tripoli's "negatives" in
Nigeria this week; Nigerian Deputy FM Onyia called in the
Libyan Ambassador to protest. The execution was supposed
to take place this morning. Apparently, it has been
rescheduled for January 18 (tomorrow). If this sentence is
carried out as now scheduled, we can anticipate a
reasonably vigorous effort by Obasanjo and the GON to stop
Libya from assuming the chair.
JETER