ACCRA TALKS CONTINUE ON COTE D'IVOIRE

C O N F I D E N T I A L ACCRA 000468

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2013
TAGS: PGOV PREL GH ECOWAS
SUBJECT: ACCRA TALKS CONTINUE ON COTE D'IVOIRE


Classified By: Polchief Richard Kaminski, reason 1.5(B/D).


1. (C) Summary. Talks between signatories to the
Marcoussis Accords broke up at 4 a.m. March 7 without
reaching final agreement on the composition of the new
government. Allocation of ministerial portfolios continued
to be the sticking point, with mechanisms to attribute the
Defense and Interior portfolios unresolved. Talks will
resume midday in the absence of President Kufuor, who left
today for Burkina Faso, and President Gbagbo, who returned to
Cote d'Ivoire yesterday. End summary.


2. (C) Talks hosted by the GOG with the signatories to the
Marcoussis Accords began at 12:30 p.m. in Accra at a local
beachside hotel. President Gbagbo, invited by the GOG to
attend Ghana's 46th independence day celebrations, waited at
the Castle (the presidential compound) as President Kufuor
welcomed the delegations and asked them to work
conscientiously for peace in Cote d'Ivoire. Prime Minister
Diarra, ECOWAS General Secretary Chambas, UN Representative
Tevoedjre, various military representatives and others also
attended.


3. (C) Initial rather stale presentations of official
position papers by the ten delegations were accompanied by
some "hard feelings," according to GOG Foreign Ministry
sources emboffs spoke with. After departure of President
Kufuor, the delegations commenced discussions on constructing
a government. As in the past, a primary sticking point
remained allocation of the defense and interior portfolios.
An initial proposal put forward for consideration had Prime
Minister Diarra assuming direct responsibility for the
Defense Ministry, with Interior divided in separate
functions. Gbagbo's representatives apparently did not
accept this. A subsequent configuration, under which a
National Security Council, under Diarra's direction, with
representatives of all signatories to the Marcoussis Accords,
would jointly administer Defense and Interior, was also
rejected by Gbagbo's representatives. According to our GOG
sources, Gbagbo insisted on exercising direct control of the
Council.


4. (C) The talks, originally scheduled to conclude at 6 p.m.
continued far into the night and the early morning hours.
President Kufuor returned to the beachside hotel, to help
guide discussions (which had proved unwieldy with ten
delegations present). He left at approximately 3 a.m., and
the talks broke up at shortly after 4 a.m. In an early
morning radio interview by Ghanaian Foreign Minister
Owusu-Agyeman, conducted as he saw off President Kufuor on
his trip to Burkina Faso, the Minister gave the delegations a
bare "fifty-fifty chance" of resolving the impasse. Speaking
rather somberly, he offered this brief assessment of where
the fundamental problem lay: "Gbagbo has to move." In a
later brief conversation with Polchief, ECOWAS Executive
Secretary Chambas said, "its not quite so hopeless as some

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are saying," and "we will give it one more shot." Originally
scheduled to depart today, Chambas has decided to remain and
continue to work with the delegations.


5. (C) Comment. We have the sense from our GOG sources
that while the "rebels" are willing to make some compromises
(they agreed to accept the Communications and Territorial
Administration Ministries),they will not accept Gbagbo
exercising control over the Defense and Interior Ministries.
Other parties appear ready to accept some mechanism whereby
the two ministries are put in "neutral" hands, but so far not
the Gabgbo government. When talks resume at midday, they
will do so without Gbagbo or Kufuor in Accra to either
authorize agreement (for the former) or cajole results (for
the latter). Fifty-fifty may be optimistic. End comment.

Abidjan minimize considered.
YATES