Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04ACCRA1171
2004-06-03 09:22:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Accra
Cable title:  

GHANAIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON FAILED GBAGBO MEETING

Tags:  PREL PHUM GH ECOWAS 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L ACCRA 001171 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/03/2013
TAGS: PREL PHUM GH ECOWAS
SUBJECT: GHANAIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON FAILED GBAGBO MEETING

REF: YATES-BRIDGEWATER TELCON AND E-MAILS

Classified By: Ambassador Mary C. Yates, reason 1.4 (B/D).


C O N F I D E N T I A L ACCRA 001171

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/03/2013
TAGS: PREL PHUM GH ECOWAS
SUBJECT: GHANAIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON FAILED GBAGBO MEETING

REF: YATES-BRIDGEWATER TELCON AND E-MAILS

Classified By: Ambassador Mary C. Yates, reason 1.4 (B/D).



1. (C) Ambassador Yate and polchief met with Foreign
Minister Nana Akufo-Addo at his request on June 2.
Akufo-Addo told Ambassador Yates that a meeting scheduled for
June 3 in Abuja, consisting of Presidents Kufuor, Obasanjo
and Gbagbo, Prime Minister Diarra, and ECOWAS Executive
Secretary Ibn Chambas, to discuss the political impasse in

SIPDIS
Cote d'Ivoire, had just fallen through. Gbagbo had initially
agreed to the meeting, said Akufo-Addo, but had just bowed
out due to a claimed "invitation" to travel immediately to
Washington for undisclosed meetings. Akufo-Addo asked if the
USG had issued any invitation to Gbagbo. "We want to know if
Gbagbo is playing games with us," said Akufo-Addo.
Ambassador said she was unaware of any invitation from the
USG but would verify that with the Department. When
Ambassador Yates theorized that perhaps Gbagbo perhaps had
meetings arranged with the UN in New York, Akufo-Addo said
that "Kofi Annan knows about the meeting and wants Gbagbo
there (in Abuja)."


2. (C) In commenting briefly on the situation in Cote
d'Ivoire, Akufo-Addo said that "Gbagbo must reach an
accommodation with Soro, Bedie and Ouattara." There was, he
said, "no other option." He further commented that the
Linas-Marcoussis Accords (LMA) would not be subject to any
"review or renegotiation." While isolated "looks" at
specific provisions to "enhance implementation" was possible,
there was no interest within ECOWAS, he said, for any
"opening up" of the LMA. "There will be no LMA-2," he said.


3. (C) Subsequently Ambassador Yates learned from PDAS
Bridgewater (ref telecon) that the GOCI had recently employed
a Washington lobbyist, who had been seeking appointments with
senior Department officials. The Department had given the
lobbyist no encouragement, and no appointments or invitations
had been given. Ambassador Yates communicated this
information to Akufo-Addo in a telephone call, also June 2.


4. (C) Comment. Akufo-Addo was his usual brisk and
business-like self. While we leave it to our colleagues in
Abidjan to decipher Gbagbo's true motivation in declining to
attend the Abuja meeting, Akufo-Addo took an entirely
unsympathetic view of what appeared to him to be Gbagbo's
unconvincing explanations. End summary.
Yates