ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF PLAYING THE ROLE OF MEDIATOR?

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 001351 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/06/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL UN IV SUBJECT: ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF PLAYING THE ROLE OF MEDIATOR? REF: A. ABIDJAN 01331 ¶B. ABIDJAN 01303 Classified By: Ambassador Aubrey Hooks, Reasons 1.4 (b & d) ¶1. (U) Today the local press widely reported that Armed Forces of Cote d'Ivoire (FANCI) Chief of Staff General Philippe Mangou met with lead opposition leader Professor Alphonse Djedje Mady on December 6th. Mangou reportedly wants to calm the increasingly acrid political environment in Abidjan between the opposition parties and the President. Newspapers report that Mangou and Mady met behind closed doors for two hours and describe the meeting as heavy and tense. Mady protested the heavy-handed clamp on opposition street protests by security and defense forces in the last couple of weeks; Mangou reportedly claimed they were defending the "institutions of the republic." (NOTE: We were unable to meet with Mady because he and the other political opposition leaders are in Yamoussoukro to mark the 13th anniversary of President Felix Houphouet-Boigny's death. However, we have set up a meeting with him for December 11. END NOTE) ¶2. (C) COMMENT: Mangou's meeting with the PDCI is the third initiative in the past two weeks where he has sought to prominently insert himself into the political process, ostensibly to calm the situation. Mangou and a group of senior military officers met with President Gbagbo early last week and then called on Prime Minister Banny in Yamoussoukro, reportedly to quell flaring tempers after the war of decrees between Banny and Gbagbo and before Banny's appearance before the IWG. Mangou is normally seen as Gbagbo's right hand man and the muscle supporting Gbagbo's iron fist, but his recent public interventions in politics represent a disquieting departure from the normal, republican apolitical view that the military perceives itself as upholding. END COMMENT Hooks