Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ABIDJAN1351
2006-12-07 17:05:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abidjan
Cable title:  

ARMY CHIEF OF STAFF PLAYING THE ROLE OF MEDIATOR?

Tags:  PGOV PREL UN IV 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO9335
RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHAB #1351 3411705
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 071705Z DEC 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2248
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
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)

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