Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ABIDJAN320
2006-03-24 16:21:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abidjan
Cable title:  

COTE D'IVOIRE: FIFTH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL

Tags:  PREL PGOV KPKO ASEC IV 
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VZCZCXRO1161
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHAB #0320/01 0831621
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 241621Z MAR 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1133
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLQTIVE
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 1319
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0288
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABIDJAN 000320 

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KINSHASA PASS TO BRAZZAVILLE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPKO ASEC IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE: FIFTH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL
WORKING GROUP


Classified By: POL/ECON Jim Wojtasiewicz, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABIDJAN 000320

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SIPDIS

KINSHASA PASS TO BRAZZAVILLE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPKO ASEC IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE: FIFTH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL
WORKING GROUP


Classified By: POL/ECON Jim Wojtasiewicz, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D).


1. (C) Summary. The International Working Group (IWG) held a
largely uneventful fifth meeting March 17. Prime Minister
Banny, UN High Representative for Election (HRE) Monteiro,
and the new Chairman of Cote d'Ivoire's Independent Electoral
Commission (CEI) gave presentations. Some element of drama
was provQed by an Ivoirian mini-crisis involving the funeral
in the rebel-held north of the brother of one of President
Gbagbo's closest confidants, which was playing itself out
over the course of the IWG meeting. The next meeting is
April 20. The IWG is becoming increasingly less central to
the political process. The sum of its impact is its monthly
communiques, which only comment on the situation and, after
the street disturbances in reaction to the January
communique, are increasingly bland. End Summary.


2. (U) The International Working Group (IWG) held its fifth
meeting in Abidjan on March 17. Congolese Foreign Minister
Rodolphe Adada and UN Special Representative of the Secretary
General (SRSG) Pierre Schori co-chaired the meeting. Linda
Thomas-Greenfield, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for
African Affairs, led the U.S. delegation. Also attending
were Benin Foreign Minister Rogatien Biaou; French
Cooperation Minister Brigitte Girardin; Ghanaian Foreign
Minister Nana Akufo-Addo; Guinean Foreign Minister Fatouma
Sidibe Kaba; Nigeran Foreign Minister Aichatou Mindaoudou;
Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adeniji; South African
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma; ECOWAS Executive
Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas; UN High Representative for

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Elections in Cote d'Ivoire (HRE) Antonio Monteiro; and
representatives from the United Kingdom, the AU, the EU, the
International Organization of French Speaking Countries, and
the World Bank.


3. (SBU) The meeting was largely uneventful, featuring a
series of presentations by Prime Minister Banny, HRE
Monteiro, and the new Chairman of Cote d'Ivoire's Independent

Electoral Commission Robert Beugre Mambe. No substantive
decisions were made.


4. (SBU) Banny's presentation lasted almost two hours. He
spoke for about 30 minutes then answered questions, at great
length, for over an hour. Banny listed and elaborated on his
accomplishments in his first 100 days in office, including
the February 28 summit of Ivoirian political leaders in
Yamoussoukro, the return of rebel New Forces (FN) leader
Guillaume Soro's to Abidjan, and the holding of school
examinations in the North for the first time since 2004.
Monteiro gave a brief farewell speech -- he was about to
leave his position to become Portuguese Ambassador to France.
Buegre gave a brief presentation pledging that the CEI would
work in a spirit of consensus to bring about free, fair and
transparent elections by October of this year.


5. (C) Some element of drama was provided by an Ivoirian
mini-crisis involving the funeral in the far northern city of
Korhogo for the brother of Laurent Fologo, Chairman of the
Economic and Social Commission and one of President Gbagbo's
closet confidants. The previous day, Fologo had attempted to
drive from Abidjan to Korhogo for the funeral with an
entourage of over 500 people, but the motorcade was turned
back by the FN. By morning, Fologo had relented and agreed
to be flown to Korhogo by UN helicopter, with an entourage of
only about 50. Over the course of the morning SRSG Schori
gave the IWG regular updates on Fologo's movements: when he
took off from Abidjan, when he landed in Korhogo, when he was
greeted warmly by the FN in Korhogo, and when he arrived in
his brother's village 20 kilometers away.


6. (C) The only other matter that gave rise to some
discussion was when, in the course of deciding the date of
the next IWG meeting, the World Bank Representative floated
the idea of combining the next meeting with a pledging
session for donors to step forward with assistance to help
Cote d'Ivoire implement the IWG road map. The United States
and others pointed out that a pledging session was a very
different thing from an IWG meeting, and the idea was dropped.


7. (C) There were also no substantive disagreements over the
communique, though the ministers spent about two hours
wrangling as usual over the wording of practically every
sentence. The next meeting will be April 20.


8. (C) Comment. The IWG is becoming increasingly less
relevant to the political situation here. Though Prime
Minister Banny is happy to come to the monthly meetings to
dwell on his accomplishments and bask in the IWG's praise for

ABIDJAN 00000320 002 OF 002


them, he refuses to work with the IWG's Mediation Group on a
daily basis. As a result, the sum of the IWG's impact is its
monthly communiques, which only comment on the situation, and
which, after the violent reaction by pro-Gbagbo militias to
the January communique, are increasingly bland. End Comment.


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