COTE D'IVOIRE: SEVENTH MEETING OF THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ABIDJAN 000554 SIPDIS SIPDIS KINSHASA PASS TO BRAZZAVILLE E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV ASEC IV SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE: SEVENTH MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING GROUP REF: A. ABIDJAN 414 ¶B. ABIDJAN 320 ¶C. ABIDJAN 190 ¶D. ABIDJAN 60 ¶E. 2005 ABIDJAN 2017 ¶F. 2005 ABIDJAN 1862 Classified By: POL/ECON A. Lewis, for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) ¶1. (C) Summary. The International Working Group (IWG) held a largely uneventful seventh meeting on May 19. Prime Minister Banny, UN High Representative for Elections (HRE) Studeman, Ivoirian Chief of Staff General Mangou, and New Forces Chief of Staff Bakayoko, along with the head of the Electoral Commission (CEI) and the head of the National Disarmament Commission (PNDDR) gave presentations. The two military Chiefs of Staff, who spoke passionately about the political hurdles for disarmament and their work to secure the sites for the pilot identification program, provided some element of drama. The visiting French Junior Minister for Cooperation unsuccessfully argued for aggressive language in the final communique regarding the National Assembly. The final communiqui was relatively bland, cheerleading for Banny's team and the peace process and alluding to sanctions for those who undermine the peace process. End Summary ¶2. (U) The International Working Group (IWG) held its seventh meeting in Abidjan on May 19. Congolese Foreign Minister Rodolphe Adada and UN Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) Pierre Schori co-chaired the meeting. Ambassador Hooks led the U.S. delegation. Also attending were ministers from Ghana and Guinea, the French Junior Foreign Minister for Cooperation, and Deputy South African Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad. In addition, there were representatives from the UK, the AU, the EU, the International Organization of French Speaking Countries (Francophonie),and the World Bank. ¶3. (SBU) The meeting was largely uneventful, featuring a rambling presentation by Prime Minister Banny, and short briefs by the HRE, the Chair of the CEI, the PNDDR Coordinator, and the Licorne and ONUCI Force Commanders. In addition, in what turned out to be the most interesting presentation of the day, FANCI Chief-of-Staff General Philippe Mangou and FAFN Chief-of-Staff Soumahila Bakayoko provided an update on the disarmament process. ¶4. (SBU) Banny's presentation lasted almost 90 minutes. He spoke for about an hour and then took questions. With tongue firmly in cheek, Banny insisted that the timing of the start of the pilot identification process and the pre-regroupment phase of DDR, just one day before the IWG, was a mere coincidence. He also discussed his missions to Washington and Europe and thanked the assembled representatives from the EU, World Bank and the U.S. for their support. ¶5. (SBU) During the Q&A with Banny, French Junior Minister for Cooperation Brigitte Girardin tried without success to engage Banny on the question of the current status of the National Assembly and the boycott of the Assembly by opposition members. (Note: The National Assembly, despite the recommendation of the IWG to disband, continues to meet sporadically with nearly half of its membership, all opposition politicians, boycotting the sessions. The President of the National Assembly, FPI hardliner Mamadou Koulibaly, recently announced that he was suspending the salaries of all members who do not attend the sessions. Girardin spoke at length against the discrimination directed against the boycotting opposition deputies and wanted to know what the IWG could do to help rectify the situation. Banny refused to bite. He stated that the non-payment of these members was indeed a problem, and that it could become a stumbling block to peace, but that this was not an issue that he had the time for. He characterized the issue as one of many that "various political forces" in Cote d'Ivoire seem to be stirring up to distract him from his prime tasks: disarmament, identification, voter registration, and organization of the elections. ¶6. (SBU) Minister Girardin later tried to include aggressive language in the communique calling on the Ivoirian government to "immediately rectify" the National Assembly problem and "end the discrimination" experienced by the opposition deputies. The French delegation had floated similar language in the morning prior to the IWG ABIDJAN 00000554 002 OF 003 meeting at the EU breakfast and were told politely to drop the language. When Girardin persisted in the discussion on the communiqui draft, she found no support for the language and it was deleted after opposition from an AU official and the South African, Francophonie, and U.S. delegates. ¶7. (SBU) Banny was also asked about recent press reports indicating that he was looking to extend his mandate because it is impossible to get to elections on time. Banny told the assembled members of the IWG to "ignore the press" and continue to publicly support elections in October. He acknowledged that "time was short" but asked everyone to stay focused on the work left to be done and not get distracted by what will happen if elections do not occur in October. The HRE in his briefing also stressed that "technically" there was time to get to elections in October, "assuming one works day and night," and that he and his team too were pushing for completion of all the tasks by that date. To that end, the HRE announced a new MOU between the National Identification Commission and the CEI to conduct simultaneous issuance of identification cards and registration of voters. There are still no dates set for the beginning of these processes. However, Robert Beugre Mambe, the Chairmen of the CEI, indicated during his presentation that 27 community teams would start deployment during the week of May 22 to lay the groundwork necessary for voter registration. ¶8. (SBU) The HRE, the SRSG, the "Mediation" representative from South Africa and the commanding generals of Licorne and ONUCI all complained about a lack of coordination with Banny's office. Banny addressed this point during his presentation, indicating that he would appoint a "Chief of Project" for identification, disarmament, voter registration, and redeployment of the civil service. Given that each of these four critical tasks is already being headed up by a "Commissioner" (PNDDR) or "Chairman" (CEI) the addition of a "Chief" for each project is not likely to improve coordination. ¶9. (C) Just prior to the presentation by General Mangou and General Bakayoko, General Irastoza, the Licorne Commander, and General Amoussou, acting ONUCI Force Commander, provided briefings on the current security situation. Both raised their concerns about the continued instability in the west and accused the FANCI of complicity with western militia leaders. In addition, they both mentioned that the lack of police and judiciary in the Zone of Confidence made their jobs patrolling this region even harder. To encourage free movement of persons to and from the pilot identification sites, both Licorne and ONUCI have beefed up road patrols on all the major transportation corridors. ¶10. (C) While General Amousou mentioned, almost in passing, that he had some concerns about disarmament, General Irastoza laid out four potential stumbling blocks which could halt the process: 1) there is inadequate command and control in the south to ensure that if the order is given to disarm, that the troops will in fact do so; 2) there are major discrepancies in the numbers being provided by the north--apparently the FAFN has only 2000 weapons for 40,000+ soldiers--and these must be corrected before talks can move forward; 3) General Bakayoko seems committed to disarmament but neither the warlord of Man nor Korhogo appears ready to follow Bakayoko's lead; and 4) the continued presence of armed militias in the West remains a potential flash-point. ¶11. (C) The IWG then heard from Generals Mangou and Bakayoko. Mangou told the group that FANCI would have all its troops slated for disarmament in its pre-regroupment sites (FANCI bases) by May 28. The troops would remain in place there until disarmament. Mangou added that, even if the FAFN does not disarm, if he is given an order by Prime Minister Banny to disarm, he and his troops will carry it out. Bakayoko was extremely defensive during his presentation. He continuously waved a copy of the signed calendar for disarmament, agreed to in July 2005, and explained that the FAFN was using the pilot phase of identification to conduct a pilot pre-regroupment. Once the pilot phase was completed, his troops would return to their original positions. Bakayoko insisted that because the disarmament calendar indicates that pre-regroupment is simultaneous with identification, and that because the pilot identification process is not identification (e.g. no id cards will be issued) the FAFN's actions are perfectly consistent with the agreement he has signed. Bakayoko and ABIDJAN 00000554 003 OF 003 Mangou both said they are looking forward to the next four-way military talks in Yamoussoukro on May 30. Both also agreed that the sequencing in the July 2005 calendar is acceptable. Bakayoko hoped that the upcoming meeting would produce new, more realistic dates for disarmament. ¶12. (C) The PNDDR Coordinator, General Ouassenan Kone, offered very little substance in his presentation. General Kone spoke eloquently about the need to expand the PNDDR's Community Rehabilitation Program to include more "wayward" youth, but in the Q&A session, he was unable to answer basic questions about the total number of participants in the DDR process. He was also ignorant of the PNDDR's global budget figures and had to rely on his staff to provide the information requested by the group. Kone was appointed to bring order to the DDR Commission, but his performance calls into question his ability to do so. ¶13. (C) Comment: The IWG meetings continue to provide a forum to gather information on the latest progress or lack thereof in the peace process. Final communiquis tend to be bland, representing as they do the lowest common denominator of consensus of the heterogeneous IWG. The IWG still spends too much time on ancillary issues, such as the non-payment of boycotting deputies, while failing to really grapple with core issues such as DDR, identification, security, and the mountains of work that must yet be completed before elections can take place.