Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06ABIDJAN686
2006-06-28 15:23:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abidjan
Cable title:  

COTRE D'IVOIRE: EIGHTH MEETING OF THE

Tags:  PGOV PREL KPKO IV 
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VZCZCXRO3488
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHAB #0686/01 1791523
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 281523Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1507
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 1372
RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0319
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0156
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ABIDJAN 000686 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

KINSHASA PASS TO BRAZZAVILLE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/28/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KPKO IV
SUBJECT: COTRE D'IVOIRE: EIGHTH MEETING OF THE
INTERNATIONAL WORKING GROUP

REF: A. ABIDJAN 568


B. ABIDJAN 417

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 03 ABIDJAN 000686

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

KINSHASA PASS TO BRAZZAVILLE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/28/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KPKO IV
SUBJECT: COTRE D'IVOIRE: EIGHTH MEETING OF THE
INTERNATIONAL WORKING GROUP

REF: A. ABIDJAN 568


B. ABIDJAN 417

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


1. (C) Summary. At the eighth meeting of the International
Working Group (IWG),Prime Minister Banny gave a long,
evasive presentation seeking to reassure the group that he is
determined to succeed in bringing the country to elections,
while IWG members tried to pin him down on why so little
progress is being made. Banny did make important points
about how he plans to proceed with identification, how he
believes the dispute over the National Assembly should be
resolved, concessions he believes the rebel New Forces (FN)
have made on disarmament, and steps he is taking to pave the
way for World Bank funding for disarmament. He was joined by
Guillaume Soro, FN leader and second ranking minister in the
government, but Soro made only two brief interventions. The
commanders of the UN and French peacekeeping forces expressed
optimism about disarmament but concern about recent internal
divisions within the FN. In the communique from this
meeting, the IWG sought to reassert that the National
Assembly's mandate expired in December while also demanding
that the former deputies be paid equally, for undertaking
missions of peace and reconciliation around the country. A
confrontation may be building within the group between the
French, who want to start sooner rather than later discussing
what to do this October, when it is increasingly clear that
there will be no elections in sight, and the South Africans
(and perhaps other African countries as well) who want to
avoid this subject as long as possible. End Summary.


2. (U) The IWG held its eighth meeting in Abidjan June 23,
co-chaired as usual by Congolese Foreign Minister Rodolphe
Adada and UN Special Representative of the Secretary General
in Cote d'Ivoire (SRSG) Pierre Schori. In attendance were
French Cooperation Minister Brigitte Girardin; Ghanaian
Foreign Minister Nana Akufo-Addo; Niger'an Foreign Minister
Aichatou Mindaoudou; South African Defense Minister Mosiuoa

Lekota; ECOWAS Executive Secretary Mohamed Ibn Chambas; UN
High Representative for Elections in Cote d'Ivoire (HRE)
Gerard Stoudmann; and representatives from Benin, Guinea,
Nigeria, the United Kingdom, the United States, the EU, the
African Union, and the International Organization of French
Speaking Countries.


3. (C) As has become an IWG tradition, the meeting led off
with a review of the last month's developments in the peace
process by Prime Minister Banny, followed by questions and
answers. This time Banny's presentation lasted some three
hours, and he was flanked by Guillaume Soro, leader of the
rebel New Forces (FN) and second ranking minister in Banny's
government. Banny was characteristically verbose, rambling,
vague and evasive. As IWG members sought to pin him down on
why so little progress is being made in the peace process,
Banny clung to three main generalities: he is determined to
succeed, he is committed to building consensus, and he is
confronted by so many obstacles and problems that he can only
tackle them one at a time as they come along, leaving the
rest to be dealt with in due course.


4. (C) Banny did make a number of important points:

-- He promised that after what he called a successful pilot
citizen identification project last month (ref A),the
identification process would swing into full gear the
following week. (Note: As of mid-week there are no signs of
movement on this yet.)

-- Banny indicated that he wants to proceed with voter
registration on the basis of Certificates of Nationality.
(Note: As explained ref B, the Certificate of Nationality is
only an intermediate step in the identification process. It
is accepted as proof of identity, for getting a driver's
license or a passport, for example, but not proof of
citizenship. It would be a major concession on the part of
the FN and the political opposition to go forward with
disarmament and elections without the final step -- citizen
identification cards. President Gbagbo's FPI (Ivoirian
Popular Front ) party has fought for over ten years to deny
these cards to Northerners, and this issue was a major cause
of the 2002 attempted coup and rebellion.)

-- Banny said he wants Ivoirians to only need to come in
once, to be identified and registered to vote at the same
time. (Note: One of UN HRE Stoudmann's assistants later told
us this will not be possible -- identification lists will

ABIDJAN 00000686 002 OF 003


need to be compiled and collated into a single data base
before voters can be registered.)

-- Banny called the bitter dispute over whether opposition
members of the former National Assembly should be paid
(septel) a purely political issue which the political parties
should resolve among themselves. He tried to distance
himself from this contentious issue by stating that it was
not his problem.

-- However, Banny repeated several times that the Assembly's
mandate expired in December, and there is no legal basis for
extending it. He swore that he would submit no legislation
to the Assembly, in particular the 2006 budget. The budget,
he said, has been approved by the Cabinet and as far as he is
concerned that is enough to implement it. (Note: By our
reading of articles 42 and 80 of the Constitution, it is the
President, not the Prime Minister, who submits the budget to
the National Assembly after the Cabinet approves it.)

-- Banny said the FN has made two important concessions on
disarmament: decoupling the commencement of disarmament from
the commencement of dismantling of the militias, and allowing
UN and French peacekeeping forces to enter FN preregroupment
sites to verify that preregroupment is in fact proceeding.
(Note: Preregroupment is the first step in the disarmament
process. Soldiers from both sides are currently supposed to
be assembling at designated sites under their own commanders.
Later they are to come under the control of international
peacekeepers, and eventually surrender their weapons --
septel).

-- Banny expressed confidence that the bond issuance to pay
for clearing Cote d'Ivoire's arrears with the World Bank,
which ends June 30, would be fully subscribed. He revealed
(and the World Bank representative at the IWG confirmed) that
Cote d'Ivoire has increased its request for World Bank
funding for disarmament from $80 million to $100 million, and
that a mission would travel to Washington this week to
discuss the details of this funding.


5. (C) Soro sat impassively though most of Banny's
presentation, making only two brief interventions. He
confirmed that the FN would allow international verification
of the FN preregroupment sites, and he put in a plea for the
opposition deputies to be paid. Soro did not comment on
Banny's plan to register voters based on Certificates of
Nationality rather than citizen identification cards.


6. (C) Prime Minister Banny's long presentation left time for
only relatively short briefings on the security situation by
General Fernand Marcel Amoussou, acting Commander of the UN
Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI) and General Antoine
Lecerf, Commander of the French Licorne peacekeeping force;
and on preparations for elections by UN HRE Stoudmann. The
force commanders reported that the security situation was
generally quiet over the past month, and that disarmament is
moving ahead, though slowly. Both expressed concern that
recent internal divisions within the FN could result in only
part of the FN disarming. Stoudmann came under sharp
questioning from IWG members about a recent letter from the
Gbagbo-controlled National Statistical Institute (INS) to
the chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI),
asserting that the INS will go ahead on its own with
preparing voter registration lists. Stoudmann called the
letter a provocation based on a deliberate misinterpretation
of the Pretoria Agreements, and he and the CEI intended to
ignore it.


7. (C) The biggest issue for the IWG to deal with in its
communique was the National Assembly. In the days leading up
to the meeting, opposition parties were saying loudly and
repeatedly that the only reason why they were boycotting
Assembly sessions was because the IWG said in its January
communique that the Assembly's mandate had expired.
Therefore, they said, it was up to the IWG to do something
about that fact that FPI deputies, attending the sessions,
were being paid, while boycotting opposition deputies were
not. The IWG decided on language indirectly reasserting that
the Assembly has no mandate, by referring to the January
communique and UN Security Council Resolution 1633 and by
calling the deputies "former deputies," while at the same
time demanding that all former deputies be paid equally for
undertaking missions of peace and reconciliation round the
country. (Note: The January communique recommended that the
Prime Minister make use of the former deputies for such
missions, and the day before the June IWG meeting Banny

ABIDJAN 00000686 003 OF 003


announced that he would do so.)


8. (C) Other than that, the communique contained predictable
language expressing concern about delays in identification
and disarmament, asserting that the CEI, not the INS, is
solely responsible for voter registration, and warning that
those who block the peace process may be subject to UN
sanctions.


9. (C) Comment. The IWG is growing increasingly impatient
with Banny's evasive answers and vague assurances. A
confrontation may be building within the group between the
French, who want to start discussing what to do this October,
if as is likely there are no elections in sight, and the
South Africans (and perhaps other African countries as well)
who want to avoid this subject as long as possible. End
Comment.

Hooks