COTE D'IVOIRE: GBAGBO REINS IN IDENTIFICATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABIDJAN 000903

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

KINSHASA PASS TO BRAZZAVILLE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/09/2016
TAGS: PGOV KPKO ASEC IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE: GBAGBO REINS IN IDENTIFICATION
PROCESS; REBELS SUSPEND DISARMAMENT


ABIDJAN 00000903 001.2 OF 002


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


1. (C) Summary. President Gbagbo has declared that the
mobile courts carrying out the identification process can
only issue birth certificates, not a second category of
identification document that provisionally establishes
Ivoirian nationality. In reaction, the rebel New Forces
suspended their participation in disarmament. These are two
big setbacks for the peace process, and they serve to
underscore the transcendent importance of the identification
issue for both sides. Prime Minister Banny will not give up,
but he certainly has his work cut out for him to keep both
sides moving forward toward elections. End Summary.


2. (U) President Gbagbo used the occasion of his National Day
address to the nation, which he delivered the day before on
August 6, to declare that the mobile courts (audiences
foraines -- AF),which are attempting to document the
approximately four million unregistered Ivoirians and
foreigners born in Cote d'Ivoire, have no authority to issue
certificates of nationality.


3. (C) The certificate of nationality is the second of three
steps in the documentation of an unregistered Ivoirian. The
first is a birth certificate, which establishes identity.
Many adult Ivoirians and foreigners who were born in Cote
d'Ivoire never received birth certificates. With a birth
certificate and proof that at least one parent is Ivoirian
(or proof of naturalization, marriage to an Ivoirian or
adoption by an Ivoirian),the person is entitled to a
certificate of nationality, which provisionally establishes
nationality (unless proven otherwise). The final step is a
national identity card, which is definitive proof of Ivoirian
nationality. (Note: The controversial new procedure which
President Gbagbo and his Ivoirian Popular Front (FPI) party
put in place for the issuing of national identity cards was
one of the causes of the 2002 coup attempt and rebellion.
Since that time there has been no procedure for issuing the
identity cards and no new ones have been given.)


4. (C) The AF's have been issuing both birth certificates and
certificates of nationality. However, in his August 6 speech
President Gbagbo asserted that they only have the legal
authority to issue birth certificates, and certificates of
nationality must be issued by a different kind of court.
Gbagbo implied but did not say directly that the some 20,000
certificates of nationality that the AF's have issued so far
are invalid.


5. (C) Gbagbo also pledged his full support for new
"guidelines" for the AF's, which he said the Council of
Ministers had recently approved and which presumably restrict
the AF's to issuing only birth certificates. Nahouhou
Perrine, the Justice Ministry official in charge of
logistical support for the AF's, told us August 9 that the
AF's are continuing to function, except in the west, but have
stopped issuing certificates of nationality.


6. (C) Reacting to Gbagbo's declaration, rebel New Forces
(FN) leader Guillaume Soro announced August 8 that the FN
have suspended participation in the Disarmament,
Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) process. Soro
categorically rejected any change in the "rules of the game"
for the AF's. He also said the FN would not accept any
extension of President Gbagbo's term in office beyond October
30, and called for the issue of an integrated national army
to be put at the top of the agenda for the talks between the
chiefs of staff of the FN and the Ivoirian Armed Forces
(FANCI). An FN press communique issued later that day
claimed that Prime Minister Banny had promised the FN that
the AF's would be able to issue both birth certificates and
certificates of nationality. The communique also
emphatically denied that the return of prefects and
sub-prefects to rebel-held areas constitutes the
administrative reunification of the country, and stated
rather that this has only been allowed for the specific
purpose of o
verseeing the AF's. (Note: The Ambassador has requested a
meeting with Soro to seek clarification of the FN's stand and
to urge him to continue to participate in the peace process.)


7. (C) Comment. These are two big setbacks for the peace
process. Prime Minister Banny will not give up, and
presumably some new procedure will be adopted for issuing
certificates of nationality. However, adding another
bureaucratic step will significantly delay the identification
process and preparations for elections. The FN's return to a
confrontational stance is also a very negative development.

ABIDJAN 00000903 002.2 OF 002


Ever since Prime Minister Banny persuaded Soro in February to
resume attending cabinet meetings, the FN have seemed to be
consciously trying to appear as cooperative and constructive
as possible, perhaps in a deliberate effort to force Gbagbo
into the role of spoiler. Jean-Luc Stallone, head of the DDR
department at the UN Operation in Cote d'Ivoire (ONUCI) told
us that the very day of Soro's announcement, there was
supposed to be an important meeting of the four-party DDR
monitoring committee (FN, FANCI, ONUCI and the French Licorne
peacekeeping force) to start moving disarmament forward from
pre-regroupmen
t to regroupment (when combatants move from being under their
own commanders to being under the control of international
peacekeepers). That meeting was called off, and DDR has been
brought to a halt pending resolution of the AF issue.


8. (C) This all serves to underscore the transcendent
importance of the identification issue for both sides.
Preventing foreigners in the North from fraudulently
obtaining Ivoirian nationality has been the most cherished
cause of Gbagbo and the FPI since long before they came to
power. They are determined if anything to intensify their
vigilance to prevent this from happening, no matter how much
this delays the elections. (Gbagbo said in his speech that
he intends to use his emergency powers under the constitution
to extend his term in office as many times as necessary,
until there can be "clean, free and fair" elections. He also
indicated, as he has before, that he does not believe it is
essential to complete the identification process before
elections can be held.) The FN, meanwhile, vow that
identification was the reason they took up arms in the first
place, and they will not lay them down without it. Prime
Minister Banny certainly has his work cut out for him to
allay the suspicions of both sides an
d keep them moving forward toward elections. End Comment.
Hooks