Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DAKAR1760
2006-07-21 17:00:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Dakar
Cable title:  

TFLE01: PRESIDENT WADE CALLS FOR CEASEFIRE;

Tags:  PINS ASEC MOPS PREL LE IS SG 
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VZCZCXRO7962
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #1760/01 2021700
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 211700Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5824
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 0045
RUEHRB/AMEMBASSY RABAT 0767
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 0075
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0025
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0740
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 001760 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA, DS, AF/W, AF/RSA AND INR/AA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/21/2016
TAGS: PINS ASEC MOPS PREL LE IS SG
SUBJECT: TFLE01: PRESIDENT WADE CALLS FOR CEASEFIRE;
ANTI-ISRAELI AND ANTI-AMERICAN DEMONSTRATION OCCURS IN DAKAR

REF: DAKAR 01744 (NOTAL)

Classified By: Ambassador Janice L. Jacobs for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

SUMMARY
-------
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 001760

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA, DS, AF/W, AF/RSA AND INR/AA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/21/2016
TAGS: PINS ASEC MOPS PREL LE IS SG
SUBJECT: TFLE01: PRESIDENT WADE CALLS FOR CEASEFIRE;
ANTI-ISRAELI AND ANTI-AMERICAN DEMONSTRATION OCCURS IN DAKAR

REF: DAKAR 01744 (NOTAL)

Classified By: Ambassador Janice L. Jacobs for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

SUMMARY
--------------

1. (C) On July 21, when the Ambassador met with President
Wade, he called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in
Lebanon and Gaza. The previous day, Senegal's Lebanese
community organized a protest against Israel,s attack on
Hezbollah. Cheikh Monein al Zein, leader of the small Shia
community, called for the demonstration, and about 1,000
Lebanese and Senegalese gathered at the headquarters of
Senegal,s National Television Station (RTS). Karim Wade,
Minister of Agriculture Farba Senghor, other GOS officials,
leaders of Senegalese opposition parties and civil society
participated. Most speakers firmly condemned the U.S. and
Israel, but Senghor limited his comments to expressing
solidarity with the people of Lebanon while condemning &all
forms of violence8 in the Middle East. END SUMMARY.

WADE CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE HUMANITARIAN CEASEFIRE
-------------- --

2. (C) During the Ambassador,s July 21 meeting with
President Abdoulaye Wade, he called for an immediate
humanitarian ceasefire. He said that he had received the
same Lebanese delegation and petition that the Ambassador had
received on July 19 (reftel) and that Israel,s response to
the capture of its three soldiers was disproportionate. Wade
stressed that innocent civilians are suffering. Wade also
said the Moroccan Government has offered to assist 60
Senegalese who wish to be evacuated from Lebanon.

LEBANESE SHIA LEADER LEADS DEMONSTRATION
--------------

3. (SBU) The July 20 demonstration was, as far as anyone
remembers, the Senegalese Lebanese community's first
political gathering in the sixty-some years since Lebanese
immigration began here during and after World War II.
Traditionally, the Lebanese have focused on business and
behind-the-scenes policy and shunned taking any open

political stance. Cheikh Moneim Al Zein, while having a good
relationship with Senegal's Sufi religious leaders, has
largely failed in attempts to convince them to adopt Shia
forms of political activism. This protest might have been
less successful had it not received support from the National
Association of Entrepreneurs of the Informal Sector
(UNACOIS),which has made a strategic alliance with Lebanese
businesspeople to resist mainland Chinese entrepreneurs who
are conquering the local market. All Lebanese traders closed
their shops in Dakar, and some Senegalese UNACOIS members
joined in solidarity.

HEZBOLLAH PRAISED
--------------

4. (SBU) Local Lebanese waived flags of Lebanon and
Hezbollah, tore an Israeli flag, chanted the glory of Hassan
Nasralah, and shouted anti-President George W. Bush and
anti-American slogans. Moneim Al Zein said, &Hezbollah is
the party of God while the U.S. and Israel are the parties of
Satan.8 He left the demonstration to go meet local
religious leaders at his headquarters, leading to some
speculation that Senegalese marabouts wanted to associate
themselves with calls for an end to the violence while
distancing themselves from the possibility that the protest
would feature any violent Shia and Hezbollah rhetoric.

SENEGALESE CIVIL SOCIETY CONDEMN ISRAELI AGGRESSION
-------------- --------------

5. (SBU) Civil society organizations, joined by political
leaders from the opposition and President Wade's coalition,
expressed concern that the UN and Arab world are not doing
enough to stop Israel,s &aggression in Lebanon.8 They
condemned "the U.S. policy of double standards in the Middle
East," and accused Israel and the U.S. of wanting to destroy
Syria and Lebanon. They deemed disproportionate Israel,s
reaction to the capture of three Israeli soldiers, while
Israel &holds in its jails over 10,000 Palestinians,
including 3,000 minors.8

GOS REPRESENTATIVE ADOPTS MODERATE TONE
--------------

6. (SBU) Minister of Agriculture, Rural Water Resources and
Food Security Farba Senghor in a moderate statement expressed

DAKAR 00001760 002 OF 002


solidarity and compassion for all Lebanee but condemned
unequivocally all forms of violece in the Middle East.
President Wade's son, Karm, who has been deeply engaged in
seeking Middle East funding to build major infrastructure
projects as part of the Organization of the Islamic
Conferences (OIC) Summit scheduled for Dakar in 2008,
attended but did not speak.

COMMENT
--------------

7. (SBU) The protest mobilized the business-oriented
Senegalese Lebanese community, probably for the first time.
Senegalese civil society took part, but religious leaders
voiced solidarity from a slight distance, keeping away from
the actual demonstration and the possibility of pro-violence
rhetoric. Shia leader Sheikh Zein planned to call for
further demonstrations at Friday prayers, but the Shia
community here is tiny, and while Senegalese mosques will no
doubt feature denunciations of the violence in Lebanon (and
Iraq),it is uncertain how far this will translate into
further protests or other political activism. The GOS,
meanwhile, is also being careful to deplore violence in all
forms. END COMMENT.
JACOBS