CWC IMPLEMENTATION: SLOW PROCESS UNDERWAY IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAR ES SALAAM 001501 SIPDIS SIPDIS ISN/CB FOR ESIDLER; IO/UNP FOR BHARRIS AND DVANBRANDT; USUN FOR EBRUNO; AF/E FOR BYODER E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/02/2016 TAGS: PARM PREL CWC OPCW CBW AF TZ SUBJECT: CWC IMPLEMENTATION: SLOW PROCESS UNDERWAY IN TANZANIA REF: A. STATE 134200 ¶B. DAR ES SALAAM 01425 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires D. Purnell Delly for reasons 1.4(b) an d (d). ¶1. (C) SUMMARY: Tanzania believes it is on track to submit draft legislation implementing its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) before the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) meets on November 7, officials told Poloff August 29. However, given the many steps of the legislative process, this belief may be overly optimistic. Tanzania submitted its national plan to the OPCW in April 2006. The plan established an interim authority which will become permanent through passage of the implementing legislation, making the legislation a crucial step in the process. END SUMMARY Interlocutors -------------- ¶2. (U) Irene Mkwawa-Kasyanju, Senior Foreign Service Officer in the Legal Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, arranged an August 29 meeting with: Poloff; Grace ¶M. Mfinanga, Principal Parliamentary Draftsman in the Attorney General's Chambers in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs; Agnes Ivor Ndumbati, Assistant Parliamentary Draftsman in the Attorney General's Chambers in the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Affairs; and James Gideon Kingu, Research and Development Officer at the Defence Forces Headquarters in the Ministry of Defence and National Service. National Authority and National Plan: The good news -------------- -------------- ¶3. (U) Government of Tanzania (GOT) officials said Tanzania submitted its National Plan, which included the creation of an interim authority, to the OPCW in April 2006. GOT officials confirmed that the interim National Authority is operating and that the transition to a permanent National Authority is incorporated in the draft legislation. Legislation status: Underway with all on board -------------- -- ¶4. (U) Mfinanga confirmed that the GOT submitted draft legislation to the OPCW in October 2005 and that the OPCW provided comments to the GOT in November 2005. Mfinanga said the October 2005 draft is being used as the framework for legislation but that the GOT wants to incorporate the OPCW's comments and solicit comments from other parts of the GOT in order to improve the draft legislation. Mfinanga said the timing of passing CWC-implementing legislation depends on other work before the Ministry of Justice, including other legislation to be drafted, and stressed that those involved with the CWC-implementing legislation were also busy preparing for the meeting of National Authorities in Africa to be held in Dar es Salaam October 16 and 17. Poloff suggested that Tanzania may want to make progress toward fulfilling its implementation obligations prior to hosting the October meeting, but the GOT officials seemed unconvinced that timing was an issue. ¶5. (U) All GOT officials present disputed the OPCW comment that the Ministry of Justice had not been involved in drafting the October 2005 legislation and, further, that the Ministry of Justice had told the OPCW that the October 2005 draft legislation had "no status" (reftel A). Mfinanga said the Ministry of Justice had been involved in drafting the legislation sent to OPCW in October 2005 and denied that the Ministry had cast aspersions on the status of the draft text. Legislative process: Only just begun -------------- ¶6. (U) Mfinanga said the interim National Authority has submitted a Cabinet paper describing the legislation and seeking the Cabinet's permission to draft it. Anticipating such permission to be forthcoming, Mfinanga said a working group of four attorneys, two from the Ministry of Justice and two from the Ministry of Defence, have been working on a revised draft. Mfinanga expects the Cabinet to call for a defense of the cabinet paper within two weeks of August 29 and said instructions regarding drafting the legislation are expected two weeks following that, bringing the time frame for Cabinet approval to late September. Mfinanga said preparing draft legislation will take two to three months so that the first of three readings in Parliament could occur in February 2007, with the second and third readings waiting for the next Parliamentary session, in April 2007. ¶7. (C) Separate inquiries to the office of the Cabinet Secretariat revealed that the Cabinet paper on the SIPDIS CWC-implementing legislation was received August 30, the day following the meeting with Poloff. The Cabinet Secretariat, a panel of experts, is scheduled to meet September 8 to discuss the paper on the CWC-implementing legislation and offer any changes before sending it to an inter-ministerial committee of Permanent Secretaries. That committee will review the Cabinet paper and refer it to the Cabinet Ministers, but there is no precise time frame for this process. Optimism for draft legislation by November -------------- ¶8. (SBU) Poloff noted that the OPCW will provide its Executive Council with a progress report during its meeting November 7 to 10 and that the GOT should submit an inter-ministerial-approved draft of legislation prior to this meeting. All GOT officials present told Poloff that they would meet this deadline, but offered no clarifying information regarding how the process could be accelerated. Mfinanga said the GOT would share draft legislation with the OPCW in November, but not with others as it will be confidential until its first reading in Parliament which will SIPDIS not occur until 2007. Assistance with implementation obligations -------------- ¶9. (U) Mfinanga and Kingu appreciated the USG offer of assistance with meeting implementation obligations, particularly with drafting implementing legislation, and asked for particulars of such assistance. However, both said that the Permanent Secretaries of their ministries are the proper authorities to respond to the offer of assistance. ¶10. (C) COMMENT: Post's experience in obtaining draft legislation on another topic (trafficking in persons) leads us to expect that the CWC-implementing draft legislation might not be shared with stakeholders until its first reading in Parliament. While the confidential status of legislation in the early stages of the process makes it difficult to provide assistance in drafting it, Post was assured that after the first reading in Parliament, comments and suggestions would be welcome. DELLY