TOGO: NATIONAL DIALOGUE ROUSES FROM SOJOURN WITH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LOME 000737

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/25/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM TO
SUBJECT: TOGO: NATIONAL DIALOGUE ROUSES FROM SOJOURN WITH
COMPAORE'S APPOINTMENT AS FACILITATOR

REF: A. LOME 452

B. LOME 591

Classified By: Poloff Rona Rathod for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).


1. (SBU) Summary. Following an extended break in
discussions caused by the contentious adoption of an interim
agreement, the national dialogue process is suddenly back on
track with the nomination of Burkinabe president Compaore as
facilitator. The nine delegations unanimously agreed to cast
Compaore in the role of facilitator during the initial
meeting to discuss the matter. Parties seem to have put
behind them the acrimony from the controversial interim
accord that pervaded the process over the past few weeks.
That accord offered little new substance as compared to the
draft agreement of June. End summary.

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NATIONAL DIALOGUE AWAKES FROM FITFUL SLUMBER
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2. (U) A prolonged pause in the national dialogue
resulting from the controversial adoption of an interim
agreement (misleadingly called a "Basic Political Accord")
(see below) on July 6came to an abrupt end July 25 when all
nine participating delegations unanimously selected Burkina
Faso president Blaise Compaore to mediate a second round of
talks. The group (consisting of several prominent opposition
parties, two civil society groups, the ruling party, and the
government, who are conducting negotiations as the key part
of the Togolese government's twenty-two governance- and human
rights-related commitments to the European Union) reconvened
in a plenary session to discuss the appointment of a
facilitator to help them find consensus on remaining points
of disagreement. Responding to a letter sent by dialogue
chair and CAR (Action Committee for Renewal) president Yawovi
Agboyibo requesting each delegation to submit names of
candidates for facilitator, the two parties that had not
agreed to the Basic Political Accord of July 6, UFC (United
Forces for Change) and CDPA (Democratic Convention of African
Peoples),proposed Compaore, among others, to occupy the
post.


3. (C) On the day they met to discuss the issue of the
facilitator, the delegates collectively agreed to appoint
Compaore. During private discussions over the past week,
Agboyibo, CDPA president Leopold Gnininvi, and presidential
advisor Pascal Bodjona all seemed relatively unruffled by the
prospect of needing to select a facilitator for the dialogue,
previously a neuralgic topic. Moreover, we have heard that
several of the party leaders have been in Ouagadougou
recently. All of this suggests that the decision to settle
on Compaore was predetermined and that the July 21 meeting
was a formality to consecrate the appointment. To our
knowledge, Compaore has yet to react publicly to the
announcement.


4. (C) The discussion will now turn to the mandate of the
facilitator. According to Gnininvi, who has been meeting
bilaterally with the other parties and acting as something of
a bridge builder, the facilitator's terms of reference will
consist of the July 6 accord and the points of disaccord that
each delegation submitted as part of the dialogue process.
During an interview on RFI, Bodjona hinted that the role of
the facilitator would be limited and that only Togolese would
and could make decisions. But the ease with which Compaore
was appointed may mean that a deal was also struck on his
authorities and prerogatives.

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ACCORD INDUCES DISSONANCE
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5. (U) Before the revelation of the name of facilitator,
the national dialogue had come to an interim conclusion with
the adoption of the Basic Political Accord on July 6. Only
seven of the nine participating delegations initialed the
agreement, which chairman Agboyibo claims was necessary to
preserve the accomplishments made since the dialogue began on
April 21. Both the UFC and the CDPA refused to initial the
document with the other delegates.


6. (U) UFC leaders Jean-Pierre Fabre (Secretary General)
and Patrick Lawson (Third Vice-President),who boycotted the
discussions the day the accord was adopted, held a press
conference after its release, stating that the document was
tantamount to political fraud and contrary to the spirit of
consensus driving the dialogue. The UFC's primary contention
about the agreement is that it did not also include points

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about which the delegates were unable to reach consensus,
thus making it seem as though the document that was signed
was the definitive agreement.


7. (U) For its part, the CDPA objected to signing this
accord with points of disagreement outstanding. President
Gnininvi, who also was not present during the initialing of
the accord, suggested that the document be called an interim
report, to which he would have signed his name. He also
requested two or three day's time to discuss the accord with
others for the purpose of maintaining consensus. The board
rejected both of his pleas.


8. (SBU) In his first press conference following the
acceptance of the agreement, dialogue chairman Agboyibo
explained that the dialogue process was not able to bring a
resolution to each point of discussion. However, the board
(composed of chair Agboyibo, a representative of civil
society, Professor Kissem Tchangai-Walla as vice-president,
and rapporteur Gilbert Bawara, the minister delegate of
cooperation in the MFA) decided to formulate a foundational
agreement to prevent the risk of participants backsliding on
certain issues in the future. Furthermore, most participants
were, from the outset, mindful of the likelihood of the talks
stalling due to disagreements and had always allowed for the
possibility of appointing a facilitator to help them work out
the remaining points of disaccord. In what has turned out to
mirror Agboyibo's own scheme, outlined long before the
dialogue began (see ref A),the talks will now enter a second
phase with the assistance of a facilitator.

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IMPORTANT PROVISIONS OF THE INTERIM ACCORD
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9. (SBU) With regard to the electoral process, the
opposition has made little headway with this agreement since
the formulation of the draft accord (see ref B). The
"radical" opposition, consisting of UFC, CAR, and CDPA, was
unable to convince the ruling party to place it on equal
footing with respect to the highly-contentious composition of
the electoral commission. The ruling RPT (Rally of Togolese
Peoples) maintains its five seats to two advantage over the
other political parties and will continue to benefit from the
two places accorded to the government. Despite the fact that
the dialoguers designated the electoral commission as the
body responsible for organizing elections (as opposed to
having to collaborate with the GoT),the imbalance in the
composition of the commisouon, with only six of the nineteen
seats going to the real opposition, will give the government
a continuing influential role in organizing elections.


10. (U) The signatories to the Basic Political Agreement
did consent to quash a residency requirement imposed by
former president Eyadema to prevent certain of his foes from
qualifying as contenders in previous legislative elections.
As with the prior draft accord, this July 6 agreement leaves
the particular features of the next ballot and possible
redistricting to be determined by an as yet imprecise special
committee. The delegates have also devised a means of
appealing election results that does not involve the
electoral commission and essentially allows any trial court
with subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate the dispute.


11. (U) The delegates have determined that constitutional
reforms are best left in the hands of a newly elected
parliament (presumably to include a much larger opposition
presence, if not a majority),and have thus deferred on
issues such as how the prime minister is selected,
eligibility conditions for presidential candidates, and
restructuring the constitutional court. All sides seem
content to entrust the modalities of military reform to a
commission created for this purpose, so long as the military
promises to abstain from interfering in politics. The
interim accord explicitly calls for external assistance with
this process.


12. (C) Comment. The UFC's acceptance of Compaore strikes
us as odd because of party leadership's distrust of anyone
perceived as having close ties to former Togolese colonizer
France. It appears that Compaore won over UFC's exiled
president Gilchrist Olympio during recent visits by the
latter to the region. We are pleased to see UFC rejoin the
talks after weeks of denouncing the process, especially since
it is the sole party consistently demanding fundamental
changes needed to move Togo away from the political crisis
that has gripped the country for decades. The fact that only
UFC and CDPA responded to the appeal for nominating a
facilitator points to a tacit understanding among the other

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parties that to get the UFC and CDPA back in the game would
require selecting a mediator they proposed. This sense of
inclusion bodes well for the future of the national dialogue.



13. (C) Another promising development is the tacit
underlying compromise that appears to have evolved. The
opposition will respect President Faure Gnassingbe's
five-year mandate in return for the government's giving
ground on opposition demands related to the other major
governing institutions. However, confidence among the
parties remains fragile, and much hard negotiating remains to
be done. End comment.
DUNN