PRIME MINISTER SORO TO PRESENT NEW ACTION PLAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABIDJAN 000521

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/18/2017
TAGS: IV PGOV EFIN
SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER SORO TO PRESENT NEW ACTION PLAN


Classified By: Ambassador Aubrey Hooks for reasons 1.4 b/d.


1. (C) SUMMARY: In a meeting with the Ambassador on May
16, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro focused on the following
issues:
-- it has taken time for him to get organized, but he will
present an action plan, including a matrix timetable, next
week;
-- the timetable included in the Ouaga Agreement was done
hastily and was not realistic;
-- elections have to take place before the end of 2008;
-- the UN needs to certify the election results;
-- Gbagbo finally recognizes that he needs Soro to put an
end to the crisis and to win elections;
-- Soro and Gbagbo have reached agreement on the problem of
military ranks of the Forces Nouvelles; and
-- Soro will be traveling to Washington around June 15 to
meet with the World Bank and IMF. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) In a hour-long meeting with the Ambassador on May
16, Prime Minister Soro announced that he would be presenting
his action plan, including a matrix with a timetable, to the
Council of Ministers next week for final approval. He has
already shared his action plan with leaders of opposition
parties and has taken their comments into consideration.
Soro said he also planned to meet with the diplomatic corps
to present his action plan. The Prime Minister said he is
aware that his Government had not yet moved forward on any
major issues, but he noted that it had taken time to
negotiate and set up a new Government. He emphasized that
June would be a month of action.


3. (C) The Prime Minister confided that the Ouaga Agreement
had been hastily negotiated and that the timetable laid out
in that Agreement was unrealistic. His new action plan will
be much more realistic. While he did not give specifics on
his timetable, he stated emphatically that elections had to
take place during the year 2008 or his government would lose
credibility.


4. (C) Responding to the Ambassador's question about the
role of the UN in support of his action plan, PM Soro focused
on security and technical expertise. However, he also
insisted that the UN needed to arbitrate disputes on election
issues and to certify the results of the elections. The PM
said that President Gbagbo did not want to work with Gerard
Stoudmann, the UN High Representative for Elections. Soro
commented that he did not want to get into a fight with
Gbagbo over Stoudmann, but that he did insist thaQit was in
the interests of everybody that the UN certify that the
elections were credible. Soro related that he told President
Gbagbo, who thinks he can win the elections, that Gbagbo
would have greater legitimacy if the UN certified that he had
won the elections.


5. (C) Soro commented that the only thing that could derail
the country would be elections, because the stakes are so
high. He said that the fact that Gbagbo needs him to bring
the country out of crisis and to win elections means that the
two of them will be able to work together. He commented
realistically that many compromises will have to be made on
both sides, but he opined that he and President Gbagbo will
be able to work out their differences to keep the political
process moving forward. Soro argued that no political
grouping can win elections and govern by themselves, and that
will result in the formation of coalitions, which could take
many different forms.


6. (C) Prime Minister Soro informed the Ambassador that he
and President Gbagbo have reached agreement on the thorny
issue of military ranks for solders in the Forces Nouvelles
(FN). Soro stated that there are three categories to deal
with. The first group includes the two FN generals, who will
be integrated into the FANCI at their current ranks as
generals. The second group is composed of officers who have
been promoted within the ranks. FN officers will be
integrated into the FANCI at the ranks of the most senior
members of their particular class who remained in the FANCI.
In the third group, the 30 non-commissioned officers who
became FN officers (Commandants Wattao, Ousmane Sherif and 28
others) will be confirmed as officers at their current ranks,
but will be immediately retired and not integrated into the
FANCI. COMMENT: This is a very clever way of resolving this
sensitive issue, especially for the third category of 30
officers who would not want to return to their previous ranks
as non-commissioned officers and who would not be accepted
fully as officers in the FANCI.


7. (C) Prime Minister Soro said he would be traveling to
Washington around June 15 for two to three days for meetings

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with the IMF and World Bank. He hopes to meet senior
officials in the Administration while in Washington. We will
provide more details as we get them. On his way back from
Washington, he plans to stop in Brussels to meet with EU
officials.


8. (C) COMMENT: It is encouraging that Soro is aware that
the Ivorian public and the international community are
anxious for him to get down to the business of governing the
country. It is also encouraging that Soro seems very
matter-of-fact and business-like, both in terms of the Ouaga
Accord and in terms of his relationship with Gbagbo. It
remains to be seen, however, how much he can actually
deliver. The action plan to be announced next week should be
a good indication of his realism.
HOOKS