PRIME MINISTER'S ADVISERS SAY OUAGA PEACE ACCORD

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000580 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/01/2017 TAGS: PGOV PREL KPKO IV SUBJECT: PRIME MINISTER'S ADVISERS SAY OUAGA PEACE ACCORD IMPLEMENTATION ABOUT TO MOVE INTO HIGH GEAR REF: A) ABIDJAN 521 B) ABIDJAN 551 C) ABIDJAN 558 Classified By: CHARGE D'AFFAIRES VICENTE VALLE FOR REASONS 1.4 B/D ¶1. (C) Summary. Minister of Tourism and Prime Minister Soro confidant Sidiki Konate and the PM,s Political Counselor, Adama Bictogo, told selected Ambassadors on June 1 that the implementation of the Ouaga Peace Accord roadmap will move into high gear starting next week with the redeployment of civilian administration and judges to the north and establishment of working groups on identification of the population. Soro wants to kick off DDR by the end of the month in the presence of the Ouaga facilitator, Burkinabe President Compaore. End Summary. ¶2. (SBU) Konate and Bictogo met with Acting SRSG Abou Moussa, the French, German, Burkinabe, and Ghanaian Ambassadors, the EU rep, and Charge over lunch on June 1. The lunch was hosted by the French Ambassador but organized at the request of our Ivoirian interlocutors, who said Soro plans to meet regularly with this group. (Soro will host the next such gathering on June 8.) ¶3. (SBU) According to Konate, the Prime Minister will issue decrees next week announcing the redeployment of civil administration (prefets, sous-prefets, director generals) and magistrates to the north. The PM will also establish working groups, headed by the Ministers of Justice and Interior, to resolve issues related to identification of unregistered residents (potential citizens and resident foreigners, both of whom are covered by the audiences foraines) and those whose birth registries were destroyed by the Forces Nouvelles earlier in the crisis and who are not included in the audiences foraines process. (The latter issue is known as the reconstitution des fichiers.) ¶4. (C) The government will assign 600 police from the New Forces, supplemented by additional security forces if necessary, to provide protection for the redeployed administrators. Konate added that the reestablishment of civilian administration would be a collaborative process: Prefets will work with existing authorities in the north, with the latter gradually relinquishing power to the former, particularly as ex-combatants begin to disarm. ¶5. (C) On DDR, Konate said regroupment of soldiers to be demobilized will begin by the end of June in the presence of Burkinabe President Compaore and with ceremonies in four cities in the north and south (Bouake, Man, and Guiglo were mentioned). Konate said the issue over military ranks of New Forces soldiers incorporated into the new Armed Forces has been largely worked out. (His description was along the lines of what PM Soro told the Ambassador earlier, ref A.) However, talks are ongoing to resolve the final details. ¶6. (C) Acting SRSG Abou Moussa urged the Ivoirians to make meaningful progress before the Security Council,s visit to Cote d,Ivoire on June 18-19. He also complained that the DDM exercise carried out in Guiglo two weeks ago (ref B) had not been serious. Konate replied that the Prime Minister had opted not to get involved in the Guiglo exercise because he had not been involved in the process and it had been poorly organized. (There was general agreement that blame for Guiglo should be assigned to Gbagbo adviser Kadet Bertin, who had put the ceremony together and touted it as representing real disarmament.) Konate encouraged the international community to tell the government when it was dissatisfied with peace process implementation and point out what the government needed to do instead. ¶7. (C) Comment: The PM's advisers made only a brief, passing reference to impunity and the recent FESCI attacks on civil society (ref C). However, they struck us as realistic and committed to advancing the peace process quickly. We should see the results over the next few weeks. VALLE