ATT ELEVATOR INCIDENT TRIGGERS SECURITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000169 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2017 TAGS: PGOV ASEC ML SUBJECT: ATT ELEVATOR INCIDENT TRIGGERS SECURITY INVESTIGATION Classified By: Political Officer Glenn Fedzer for reason 1.4 (B). ¶1. (U) On February 10 President Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT), Prime Minister Ousmane Issoufi Maiga, and Health Minister Maiga Zeinab Mint Youba spent 30 uncomfortable minutes trapped in the elevator of Bamako's newly renovated Gabriel Toure hospital. The Malian government spent approximately USD 3.5 million to add a building equipped with "ultra-modern" examination rooms and operating facilities. ATT visited the hospital to inspect the new facilities and was trapped with his two Ministers by a power failure. The hospital's supposedly automatic electrical generator also failed. It took fire-fighters, ATT's security detail and hospital electricians half an hour to free the elevator's high-profile occupants. ¶2. (U) State security services have reportedly launched an investigation to determine what might be behind the incident. There are, however, no indications that the power cut was due to anything other than Bamako's relatively routine electrical outages. Several of Bamako's independent newspapers seized on the incident to question the GOM's oversight of those charged with renovating the hospital and procuring its equipment. Said one newspaper of the incident: "Mali's Head of State stuck in the supposedly new, good-quality elevator of a brand new building; in certain countries this would cost a dozen officials their jobs and have consequences for the responsible contruction firm." ¶3. (C) Comment: No one has yet suggested that anyone intentionally cut the power to trap the President, and the local press focused its attacks on the contractors, alleging substandard work and theft. Malfunctioning elevators are not unknown in new construction in Mali, as the Embassy can attest. Notably absent in the press, however, is any criticism of the President's security detail, and how they left their charge "hanging in thin air" in such an embarrassing fashion. McCulley