Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07CONAKRY127
2007-02-02 10:01:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Conakry
Cable title:  

PRESIDENT CONTE LIVES IN ANOTHER WORLD

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PINS KDEM GV 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHRY #0127/01 0331001
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 021001Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY CONAKRY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0588
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE//POLAD/J2// PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CONAKRY 000127 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS KDEM GV
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT CONTE LIVES IN ANOTHER WORLD

Classified By: Ambassador Jackson McDonald. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

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SUMMARY
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CONAKRY 000127

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2017
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS KDEM GV
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT CONTE LIVES IN ANOTHER WORLD

Classified By: Ambassador Jackson McDonald. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

--------------
SUMMARY
--------------


1. (C) On February 1, I met for nearly an hour with Guinean
President Lansana Conte. The conversation was disjointed,
with Conte frequently digressing and going off on tangents.
He minimized the importance of the recent general strike,
including the use of lethal force against civilian protesters
on January 22. He would not engage on political questions
such as the appointment of a prime minister and the need to
build national consensus. Conte was alert, but, as usual,
his level of discourse remained very basic. This
conversation was frustrating; I was trying to talk about ways
out of the current crisis with a human relic whose time has
long since passed. End Summary.

--------------
SETTING
--------------


2. (C) President Conte received me for almost an hour
yesterday afternoon, February 1. We again met in the shade
of a banyan tree in the parking lot of the burned-out Palais
des Nations, a large edifice that housed the Presidency until
it was destroyed in the 1996 mutiny. This is Conte,s
preferred setting: outdoors, under a tree, with a steady
breeze. Conte holds court like a village chief, and this
setting is the closest thing to a village in downtown
Conakry.


3. (C) When I arrived, President Conte was sitting in an old
leather armchair, with President of the National Assembly
Aboubacar Sompare, President of the Supreme Court Lamine
Sidime, and President of the Economic and Social Council
Michel Kamano sitting around him in white plastic chairs.
Business crony Mamadou Sylla had enthroned himself on a low
retaining wall. The atmosphere was gloomy. Another business
crony, Guido Santullo, wandered by and took a seat toward the
end of the meeting. No one spoke except Conte and me.

--------------
IT HAPPENS EVERYWHERE
--------------


4. (C) After offering New Year,s greetings, I referred to
the recent general strike as a Guinean matter that the
Guineans themselves needed to resolve. I added, however,

that the United States considered itself a friend of Guinea
and wanted to be helpful if it could.


5. (C) President Conte replied that Guinea is a difficult
country to govern, because Guineans are proud. He gave a
negative connotation to the word &proud,8 implying that
Guineans are too proud to yield or compromise. Conte said
that before Guineans could get along with each other they
first had to &accept each other.8 He asserted that every
family and every nation has quarrels. It happens everywhere.
Guinea is no exception. He said Guinea would have to settle
this quarrel itself; its friends, including the United
States, could only play a supporting role (Vous pouvez venir
en appoint, c,est tout.).

--------------
THEY ARE TESTING ME
--------------


6. (C) When I referred again to the strike, President Conte
cited a traditional proverb: "they have thrown dust in the
air to see which way the wind is blowing8 (that is, the
protesters are testing him to see how far they can push him).


--------------
IT'S NOT OUR FAULT
--------------


7. (C) I told President Conte that no one was attacking him
personally. That said, life is tough for most Guineans.
Frustrations are running high. Guineans are not demanding
much. All they want is a normal existence: the chance to
work, to raise a family, and to put food on the table. They
want hope.


8. (C) President Conte responded with an archaic ideological
jab about how Africans continue to suffer from &colonial
domination.8 Africans are not at fault, he claimed.
Westerners are at the root of Africa,s problems.


9. (C) Feigning offense, I took exception, noting that the

CONAKRY 00000127 002 OF 003


United States had never possessed colonies in Africa and had
never dominated the continent. President Conte took the
point, adding that even before colonialism Africans had been
dominating other Africans. He said: &If I want something
from my neighbor, I will try to get it. Africans and African
countries have always behaved that way.8

--------------
THEY SHOULD RETURN TO THEIR VILLAGES
--------------


10. (C) I said that, on January 22, I had seen with my own
eyes thousands of demonstrators as they passed by the embassy
heading downtown. I told President Conte that these were not
the hoodlums who had been throwing rocks and burning tires
earlier in the strike; rather, these were ordinary Guineans,
upstanding citizens frustrated with their current plight and
wanting a decent life.


11. (C) President Conte replied, &they shouldn't be here;
they are young people who abandoned their villages thinking
life would be easier in the city; they're wrong; life is
easier in the village; they should go back.8

--------------
FATHER OF THE NATION
--------------


12. (C) I tried to appeal to President Conte,s
paternalistic instincts as the &father of the nation8 for
the past 23 years. Conte interrupted, &so you think I've
been around too long?8 He then digressed into a long
discourse about how term limits do not work in Africa. Once
a chief, always a chief, he said.


13. (C) I said that was not my point. Rather, as &father
of the nation,8 he had a paternal responsibility to bring
together all the sons and daughters of Guinea. If ever
Guineans needed to unite for the good of their country, it
was now, I said. I urged him to try to build consensus.


14. (C) President Conte repeated that quarrels happen in all
families and all countries. He said that Guineans had
quarreled before and that this time was no different.


15. (C) I countered that this time was, in fact, different.
Guineans had killed Guineans. Throughout my stay in Guinea,
Guineans had told me they were different, that they would
never kill each other, that Guinea was not Liberia or Sierra
Leone. Recent events, especially the shootings on January
22, had proven otherwise. Guineans had killed other Guineans
by the dozens. They had violated their own values; they had
violated an important taboo.


16. (C) Incredibly, President Conte denied that any Guinean
had killed a fellow Guinean on purpose. He maintained that
the deaths had been caused by stray bullets. (Either he was
lying, or no one has told him what really happened on January
22.)


17. (C) I urged President Conte to hold the killers
accountable. If not, then they would feel free to kill
again. If not, others would also feel free to kill. I said
the last thing Guinea needed was to succumb to a downward
spiral of violence.


18. (C) President Conte appeared not to realize the depth of
popular discontent or the extent of last week's bloodshed.
He responded that Guineans had, in fact, killed each other in
the past and that Guinea would survive this time, too.

-------------- --------------
CONTE WILL RETIRE FROM THE MILITARY WHEN HE IS NO LONGER
PRESIDENT
-------------- --------------


19. (C) Next, I tried to gauge how much President Conte was
focusing on appointing a new prime minister. I recalled that
he had once told me that he was a farmer, a general, and a
president. He smiled and nodded. I said that as commander
in chief, he had several subordinate generals, a bunch of
colonels, and many other soldiers to carry out his orders.
As President of the Republic, it was also important for him
to have civilians -- a prime minister and ministers -- to
carry out his policies.


20. (C) President Conte did not take the bait. He again
digressed, saying that he was not the president of the
military but rather the president of all Guineans. I agreed.
He said that he had never resigned from the military but
would do so when he was no longer president. &When I am no
longer president or when they (the military) no longer want

CONAKRY 00000127 003 OF 003


me to be president, then I will resign from the military, go
to my village, and not look back,8 he asserted.


21. (C) I replied that, as of now, he remained both
commander in chief of the armed forces and President of the
Republic. I tried again to determine whether he was focusing
on the need to appoint a new prime minister and government to
assist him in his role as president. Conte would not engage
in this line of discussion; he began to reminisce about how
he had traveled to every village in Guinea when he was
paymaster for the army in the early 1960s.

--------------
HEALTH
--------------


22. (C) President Conte was alert throughout the meeting.
Obviously tired and worn by age and disease, he nonetheless
focused on the conversation most of the time (this is not
always the case). He seemed to enjoy the banter, even when I
contradicted him, but he always made certain he had the last
word.


23. (C) He was barefoot and hung his right leg over the arm
of his chair for much of the meeting. He stood up (with a
little help) and then walked (unassisted and barefoot) about
thirty feet to the outhouse. He then returned (unassisted)
and sat down. He smoked less than usual. His personal
hygiene continues to deteriorate.

--------------
COMMENT
--------------


24. (C) President Conte is a tired old man whose time has
come and gone. The world has passed him by even though he is
still in office. President Conte is no longer up to his
leadership responsibilities. He is not -- and evidently
never has been -- a man with world view or a view of the
future.


25. (C) President Conte does not seem to comprehend the
groundswell of popular support for change. He is in a state
of denial. (He is not alone in this regard.) He minimized
the importance of the recent general strike, mass
demonstration, and killing of at least 59 people by the
security forces. He appeared to think that the same old
recipes would still work today. (He is not alone in that
regard either.)


26. (C) President Conte evidenced no sense of urgency to
appoint a prime minister. That said, he holds his cards
close to this chest, and he makes decisions according to his
own timing. We can only hope that the Presidents of the
National Assembly, Supreme Court, and Economic and Social
Council, who were meeting with Conte when I arrived, were
trying to nudge him towards the timely selection of a new
prime minister. The atmosphere was gloomy, however, when I
arrived.


27. (C) The presence of Mamadou Sylla and Guido Santullo is
not encouraging. President Conte continues to meld his
official and personal worlds. He appears to have no
disinterested advisors. He seeks solace in the spirit world;
his marabous had performed sacrifices for him shortly before
my arrival.
MCDONALD