MALI: UNESCO DIRECTOR-GENERAL ELECTION DEMARCHE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000957 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR IO/UNESCO E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/18/2018 TAGS: PREL UNESCO ML SUBJECT: MALI: UNESCO DIRECTOR-GENERAL ELECTION DEMARCHE REF: STATE 130915 Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). (C) The Embassy delivered reftel demarche to Foreign Ministry Director of Political Affairs Sekouba Cisse on December 18. Cisse noted that the African Union has a candidate selection committee that operates independently of the AU Summit scheduled for January 2009. Cisse acknowledged that concerns raised in reftel were legitimate and said the AU's candidate committee exists to forge continent-wide consensus by resolving exactly these kinds of questions. He told the Embassy he doubted whether any concrete steps regarding this candidacy would occur during the January summit - especially since the actual deadline for candidate submissions is not until the end of May - but allowed that this remained a possibility. MILOVANOVIC