ONE WEEK LATER - NO COMMITTEE FOR DIALOGUE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CONAKRY 000046 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/17/2018 TAGS: PGOV ELAB KDEM ASEC GV SUBJECT: ONE WEEK LATER - NO COMMITTEE FOR DIALOGUE REF: CONAKRY 0029 Classified By: POL/ECON CHIEF SHANNON CAZEAU FOR REASON 1.4 B AND D ¶1. (C) SUMMARY. One full week after the January 9 negotiated agreement between Guinea,s labor unions and other political actors (reftel),the Committee de Suivi has not yet gelled. Although the general committee composition has been decided, only the unions have actually nominated members. The proposed composition of the committee itself raises several concerns about the long-term effectiveness of the committee as a mechanism for achieving results and avoiding violence. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) As part of the January 9 negotiated agreement with Guinea,s labor unions, the Guinean Government agreed to establish a Committee de Suivi, in order to review the implementation of the January 27 Accords which resulted in the creation of a consensus government led by Prime Minister Lansana Kouyate. On January 17, Pol LES met with Josephine Leno Guilao, the Vice President of the Economic and Social Council, in order to discuss progress towards establishing the committee. (COMMENT. In principle, the Economic and Social Council is an independent body although in practice, it has been closely associated with the two other republican institutions representing the government, the National Assembly and the Supreme Court. END COMMENT). ¶3. (SBU) According to Ms. Guilao, the Economic and Social Council is spearheading the organization of the Committee de Suivi. Guilao said that the Council sent out letters on January 15 requesting nominations for participants from each of the organizations to be represented within the committee, as follows: - Labor Unions (10 representatives) - Patronat (4 representatives) - Prime Minister,s Cabinet (8 representatives) - Association of Elders (4 representatives) - Civil Society (2 representatives) - Supreme Court (3 representatives) - National Assembly (3 representatives) - Economic and Social Council (3 representatives) ¶4. (SBU) Ms. Guilao said that as of January 17, only the unions had responded with nominations. Guilao noted that the president of the National Assembly, Aboubacar Sompare, and the president of the Supreme Court, Lamine Sidibe, will participate as one of the three representatives from their respective organizations. However, Guilao told LES that they would not participate in the technical discussions., Guilao emphasized to LES that it is important to get the committee established as soon as possible and that she is hoping to get the rest of the nominations within the next few days. ¶5. (SBU) As LES was coming into the room to meet with Ms. Guilao, she was just finishing up an interview with a journalist from Kouroussa, the PM,s hometown. Guilao reportedly told the journalist that Kouyate has failed, and that he is pretending to be a government of wide consensus, but that he has not actually consulted with anyone, including the Economic and Social Council. Ms. Guilao reportedly detailed other criticisms of Kouyate, including his involvement in the sale of rice to the population, making unrealistic promises, and frequent travel. ¶6. (C) Later in the discussion, after the reporter left, Ms. Guilao told LES that the republican institutions went to see President Conte last week after the January 9 agreement was signed. She said that Conte looked at the agreement and then told them (Sompare, Sidibe and Michel Camara, President of the Economic and Social Council) to tell Kouyate to be respectful to the president. According to Ms. Guilao, Conte said I am the president and he needs to respect that., Ms. Guilao told LES that she was confident that President Conte would accept whatever recommendations are eventually made by the Committee de Suivi. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶7. (C) There is one glaring omission among the groups invited to participate in the Committee de Suivi and that is the political parties. While the ruling Party for Unity and Progress (PUP) is likely to be at least tacitly represented by some members of the republican institutions, the opposition political parties do not appear to have a voice. Since the political parties have generally felt marginalized CONAKRY 00000046 002 OF 002 by both recent events and the events of early 2007, this may be a problem especially since they have one of the biggest interests at stake ) the elections. The fact that there are nine representatives from the republican institutions, which include Sompare and Sidibe, suggests that there may be at least a few members with a solid interest in derailing the process. With the Economic and Social Council doing the initial organization, another question is who will actually chair the committee? Participants may not be keen to accept one of the republican institutions as the chairperson since the momentum driving the dialogue process is a popular demand to change the system. END COMMENT. CARTER