Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08COTONOU348
2008-06-20 12:49:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Cotonou
Cable title:  

KHADAFI MAKES WAVES AT CEN-SAD SUMMIT IN BENIN

Tags:  PREL EAID SENV EAGR PINR XA LY BN 
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INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS PRIORITY 1278
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON PRIORITY 0351
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0980
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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COTONOU 000348 

SIPDIS

AF/W FOR DANA BANKS, LONDON FOR PETER LORD, PARIS FOR KANEDA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/20/2018
TAGS: PREL EAID SENV EAGR PINR XA LY BN
SUBJECT: KHADAFI MAKES WAVES AT CEN-SAD SUMMIT IN BENIN

Classified By: Ambassador Gayleatha B. Brown. Reasons 1.4 (b&d).
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 COTONOU 000348

SIPDIS

AF/W FOR DANA BANKS, LONDON FOR PETER LORD, PARIS FOR KANEDA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/20/2018
TAGS: PREL EAID SENV EAGR PINR XA LY BN
SUBJECT: KHADAFI MAKES WAVES AT CEN-SAD SUMMIT IN BENIN

Classified By: Ambassador Gayleatha B. Brown. Reasons 1.4 (b&d).

1.(C) Summary: In Benin June 16-18, 2008 for the 10th annual
summit of the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD),
Libya's Col. Khadafi reportedly offended and alienated many
of the African heads of state, ministers and representatives
in attendance. His visceral attack on regional African
organizations at the June 17 opening session (attended by the
diplomatic corps) apparently intensified in later closed-door
sessions. The summit's purported dedication to rural
development and food security was overshadowed by Khadafi's
polemics against regional political groupings, including
ECOWAS and the African Union (AU),and repeated calls for a
United States of Africa. While Khadafi arrived bearing
gifts, he only attracted the heads of state of ten
(Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Liberia, Togo, Cote
d'Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, the Central African Republic, Libya
and Sierra Leone) of CEN-SAD's 25 members. At the end of the
summit, Benin's President Yayi is left in a difficult
position as CEN-SAD's new chairperson - a job which could
very well leave him twisting in the wind between Khadafi, the
regional blocs, and his foreign partners, particularly
Nigeria, target of Khadafi's ire. End Summary.

-------------- --------------
Khadafi launches an attack on regional organizations
-------------- --------------

2.(C) In his public remarks at the June 17 opening of the
CEN-SAD summit attended by foreign heads of state, ministers
and representatives and the diplomatic corps, Khadafi
repeatedly condemned the regional political and economic
groupings and called for a United States of Africa. In
private, reportedly, he went further. Akwasi Osei Adjei,
Ghana's Foreign Minister (please protect),told the
Ambassador that Khadafi's verbal diatribes berated Africans
for what Khadafi termed their do-nothing regional
organizations that should be abolished and replaced with a
United States of Africa. Adjei stated that Liberia, Nigeria

and South Africa were targeted for very harsh treatment to
the extent that the Liberian President walked out of one
closed session. The Nigerian delegation was similarly
offended. According to Adjei, Hassan Aboubacar, the head of
the Nigerian delegation and Nigeria's CDA in Cotonou, read a
statement that repudiated Khadafi's remarks and re-affirmed
Nigeria's sovereign right to take independent action when and
where it pleased.

3.(C) Khadafi also condemned Blaise Compoare, Burkina Faso's
President, for his attendance at Israel's 60th anniversary
celebration. Reportedly, he left Cotonou much earlier than
other participants. Adjei also told the Ambassador that,
Khadafi threatened to target any African country that did not
follow his line and deny them Libyan development assistance.
According to Khadafi, those "slaves" who followed the U.S.
and European line should leave Africa and go to America and
Europe. Additionally, Khadafi told the heads of state that he
had terminated discussions with France about a Mediterranean
Union regional grouping once Sarkozy included non-African
countries.

4.(C) Clearly upset, Adjei said that many of his colleagues
were worried about Khadafi's threat to go directly to the
"people" and advocate revolution in those countries who did
not follow him and so declare at the upcoming AU meeting in
Egypt. He said those countries particularly worried included
The Gambia, Togo, and Cote d'Ivoire. The Ghanaian ForMin
noted Benin's awkward position as the current host and the
fact that Yayi is slated to be CEN-SAD's next chairperson.
Cotonou received a taste of Khadafi's threat to go to the
people on June 19 during a giant mass rally and concert at
the main stadium.

5.(C) During the rally, attended by approximately 300,000
people, Khadafi repeated his call for a United States of
Africa and told Benin's youth and women to not trust their
politicians and instead put their trust in a United States of
Africa. During his discourse, which meandered and jumped
rapidly from topic to topic, he condemned the United States
for exploiting Africa through the slave trade and Europe for
its colonial policies.

6.(C) Publicly, several heads of states interviewed by the
press on their departure from Cotonou were complimentary of

COTONOU 00000348 002 OF 003


Benin's hospitality and well-organized program, arranged by
Ambassador Diallo, the President's Special Advisor on
Diplomatic Affairs and former ForMin. For example, Liberia's
President warmly expressed appreciation for the GOB's welcome
and pointedly stated interest in follow-on discussions of
substantive issues (see paras 7-9) in regional fora, notably
the AU. Privately, European diplomats in Cotonou buzzed about
Khadafi's diatribes. One African diplomat observed that the
Ambassador's keen interest in Khadafi's opening speech was
superseded only by that of the French COM. The new Chinese
Ambassador, an expert in Arab Affairs, was nonplused,
contending that other Arab leaders do not take Khadafi
seriously and the Africans only do so for what they can get.


-------------- ---
Also discussed: the Great Green Wall and the end
of Visas
-------------- ---

7.(U) Khadafi's public and private diatribes aside, the
Summit touched on some other important issues. The CEN-SAD
experts committee met June 12-13 to consider a rural
development and natural resources action plan that consists
of a regional food security program and water development
project. The experts focused on the Great Green Wall project.
This project consists of planting a 5 km wide strip of trees
over a distance of 7,000 km from Senegal to Djibouti to stop
the progress of desertification. To address the food crisis,
the experts' committee proposed the creation of a monitoring
group for food security which would monitor natural
resources, trends in foodstuff prices and investment for
agricultural development to prevent potential food crises in
the CEN-SAD region. Experts also recommended that the
principle of the free movement of people in the CEN-SAD
region be gradually formalized through the cancellation of
the visa requirements for citizens of member states. The
experts' committee selected Niger to host the 1st CEN-SAD
Games in February 2009 with an estimated budget of FCFA
2,241,525,000 (USD 5,370,000). CEN-SAD's Executive Committee,
composed of member state foreign ministers, approved the
experts' report during its June 15-16 meeting.

8.(U) In public the heads of state summit considered the
conflicts in Chad and Djibouti and called for dialogue in
each country. The heads of state also discussed the proposal
for a Trans-Saharan road and agreed to set up an investment
guarantee agency within the Sahel-Saharan Investment and
Trade Bank. The heads of state accepted Sao Tome and
Principe, Kenya, and Mauritania as full members of CEN-SAD.
The summit closed with the nomination of President Yayi to
chair CEN-SAD until its next meeting in 2009.

9.(U) In addition to President Yayi's ascendancy to the
chairmanship of CEN-SAD, Benin also benefited materially from
Khadafi's largesse. While in town for the summit Khadafi
inaugurated construction on the "Libya Hotel" a planned five
star hotel in Cotonou with an estimated price tag of 33
billion FCFA (79 million USD). In the days surrounding the
event Khadafi also made gifts of food, minibuses, tractors,
and computers to the Beninese people. At the end of the
CEN-SAD, Khadafi lauded Benin's organization of the
conference and warm welcome in a message reported in the
media on June 19.

--------------
Comment
--------------

10.(C) Khadafi pushed hard on his concept of a United States
of Africa, even if it meant offending those he wants to
unify. He was quick to brandish petrodollars as a weapon
with threats to withhold aid from anyone who does not tow his
line. Khadafi's potential for success with such an initiative
probably is limited based on the weak attendance by heads of
state at the summit and his willingness to offend fellow
leaders. Khadafi delivered direct attacks on regional African
organizations, notably the AU, SADC, and ECOWAS, and called
for their replacement with United States of Africa
structures. His direct attack on Nigeria and its president
for attempting "colonization" of Africa via ECOWAS gives
ammunition to those who suspect Khadafi of similar intentions
in CEN-SAD. These polemics do not serve President Yayi well.
Benin's role within CEN-SAD, especially with President Yayi

COTONOU 00000348 003 OF 003


as the chairperson, will likely be difficult. He must expend
political and diplomatic capital to preserve good neighborly
relations with Nigeria, which is essential to Benin's
economic well-being. Hosting the CEN-SAD Summit has changed
from an opportunity to use Libyan money to spruce up Cotonou
to the real danger that Yayi might be seduced into Khadafi's
orbit. End Comment.
BROWN