C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LIBREVILLE 000564

SIPDIS

AF/C PLEASE ALSO PASS EMBASSY BANGUI AND EMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE
LONDON AND PARIS PLEASE PASS TO AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/01/2018
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM AO BY CM CT CD CG CF EK GB
TP
SUBJECT: GABON: FRENCH GENERAL DESCRIBES STRENGTHS,
WEAKNESSES OF ECCAS/CEEAC SECURITY INITIATIVES

REF: LIBREVILLE 0420

Classified By: DCM Nate Holt for reasons 1.4(b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) The senior French military officer in Central Africa
provided visiting AF/C Deputy Director Siria Lopez with a
tour d'horizon of French military perspectives on activities
of the Economic Community of Central Africa States
(ECCAS/CEEAC), including ECCAS's 700-person peacekeeping
operation in the Central African Republic (CAR), its ongoing
efforts to create an AU-sanctioned standby peacekeeping
brigade, and the possible deployment of military observers to
the Chad/Sudan border. In their October 28 meeting, General
Claude Reglat stressed that while ECCAS/CEEAC is recovering
from a long period of dormancy and will require significant
external support for the foreseeable future, it is
nevertheless in some ways ahead of other African regional
organizations in developing a peace and security
infrastructure. In any case, Reglat emphasized, ongoing
eacekeeping operations in CAR provide ECCAS/CEEAC ith
invaluable real-word experience in coordinatng a
multi-national Africa diplomatic and militay response to a
regional crisis. End Summary.

--------------
Tough Neighborhood,
Feeble Leadership
--------------


2. (C) Reglat said he is "very concerned with the situation
in Eastern Congo and the possible consequences in Kinshasa."
One consequence of the deteriorating situation is that DRC
President Joseph Kabila, who is acting president of
ECCAS/CEEAC, is "being pulled in many different directions."
As a consequence, "there is no real leader" of ECCAS/CEEAC at

present. Gabon's Bongo has "played the main role" in
ECCAS/CEEAC peace and security efforts to date but now wants
to step back. There are no obvious candidates among the
other heads of state to succeed Bongo in this role, Reglat
said. He therefore hopes Bongo will continue as a de facto
leader, or at least coordinator, of ECCAS/CEEAC peace and
security efforts. Reglat is the commander of the French
Forces in Gabon, with responsibility for all ten ECCAS/CEEAC
countries (Angola, Burundi, CAR, Cameroon, Chad,
Congo-Brazzaville, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome
and Principe).

--------------
Peacekeeping in CAR: FOMUC/MICOPAX
--------------


3. (C) The centerpiece of ECCAS/CEEAC security efforts is
the FOMAC/MICOPAX peacekeeping operation in the Central
African Republic (CAR), Reglat continued. ECCAS/CEEAC
assumed responsibility for the operation in July, replacing a
long-serving Gabonese commander with Congolese Vice-Admiral
Hilaire Mokoko. The military component of FOMAC/MICOPAX
consists of four company-sized units of approximately 105
persons each from Gabon, Congo (Brazzaville), Chad and
Cameroon. A 120-person Angolan civilian police unit will
join FOMAC/MICOPAX soon, Reglat added. The overall size of
the force is slated to grow from 500 to approximately 700
persons, Reglat said.


4. (C) France provides logistical and other support for the
military components of FOMUC/MICOPAX, the general explained.
France does not support the police or other civilian units.
These components of the peacekeeping operation receive
support from CEEAC/ECCAS member states and the European
Union, Reglat explained. France has 200 soldiers in Bangui,
he added, and "we do not want to expand this force." Thus
France sees the ECCAS/CEEAC forces as critical for stability
in CAR.


5. (C) The European Union has a memorandum of understanding
covering various aspects of its security assistance to
ECCAS/CEEAC, including the administration of salary and
benefit payments to peacekeeping forces, Reglat continued.
France, however, has no direct agreement with ECCAS/CEEAC for
military assistance. Instead France operates through a
"ghost agreement" with Gabon. France is in the process of
updating the military support arrangements for ECCAS/CEEAC

LIBREVILLE 00000564 002 OF 003


and thinks that it will continue to operate through a
bilateral agreement with Gabon, Reglat said. The EU is also
updating their agreement for financial and other support for
various ECCAS/CEEAC security activities, including
FOMAC/MICOPAX, Reglat added.


6. (C) Colonel Phillippe Bonnel, Reglat's executive officer,
described French assistance in greater detail. France
provides training to national components of the peacekeeping
force in their countries of origin, he explained. "We focus
on skills linked to peacekeeping operations," he said, citing
convoys, patrols, civil-military relations and human rights.
Cameroon, Gabon and Congo (Brazzaville) are "doing good," he
reported, but the Chadian contingent in CAR is problematic.
They constitute a kind of presidential guard for CAR
President Bozize, Bonnel said, and because the Chadian troops
do not speak French they communicate poorly with other PKO
components. The Chadian troops are also distracted by events
in their home country, he added, and during the rebel advance
on N'djamena in February 2008 many abandoned their posts in
CAR to head back to Chad.

--------------
Standby Brigade
--------------


7. (C) General Reglat told us that the ECCAS/CEEAC standby
peacekeeping brigade is "growing with many difficulties."
The next significant test of the brigade's readiness will
occur in Angola in 2010, when they will carry out a major
multi-national exercise. The brigade is not a standing
force, Reglat emphasized, but rather a collection of units
and other capacities identified for mobilization in various
ECCAS/CEEAC member states. Gabon, for instance, will provide
medical and logistics capacity to the brigade. France's
approach so far has been to engage member states bilaterally
to help them "grow their own contribution."


8. (C) Some of the initial allocation of responsibilities
within the standby brigade was mis-directed, the French
officers claimed. Cameroon, for instance, is supposed to
provide a light armored battalion which it is currently
unable to equip. Reglat said the member states should tap
into their actual current capacities--such as Cameroon's
capable contingent of paratroopers--rather than components
that will need to be built from the ground up.


9. (C) Reglat emphasized that it is artificial to draw sharp
distinctions between ECCAS/CEEAC's three current and
contemplated security missions: the FOMAC/MICOPAX
peacekeeping force in CAR, the regional standby peacekeeping
brigade, and the proposed deployment of a small team of
military observers on the Chad/Sudan border. "You can't
differentiate the three," Reglat said. When France provides
training for a country's peacekeeping component prior to
deployment in Bangui, he said, it is simultaneously
strengthening ECCAS/CEEAC's overall peacekeeping capacity.
The countries involved are trying to develop more broad-based
peacekeeping expertise, he emphasized, "identifying staff
officers and others earmarked for participation." If
ECCAS/CEEAC deploys military observers to the Chad/Sudan
border, he predicted, "they will use people who have been
involved in the Central African Republic in the past."
Likewise, Gabon's General Augustin Roger Bibaye Itandas, who
headed regional peacekeeping forces in CAR for three and one
half years has been identified by Gabon as a lead expert in
the Chad/Sudan Contact Group's Ceasefire Committee (and was
recently named National Security Counselor to President
Bongo).


10. (C) In this sense, Reglat argued, "the regional brigade
is not standby, it's acting." And despite logistical and
other difficulties "it is good for African people to manage
these operations."

--------------
Possible Assistance
--------------


11. (C) Finally, Reglat discussed how the United States and
others might assist ECCAS/CEEAC in the future. He emphasized
the need for ground mobility, including commercial,
civilian-grade trucks. Likewise, he said, ECCAS/CEEAC would
benefit from standardized civilian-grade communications
equipment. All vehicles and equipment should be provided
with close attention and adequate funding for maintenance, he

LIBREVILLE 00000564 003 OF 003


emphasized. ECCAS/CEEAC also has significant training needs
that the United States and others might help address. Any
assistance should be closely coordinated with ECCAS/CEEAC's
existing partners, France and the EU, Reglat stressed.

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


12. (C) Much of what General Reglat told us was not new.
However, his wide-ranging and remarkably candid description
of ECCAS/CEEAC's strengths and weaknesses was invaluable.
Deputy Director Lopez was not able to clear this message
prior to departure. End Comment.
REDDICK