GABON: FRENCH GENERAL DESCRIBES STRENGTHS,

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