NIGER: U.S. AMBASSADOR JANUARY 10 MEETING WITH GON

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 NIAMEY 000048 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS PARIS FOR AF WATCHER E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/14/2018 TAGS: PREL MARR PHUM ASEC PGOV NG SUBJECT: NIGER: U.S. AMBASSADOR JANUARY 10 MEETING WITH GON FOREIGN MINISTER REF: A. STATE 1087 ¶B. 07 STATE 167865 ¶C. 07 NIAMEY 1444 ¶D. NIAMEY 27 Classified By: Ambassador Bernadette M. Allen, Reason: 1.4 b & d ¶1. (C) Summary. I met with Government of Niger (GON) Foreign Minister (FM) Mindaoudou on Thursday, January 10, 2008, and discussed the status of Niger,s MCC Threshold Program, security (specifically land mine incidents),human rights-related matters(arrested journalists and military,s killing of seven civilians),Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA),views on Trans Sahel Counter Terrorism Partnership (TSTCP) expansion to include Libya (in response to reftel B) and Kosovo independence (in response to reftel A). End Summary. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) -------------- ¶2. (U) After providing the FM a status report on Niger,s MCC Threshold program, based on the latest information from MCC, I segued to discussions of security matters in Niger and human rights issues. I emphasized that the Embassy receives several inquiries a week either about the four journalists (two Nigerien and two French) under arrest, the seven civilians that were reported to have been killed by the military and/or insecurity in Niger in general. I noted that even this week the Embassy received inquiries about security from an MCC team scheduled to visit before month,s end because the MCC team members had heard about the landmine explosion in Niamey and wanted to know whether they should postpone or cancel the planned visit. I informed the FM that the Embassy had recommended that the MCC proceed with its travel plans. Security -------------- ¶3. (C) Noting concern about the January 8 landmine explosion in Niamey that unfortunately killed a journalist (Abdou Mahamane, the director of Niger,s first private radio station, and seriously injured another civilian, I informed FM that Embassy's Regional Security Office (RSO) reported that the Nigerien officers who had received U.S. crime scene training (the Diplomatic Security ATA course) had properly secured the scene of the explosion and collected soil and shrapnel samples that the RSO would send to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for evaluation. I regretted that it had taken far longer than anticipated to obtain demining assistance (training and equipment),but expressed hope that the USG would be able to provide some assistance in the near future. I stated that the Embassy Defense Attache would coordinate with GON military counterparts to identify needs beyond what has already been provided by the French, so that the USG would assistance would be value added and not duplicate training the French already had provided. ¶4. (C) The FM responded that the GON appreciated the training the USG had provided to local law enforcement and welcomed future demining assistance as soon as possible. She said the Mouvement des Nigeriens pour la Justice (MNJ) is responsible for placing landmines in urban centers with the aim of creating panic among the general population. She emphasized that President Tandja has made it clear that the GON will not negotiate with the MNJ, that to do so would send the wrong signal to Nigeriens; that is, one should take up arms to get one,s demands met. She questioned why a democratic GON should negotiate with persons creating terror, noting that tens of thousands of unemployed diplomaed persons have demands too, but they don,t take up arms. She further remarked that if arms were the best means to push for negotiation, then the women of Niger who have learned that due to cultural circumstances they must be patient in securing equal rights, would be better served by taking up arms too. She said the GON will not negotiate with armed bandits and criminals. On the subject of Mr. Mahamane (the killed journalist),she said he had earlier on the day of his death conducted a training seminar for fellow members of the media and was an innocent victim only trying to return home when his vehicle hit the landmine. (Note. Part of Mahamane,s seminar had been covered on the local evening news. End note.) She also mentioned the other persons killed by mines in other regions of Niger, said that Nigeriens will have to take some responsibility for their own security by being watchful for suspicious activity and NIAMEY 00000048 002 OF 003 reporting it to authorities. (Note. This relates to the "neighborhood watch" or community vigilance groups that GON spokesperson Ben Omar had announced on local news as a recommendation for residents to protect themselves. End note.) Human Rights and the Arrested Journalists -------------- ¶5. (S-NF) On the arrested journalists, the FM got a bit defensive and prefaced her comments about the journalists by discussing her own professional background as a constitutional lawyer, stated she pays close attention to human rights issues and emphasized that the GON respects human rights. She reiterated much of what has already been publicly stated about the Nigerien journalists, that they are believed to have been collaborators with MNJ. As for the French journalists, she added that international calls for President Tandja to intercede on their behalf or to grant them clemency was premature, that Niger is a democratic country with a court system, not a dictatorship, thus she questions constant pleas for the President to intercede in some way. She said it would be inappropriate for the President to intercede before the cases are resolved through the court system. Further, she said she was sharing in confidence (please protect) that only a small number of persons in the GON (including herself) had viewed the actual footage (with the French journalists' commentary) that the French journalists had taken of MNJ fighters in an encounter with the Nigerien military. She said when the information about the footage was passed to Tandja, he became angry and pointed out that had the journalists been killed in the gun fight, then the GON would have been blamed for killing journalists. She then showed me a copy of the journalists, request to visit the southern part of the country to prepare a story on avian influenza. She said that under such circumstances, the French journalists should not have been found by the military in the company of MNJ combatants. She added that the military confiscated eight DVDs, that upon viewing the DVDs, GON officials noted the journalists had taken pains to leave large amounts of blank space at the beginning and end of each disk, and had recorded footage of the MNJ activities (including the previously mentioned gun fight) in the middle of the DVDs. She said the attempt to hide the footage in the middle of the DVDs made the journalists, motives suspect, especially since they were not supposed to be in the North in the first place. Seven civilians killed -------------- ¶6. (C) On the case of the seven civilians killed (ref C) by the military (including one of the wealthy businessmen who owned Agharous mineral water company, Sidaghamar Ibrahim), she said Ibrahim was a close friend of President Tandja, even a major funder of a project in the President,s Special Program. She said the GON (especially the President) wants to get to the bottom of what happened, that she knows that the party did not stick to the original travel plan it had filed with the Nigerien military, and that the group reportedly phoned a certain Michel Ange to request MNJ clearance to travel. She says it remains a mystery why the group felt a need to phone MNJ contacts and the GON does not know why the MNJ advised the party to take a route different from the one filed with the GON. She said given the insecurity in the North, everyone knows that anything could happen in that region. Using the diplomatic corps as an example, she said when an Embassy notes the travel plan for Ambassadors to various regions in country, she presumes there are no sudden changes of course or deviations from the plan forwarded to the GON. She repeated that Tandja was saddened by the loss of a close friend. Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) -------------- ¶7. (S) I turned to the status of the GON review of the draft SOFA that had been deposited with the MFA Secretary General (during the FM,s absence) at a meeting with MFA and DOD elements last Fall. The FM inquired whether the SOFA was a revisit of Article 98. When informed that the SOFA was not the same as Article 98, she then asked the Americas Desk Interim Director (Housseini) what he could tell her about the SOFA draft, as she was not aware it had been deposited at the MFA. He replied that he and the SecGen had yet to bring the matter to the FM,s attention because they were still reviewing it at the working level and planning to inform her NIAMEY 00000048 003 OF 003 about the draft later. The FM was none too pleased about Housseini's response and scolded him by pointing out that even if he, the SecGen and others were still reviewing the matter that they should have at least informed her that the document had been deposited. She informed Housseini that if Tandja had raised the SOFA matter with her and she didn,t know anything about it, she would have been placed in a difficult position. She then thanked me for the clarification about SOFA, especially the confirmation that it is not a reiteration of Article 98. (Comment. This further confirms that obtaining an Article 98 agreement under Mindaoudou's watch is highly unlikely. End comment.) She appeared open to reviewing a SOFA and I then offered to provide her with a list of the countries with which the USG has a SOFA (provided to the FM later in the day). I emphasized that I could not provide copies of any partner's SOFA with the U.S., but noted all the SOFAs have core elements, that it is the negotiation that determines the final contents of a SOFA between governments. The FM then instructed Husseini to make certain the draft SOFA arrived on her desk by day,s end, apologized to me for the mixup and said she,d look over the draft and discuss it with relevant parties within the GON (mainly military officials and President Tandja.) TSTCP SIPDIS -------------- ¶8. (S) I informed the FM that the Dept of State was surveying TSTCP countries, leadership (civilian and military) as to SIPDIS whether Libya should be brought into the fold and, if yes, how much and at what pace. The FM said she would raise the matter with Tandja, but in her own view, she couldn,t see how efforts to counter terrorism in the region could proceed without including Libya. She opined that Libya should probably be included in a measured pace, not made an immediate full partner. She emphasized that her opinion may not be consistent with Tandja,s opinion, that she,d try to get an answer to me by COB January 14, since she already has a meeting scheduled with him on that date to discuss other matters. I also noted we were interested in the military leadership's view, that I had asked the DATT to make inquiries as well. Closure of meeting. -------------- ¶9. (C) I closed the meeting with my delivery of the demarche on Kosovo (ref A and D). FM indicated the GON will likely follow suit with the majority of UN member states, as it has no particular views on Kosovo. ¶10. (SBU) FM concluded with an inquiry as to whether I,d be in Niamey later in the month because she plans to invite the diplomatic corps to meet with her to discuss security and other matters of possible general interest, and that she intended to ask President Tandja to participate. She said she hoped to schedule the meeting after her return from ECOWAS meetings this month and prior to the AU Summit scheduled at month,s end. ALLEN