Burkina Faso: French DCM on Compaore's

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 OUAGADOUGOU 000268

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
AF/W FOR EPLUMB, JHUTCHISON

E.O. 12958: DECLASSIFY ON 04/09/2028
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EAGR UV
SUBJECT: Burkina Faso: French DCM on Compaore's
Health, Sexual Peccadilloes; Fired Ag Minister's
Arms Trafficking in Sudan

REF: (A) TD-314/015048-08; B) OUAGADOUGOU 237

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Classified by Amb. J Jackson for reason 1.4 (b)(d)


1. (S) Key Points:

The French DCM told us April 8 that:

-- Burkina Faso President Compaore was recently
operated on for cataracts in Paris.

-- Compaore is probably in good health, but may
have contracted HIV/AIDS after years of sexual
promiscuity.

-- Compaore has better relations with Sudan
President Al-Bashir than with Chadian President Deby.

-- One reason Compaore recently fired his
long-time confidante Salif Diallo is because
of Diallo's arms trafficking to Sudan via an
aircraft whose markings linked it to Burkina Faso.

While the DCM's comments about Compaore and Diallo
are speculative, we report them because of the
importance of the subjects, and the Brun's excellent
position as a foreign observer of the Burkinabe
political scene.

Key Judgment:

-- While we find the assertions of Diallo's
arms trafficking credible (ref a),we doubt that
Compaore condoned Diallo's actions. On the
contrary, Diallo's trafficking, or at least the
fact that foreign governments learned of it, could
very well have been one of the last straws behind
Compaore's decision to remove Diallo, one of two
closest men in his inner circle.


2. (C) Embassy recently reported on rumors
surrounding the health of President Blaise Compaore,
and the recent dismissal of his Agriculture Minister
Salif Diallo (ref b). DCM recently called on French
DCM Xavier Brun April 8 to discuss a variety of
issues, including Cote d'Ivoire, and April 8-9
general strikes in Burkina Faso over the rising
cost of living (septels).


3. (S) Ref b reported that observers had noted that
Compaore had become much thinner over the last two
years, and speculated that he had fallen ill,
perhaps with prostate cancer. When DCM inquired
about this and reports that Compaore had received
medical treatment during two recent visits to Paris
(one to meet with French President Sarkozy, and the
second a few days later),Brun stated that Compaore
visited the Val-de-Grace military hospital in Paris
for consultations about cataracts during his first
stay, and had a successful operation for their removal
on the second visit. Brun added that he had no
knowledge that Compaore had cancer or any other
serious health problem.


4. (S) Brun passed on, however, speculation that
both Compaore and Diallo were HIV positive, which
Brun found believable because of their reputed
sexual promiscuity, particularly of Compaore.
(Note: Ref b also reported on Diallo's ill health,
attributed to a heart attack. End note.) Brun
added that, while Compaore and his wife Chantal
had had two children early in their marriage, one
of whom died, their marriage, had de facto ended
years ago. Brun said that Compaore's wife had
cheated on him, which enraged the President, who
beat his wife so badly that she was hospitalized
for 15 days. Since then, Brun said, Chantal has
lived apart from her husband at a home next to
the Prime Minister's residence in central Ouagadougou,
and that Chantal and Compaore had maintained a
"protocol marriage" for reasons of the President's
image.


5. (S) Brun stated that Compaore had a reputation
as a sexual "gourmand" whose appetite was so strong
that he had previously had "Rasputin-like" escapades
with the wife of at least one of his cabinet ministers.

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He said that Compaore's behavior was reflective of
his "monarchical" attitude whereby a man in power
believed that he could enjoy the "droit de cuissage"
(right) to have sexual relations with any woman whom
he chose (somewhat analogous to the right of some
African chiefs to link up with any woman in the
village that they desired).


6. (C) When DCM inquired about Brun's assessment
of recent events in Chad, Brun stated that Compaore's
relations with Chadian President Idris Deby were
not warm and that (for reasons that Brun did not
state),Compaore thought that Deby had been
"ungrateful" toward Burkina Faso. Brun further
asserted that Compaore had better relations with
Sudan President Umar Hassan Al-Bashir, and cited
Burkina Faso's votes in the UN to defend positions
favorable to Sudan as evidence of positive
Compaore-Bashir relations.


7. (S) In the context of discussing Chad, Brun
stated that one reason Diallo had been fired
from Compaore's government in part because Diallo's
trafficking of arms to Sudan. Diallo had
previously been active in arms trafficking in
Liberia and Sierra Leone, he stated, and had been
making money trafficking arms via what he described
once as "Burkina Airlines" and the second time as
"Faso Airlines." When DCM inquired whether Diallo
had acted with or without Compaore's knowledge, Brun
felt that there it would have been hard for Diallo
to have engaged in arms trafficking deals without
Compaore knowledge. (Comment: Brun provided no
details about how the trafficking was carried out,
or the origin of the arms. See ref B on a Burkina
Faso registered aircraft marked "Faso Airways"
involved in arms trafficking in Sudan.)

Jackson