CHAD/C.A.R. PKO: FRANCE TO PROVIDE MISSING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000072

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/11/2018
TAGS: PREL MOPS MARR EUN PINS CD CT FR
SUBJECT: CHAD/C.A.R. PKO: FRANCE TO PROVIDE MISSING
ELEMENTS

REF: 07 PARIS 4661

Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, 1.4 (b/d
).


1. (C) SUMMARY: France will provide helicopters and
additional troops, heretofore lacking, that will enable the
EU-led peacekeeping mission to deploy to Chad and the Central
African Republic (C.A.R.),MFA DAS-equivalent Christine Fages
informed us on January 10. She said the EU would discuss
force-generation issues in Brussels on January 11 and that
she expected EU partners would be satisfied with the
arrangements and agree to field the mission. She said that
force commander General Nash's approval would follow, with an
operations plan to be presented on January 18. The force
could begin deploying at the beginning of February. Fages
also noted French relief that the "Arche de Zoe" child
smugglers had been returned to France from Chad but that the
case would likely continue to irritate bilateral relations.
SUMMARY.


2. (C) MFA DAS-equivalent for West Africa Christine Fages
on January 10 confirmed press reports indicating that France
would provide helicopters and additional troops in order to
allow the EU to deploy its peacekeeping mission to Chad and
the C.A.R. The operation had been in limbo for several
months during which France tried, in vain, to secure
commitments from EU partners (and non-EU states as well),
mainly in the area of air transportation, medical support
facilities, and additional troops. (See reftel for further
details.) Fages said that, despite intense lobbying, no
further commitments seemed likely and that French President
Sarkozy decided to increase France's contribution so that the
operation could go forward.


3. (C) Fages said that final numbers had not been
determined but that France's contribution would consist of
"about a dozen" transport helicopters and "several hundred"
more troops. (The press has reported a troop contribution
ranging from 500 to 800.) She said that France might also
provide a small number of fixed-wing aircraft, and she
indicated that press reports that Italy would provide a field
hospital were correct. Fages said she was hesitant to give
precise details before France formally presented its case at
the January 11 EU force generation meeting in Brussels.


4. (C) Fages said, however, that she expected that European
partners would, based on France's additional contributions,
agree to deploy the operation. She said that Irish General
Nash, commanding the force, would give his assent and that he
would present an operations plan to the EU on January 18.
Deployment could start at the beginning of February.


5. (C) Fages noted that the force would be more "French"
than the GOF would have liked but she stressed that it was
still a "European" operation, with some 21 European countries
participating. Most importantly, the French would comprise
only one of the three highly visible combat battalions (the
other two being Irish and Polish). When asked if the GOF
resented the lack of support from its EU partners, Fages took
the high road and said that France was well aware of the
resource constraints facing all member states, some of whom
were engaged in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and that
transport helicopters were in very short supply worldwide.
She refused to criticize, in particular, the UK and Germany,
both of which the French had lobbied intensely but without
success. "They are the biggest, so naturally we asked them,
but we understand their limitations."


6. (C) Under the gun for some months, Fages was visibly
relieved that the operation was back on track. She said that
it was equally important to get UNAMID up and running so that
balance would prevail along all sides of the
Sudan-Chad-C.A.R. borders.

Arche de Zoe
--------------

7. (C) Fages was also quite relieved that the six French
citizens convicted in Chad of having tried to smuggle over
100 children to France had been repatriated. She noted the
legal problems they now face for having allegedly violated
French law in trying to bring the children to France. "But
that's the Justice Ministry's problem," she said. Fages
commented that the sentences they received in Chad seemed
unfair -- some, like leader Eric Breteau, deserved harsher

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sentences than did some of the others, who were "mere
followers." The French courts did have some leeway in how
the Chadian sentences would be executed in France and Fages
expected the six to benefit from French provisions for
time-off-for-good-behavior that might not exist in Chad.


8. (C) Fages said that the case would continue to be an
irritant bilaterally. The GOF had already announced that it
would not, on behalf of the six, pay the substantial fine the
Chadian courts had imposed, on the grounds that the six were
personally liable and that the French state was not. "You
can be sure the Chadians will make noise about this,
particularly since the six have no resources," she said.
Although the case would continue to raise problems, Fages
said that "these would be nothing compared to what we would
face if they remained in Chad." She also noted that the
Arche de Zoe case now had far less potential to block or
derail the EU PKO for Chad and C.A.R., France's immediate
priority for the region.





Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm


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