LIBYAN ENVOY RECEIVES HIGH-LEVEL RECEPTION IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 TOKYO 000397

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/RSA JOHN KELLEY

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2018
TAGS: PREL XA LY JA
SUBJECT: LIBYAN ENVOY RECEIVES HIGH-LEVEL RECEPTION IN
TOKYO, SHARES PROPOSAL FOR AFRICAN UNION GOVERNMENT


TOKYO 00000397 001.2 OF 004


Classified By: Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer for reasons 1.4(b) and (d
)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Prime Minister Fukuda and other high-ranking
Japanese officials recently received a Special Envoy from
Libyan Leader Muammar Qahdafi, who was sent to seek Tokyo's
support for Qahdafi's "African Union Government" plan. The
proposal calls for a single government for all of Africa and
predicts that such an arrangement would allow Africa to
become less dependent on others and more capable of dealing
with its own internal problems. According to press reports,
the envoy hinted that Japan's support in pushing the plan
would make it easier for Japanese firms to do business in
Libya. The text of the memorandum the envoy left is below at
paragraph 6. Japanese officials politely complimented
Qadhafi's broad long-term vision but believe his plan is
divorced from reality. Separately, MOFA contacts do not
think it likely Qadhafi will choose to attend the Tokyo
International Conference on African Development IV (TICAD IV)
this May in Yokohama, and seem to hope that he stays away.
END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Libyan Special Envoy Mohammad Tahir Siala, who we
understand holds a rank comparable to a vice foreign
minister, was received separately by Prime Minister Fukuda,
Chief Cabinet Secretary Machimura, and Minister of Foreign
Affairs Koumura during a January 28-29 visit to Tokyo. He
also met with former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori (who is
Japan's Special Envoy for TICAD),former Minister of Defense
Yoriko Koike, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Koji
Kakizawa (who in 1998 headed a Japan-Libya Friendship
Association Mission to Libya and in 1999 led a Japanese trade
and investment mission to Libya),and Diet member Tetsuro
Yano, the vice-chairman of the Japan-African Union
Parliamentary Friendship League.

-------------- -
SEEKING SUPPORT FOR "AFRICAN UNION GOVERNMENT"
-------------- -


3. (C) MOFA First Middle East Division Principal Deputy
Director Akihiro Tsuji told Embassy Tokyo Political Officer
that notice of Siala's visit was received only days before it
took place. The purpose of the visit was to deliver a letter
from Libyan Leader Muammar Qadhafi seeking support ahead of
the January 31 African Union summit for Qadhafi's "African
Union Government" plan. Prior to visiting Tokyo, Siala had
stopped in Beijing, where, according to Tsuji, he was
received by his counterpart, Vice Minister Wu Dawei. MOFA
duly submitted Siala's request for a meeting with PM Fukuda
to the Prime Minister's office, never expecting that it would
be granted given Siala's sub-ministerial rank and because
Libya is not considered to be a major country among Japan's
bilateral counterparts. However, MOFA was subsequently
surprised to learn the meeting request had been granted.
According to Tsuji, this was because former ministers Koike
and Kakizawa had personally intervened with the Prime
Minister's staff to urge Siala be received at the highest
levels. (COMMENT: It is likely Koike and others played on
the government's desire to have a better turnout at TICAD
than the Chinese obtained at their recent conference on
development in Africa, and probably argued that Japan would
look good if it received Siala at a higher level than the
Chinese had. END COMMENT.)


4. (C) Regarding Qadhafi's proposal, Tsuji said the Japanese
officials Siala met with listened to his presentation and,
out of politeness, complimented Siala on Qadhafi's
broad-ranging vision for Africa. However, Japan does not
believe the proposal is realistic, but rather a "dream not
based on reality." According to press reports, Siala hinted
that in return for Japan's support for the plan, Libya would
open oil fields and mining areas to Japanese firms, and would
also hope for Japanese participation in large development
projects. Siala also reportedly hoped Japan, with no

TOKYO 00000397 002.2 OF 004


colonial history in Africa, could help convince African
countries and others to support the Libyan plan. Tsuji
suspects that Siala departed thinking he had Japan's support.

--------------
QADHAFI TO TICAD?
--------------


5. (C) Separately, Tsuji reported MOFA believes it unlikely
Qadhafi will attend the TICAD IV meeting to be held this May
in Yokohama. Tsuji told Political Officer that former Prime
Minister Mori had encountered Qadhafi at the African Union
summit and had invited him to TICAD, to which Qadhafi had
simply nodded. Tsuji says MOFA assesses that Qadhafi does
not like to attend large, multilateral meetings and added
that, personally, he thinks it would be a "nightmare" for
Japan if Qadhafi elected to come to TICAD or, for that
matter, decided to visit any other time.

--------------
TEXT OF "AFRICAN UNION GOVERNMENT" PLAN
--------------


6. (C) Tsuji agreed "on a personal basis" to share with
Political Officer a copy of the letter Siala presented, but
emphasized his doing so was not officially sanctioned.
Accordingly, please protect the source of the below:

BEGIN TEXT:

Title: An Explanatory Memorandum: The Necessity for
Accelerating the Process of Establishing an African Union
Government.

Since African nations achieved political independence they
have continuously sought to confront the economic and
political challenges that appeared before them, but their
efforts were of limited success because of numerous internal
and external impediments, some of which were: internal
conflicts, regional wars, an unfavorable international
economic environment, and a world polarized between the
militarily and ideologically competing Eastern and Western
blocs.

Due to the increasing awareness of African leaders for the
need for collective work to tackle issues of mutual concern
to Africa, the Organization of African Unity was established
in 1963 as an African framework to synchronize cooperation
between the countries of the continent, and in spite of the
organization's contribution in ridding Africa of the remnants
of colonialism and racist regimes, its inability to carry out
an effective and decisive role to combat the challenges that
its members were facing became apparent. Furthermore, new
challenges to the world order necessitated a strategic reply
from Africa that transcended what the Organization of African
Unity could achieve and which led to the Sirte Declaration on
9/9/1999 to establish the African Union as a project that
allows the African continent the ability to work in a
synchronized and collective manner in step with the fast
paced progress around the world.

The general goals of the African Union seek to formulate a
collective and effective African reply that would place the
African nations - individually and collectively - on the path
of economic growth and sustainable development, and transform
them into effective participants in international political
and economic affairs. However, with the passage of time it
became apparent that Africa, through her reply, did not reach
the level that her peoples had aspired to.

The present situation in Africa indicates that food security
has not been achieved for the majority of the continent's
inhabitants in spite of the abundance of wealth, and the
natural disasters that are related to the environment led to
cases of chronic shortages of foodstuff and dependence on

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foreign food supplies became the rule and not the exception.
Dependence on foreign technology, and the export of raw
material in return for the import of finished products still
constitutes a threat to industrial development, in addition
to the fact that diminishing revenues from exports and the
increased payments for imports made the financing of
developmental plans depended (sic),to large extent, on
official development aid, and increased foreign debt, and
wars and conflicts and divisions without reaching the goals
of collective growth that is self dependent. Africa is
depended (sic) on outsiders for its health, especially when
confronting diseases such as malaria, cholera, and AIDS, and
the shortages in energy, the degradation of the environment,
and the substandard state of the infrastructure also caused
the impediment of the efforts that sought to achieve broad
and sustainable development. In sum, Africa has become a
heavy burden on itself, and on other nations.

All these challenges created an increasing consensus among
African nations for a need for an African mechanism to lead
the organized collective effort with the other world and the
necessary choice was the establishment of the African Union
with the aim of working from a collective strategic
perspective to achieve progress for Africa so that it can
face the increasing wave of globalization, and take its
rightful place among the large political, economic and
commercial spaces, and share its responsibilities, and
contribute effectively with the rest of countries of the
world in the establishment and reinforcement of peace and
security.

In addition, an African Unity government would be more
capable in condensing African efforts to accelerate the
establishment of financial, agricultural, and industrial
institutions, and in raising the capabilities of the
continent's nations in the fields of education, health,
energy, commerce, food security, and in facing the dangers of
natural disasters, as well as in the collection of the
necessary funds to execute what has been placed in plans and
developmental programs across the continent enabling it be
self dependent instead of over fifty nations resorting to
donor nations, who are already exhausted from such requests,
and the continuation of these countries in borrowing funds
that it is very doubtful that they will be able to repay.

And in the field of dealing with the outside world it would
also be better for the blocs, as well as individual
countries, to deal with a single foreign minister speaking
for the continent and expressing its position instead of
dealing with the foreign ministers of fifty-three countries,
and that dealing with a single defense minister is more
feasible for the execution of African policies in the fields
of defense and security of non aggression and the collective
defense, as stipulated in the African Union Charter and the
Protocol of the Peace and Security Council (MAS); all aiming
to bolster the sources for internal security, and to control
wars and conflicts, and to establish peace on the continent,
and the eradication of the pockets of tension and conflicts
within its borders.

It is also beneficial for the rest of the world's nations to
deal with a single African minister for energy to overcome
the shortages in that field and better utilize it. Moreover,
it is beneficial to deal with a single African minister for
transportation and telecommunication to execute
transportation projects across the continent that individual
states confirmed were unable to accomplish on their own. It
is more feasible to deal with a single African minister for
the environment to tackle the phenomena of drought and
desertification in the continent, which, it has been
confirmed individual states are unable to confront. It is
also beneficial to deal with a single minister for health to
execute collective programs to eradicate fatal diseases,
which no individual state can eliminate. Moreover, the
interaction with a single minister for trade is more feasible

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when coordinating the execution of African policies in this
field and especially, during international trade
negotiations, and the formulation of appropriate strategies
for self-sufficiency in finance, the movement of capital,
goods and services in Africa.

For all such reasons, and based on the goal that aims to
create cooperation that is beneficial for all, necessity
calls for all the countries of the world to encourage and
push forward the efforts that aim to accelerate the creation
of an African Union government as the mechanism most capable
of facilitating African cooperation with others, and in such
a manner that benefits all. In addition, an African Union
government would be more capable to coordinate efforts to
eliminate the obstacles that hamper an accelerated and real
African integration that will offer the people of the
continent peace and security, and place them on the road
towards stability and progress, and make Africa an effective
partner in the reinforcement of international security, and
the achievement of development in countries around the world,
and reinforce its efforts to eliminate the destructive
phenomena of terrorism, crime, disease and illegal
immigration.

END TEXT.


7. (U) Minumize considered.
SCHIEFFER