COTE D'IVOIRE: GOVERNMENT POSTPONES HANDOVER OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000166


E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/10/2019
TAGS: PGOV KDEM MARR SOCI EAID IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE: GOVERNMENT POSTPONES HANDOVER OF
ADMINISTRATIVE POWERS BY NEW FORCES

REF: A) ABIDJAN 148 B) ABIDJAN 22

Classified By: Ambassador Wanda Nesbitt for Reasons 1.4 (b/d)


1. (C) Summary: Just hours before it was to take place,
Minister of Interior Desire Tagro forced the postponement of
a March 4 ceremony marking the handover of administrative
powers by the Forces Nouvelles (FAFN) in Bouake to civilian
government authorities. He said that without mixed brigades
(joint FAFN/government units) in place, the prefects could
not work normally and refused to allow his Ministry to
participate in the ceremony. Prime Minister Soro went forward
with an abbreviated ceremony to mark the official beginning
of unified revenue collection in Forces Nouvelles controlled
zones. Tagro's insistence that a symbolic handover of power
from the rebel forces to the government be postponed is being
viewed here as a sign that the president's camp is trying to
put the brake on the OPA process and may try, once again, to
force the FAFN to disarm immediately, rather than gradually,
as anticipated in the Ouagadougou Political Agreement (OPA)
and the recently signed fourth supplementary agreement to the
OPA. End Summary


2. (U) Forces Nouvelles zone commanders (Comzones) were
scheduled to hand over all administrative powers to civilian
prefects in ceremonies to be held in 21 locations between
March 4 and 7 (Ref A.) Prime Minister Soro presided over the
main ceremony in Bouake on March 4 (the 2nd anniversary of
the signing of the OPA),to which representatives of the
international community were also invited. Ambassadors from
the U.S., France, Germany, Italy (also representing the EU
Presidency) and the Spanish DCM were present. Representatives
of the AU, EU, UN, ECOWAS, and Facilitator Blaise Compaore
also attended. The night before the event, the handover of
administrative powers was canceled. A ceremony to mark the
official commencement of unified revenue collection in FAFN
controlled areas went forward. Registration of motor
vehicles, the first phase of unified revenue collection, is
already underway.


3. (U) The public justification for postponing the handover
was the failure of the Integrated Command Center (ICC) to
deploy police and gendarmes units composed of both FAFN and
government personnel (mixed brigades). The Interior Ministry
argued that civilian law enforcement authorities had to be in
place to ensure the security of the prefects and
sub-prefects, as well as to support them in carrying out
their duties. The handover has nominally been postponed for
two weeks.


4. (C) Amb. Boureima Badini, the Facilitator's representative
in Abidjan, told the Ambassadors who attended the ceremony in
Bouake that President Compaore had spent several hours trying
to convince Interior Minister Tagro to allow the handover
ceremony to go forward. Tagro, who Badini assumed was
following instructions from President Gbagbo, was evidently
immovable and told Compaore that the government would not
"share power" with the Forces Nouvelles by permitting the
latter to maintain de-facto control of the security in the
north.


5. (C) A legal advisor to President Gbagbo told Poloff on
March 4 that the President was "very concerned" about the
handover ceremony. According to Brou, Tagro insisted that the
handover be postponed because the President's camp opposes
having the Comzones remain as military commanders and wants a
handover whereby the Comzones disappear and do not co-exist
with the prefects until the end of the crisis. Brou also
indicated that Gbagbo would prefer that FAFN Chief of Staff
Bakayoko "go away" and not join the new army as provided for
in Ouaga IV.


6. (C) Comment: The handover of administrative powers
ceremony would have been largely symbolic (and this was
widely understood) but it would also have given the
government a basis on which to challenge any Comzone who
continued to try to govern. Symbolic ceremonies are
commonplace in Cote d'Ivoire and the government has readily
participated in the ones that served their interest. The
postponement of this particular ceremony is notable for
several reasons. First, it was to occur on the 2nd
anniversary of the signing of the OPA and be a symbol of the
benefits that agreement has brought to Cote d'Ivoire.
Postponing it put PM Soro in a very embarrassing position but
was also demonstrate the limits of President Compaore's
influence. Second, the postponement appears to indicate that
the president's camp want to slow down the OPA process.
Gbagbo's entourage has been extremely uncomfortable with the
fact that the identification process in the north has been
almost completely beyond their control, and with the notion
of the Comzones continuing to play a role in security for the
north until after elections. As reported in Ref B, the
Ivorian signatories have also never been in full agreement on
the meaning of many provisions in Ouaga IV, especially those
relating to disarmament. Postponing the handover of
important administrative powers to the government is a
manifestation of those disagreements and more can probably be
expected.


NESBITT