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