WORKERS' PARTY SAYS OPA DEFUNCT

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000277 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/27/2019 TAGS: PGOV KDEM SOCI IV SUBJECT: WORKERS' PARTY SAYS OPA DEFUNCT Classified By: PolEcon Chief Silvia Eiriz for reasons 1.4 (b/d) ¶1. (C) Summary. Francis Wodie, president of the small Ivoirian Workers' Party (PIT),told Ambassador that the Ouagadougou Political Agreement (OPA) is defunct and that a National Forum should be held to identify durable solutions to the country's political crisis. End Summary. PIT Says OPA Defunct -------------- ¶2. (C) Ambassador met with Wodie on April 24 at the latter's request. Wodie told Ambassador that the PIT maintains that the Ouagadougou Political Agreement (OPA) is defunct since it was supposed to be implemented within 10 months of its signature in March 2007. Wodie was critical of the OPA on principle, suggesting that with only two signatories - President Gbagbo and the Forces Nouvelles - it was not as inclusive as the Linas-Marcoussis agreement, which was signed by ten of Cote d'Ivoire's political parties. Call for National Dialogue -------------- ¶3. (C) Wodie told Ambassador that it is now evident that there is no political will to hold elections. The country's principal political actors do not want to hold elections, he said, unless their victory is assured. Wodie urged he United States to exert pressure on them to organize elections, saying Cote d'Ivoire cannot depend indefinitely on the protagonists for a solution to its crisis. Wodie said the fundamental problem is that the parties have not resolved fundamental issues. He said PIT believes all the country's politicians need to meet together to discuss why the peace process is not working, identify solutions to resolve the country's crisis, and then implement them. Wodie said such coming together by the political class would build confidence among political parties, which is currently lacking, and create an atmosphere that will allow for peaceful and credible elections. Ambassador Notes Progress on OPA -------------- ¶4. (C) Ambassador agreed with Wodie that Cote d'Ivoire has not yet resolved some of the fundamental issues that led to the crisis, but said that scrapping the OPA in favor of some new agreement did not seem productive. She said she understands PIT's frustration regarding delay in implementation of the OPA and failure to hold elections; a new peace agreement will not change this reality. She pointed out that much progress has been made through the OPA process, noting that the most difficult issues - the electoral list and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) - are the ones currently being addressed. This may explain why the process has gotten bogged down. Ambassador told Wodie that the role of the international community was circumscribed by the signature of the OPA, which made it clear that the Ivoirian leadership wanted to decide for themselves the way forward. ¶5. (C) Comment. PIT's call for a national forum to resolve the country's political crisis is not new. PIT has been suggesting such a forum since its creation in 1990 when the multi-party system was instituted. PIT believes that the country's current problems stem from the fact that there was never a discussion about the divisions that plague Ivoirian society. Wodie's suggestion that the OPA be scrapped and a new peace process begun strikes us as counter-productive. At a minimum all the work carried out and the money spent to implement the OPA, for example on the identification/voter registration process, would go to waste. The PIT has tried and failed to convince the larger political parties to adopt its stance towards the OPA and we do not expect this to change. Nonetheless, frustration is building throughout Cote d'Ivoire over the continued delay in announcing a new date for the presidential elections. NESBITT