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
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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
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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
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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