Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09ANTANANARIVO143
2009-03-03 07:59:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Antananarivo
Cable title:  

OPPOSITION LEADERS CALL FOR FREEZE ON PRESIDENT'S

Tags:  PGOV EFIN MA 
pdf how-to read a cable
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DE RUEHAN #0143 0620759
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 030759Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY ANTANANARIVO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2160
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L ANTANANARIVO 000143 

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/E - MBEYZEROV
PARIS FOR RKANEDA
LONDON FOR PLORD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/04/2018
TAGS: PGOV EFIN MA
SUBJECT: OPPOSITION LEADERS CALL FOR FREEZE ON PRESIDENT'S
ASSETS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR NIELS MARQUARDT FOR REASONS 1.4 B AND D.

C O N F I D E N T I A L ANTANANARIVO 000143

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR AF/E - MBEYZEROV
PARIS FOR RKANEDA
LONDON FOR PLORD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/04/2018
TAGS: PGOV EFIN MA
SUBJECT: OPPOSITION LEADERS CALL FOR FREEZE ON PRESIDENT'S
ASSETS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR NIELS MARQUARDT FOR REASONS 1.4 B AND D.


1. (C) SUMMARY: Post recently received a petition from the
"Madagascar Opposition Platform" to freeze all foreign assets
of President Marc Ravalomanana. The Platform does not have
any record of his actual holdings abroad, but based their
petition instead on his alleged mismanagement of state
finances and the special treatment granted to his company,
Tiko. As the request lacks any legal standing, and does not
provide any concrete details about the assets in question, it
is not likely that any of the petition's recipients will take
action. The diverse Platform is clearly having no trouble
maintaining solidarity, but such tactics will do little to
advance their cause. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) The Madagascar Opposition Platform, a loose
organization of opposition parties that supports Andry
Rajoelina, has issued a call to the international community
to immediately freeze the foreign financial and real estate
assets of President Ravalomanana. The brief, two-page
petition outlines Ravalomanana's offenses as head of state
and owner of Tiko, situates their request in the context of
defending good governance, and was purportedly also sent to
"banks, financial companies, international financial
organizations, donors, the IMF, and the World Bank".


3. (C) The petition focuses on Ravalomanana's alleged misuse
of public funds, favoritism for his company (Tiko),
plundering of mineral resources and land, and embezzlement,
which have allowed him to "illicitly acquire riches both in
Madagascar and abroad, at the expense of the Malagasy
people". The specific list of grievances is a familiar set,
heard often throughout the crisis, including:

- Tiko's failure to pay customs duties and taxes between 2005
and 2008;
- financing of a flour mill at the Port of Toamasina, for use
by Tiko;
- theft of banknotes from the Central Bank of Manakara;
- non-budgetary use of public finance to buy a new
presidential jet.


4. (C) The Platform has provided the rough figure of USD 125
million as a working estimate of what Ravalomanana owes the
state, and proposes this asset seizure as a means to recoup
the loss. The petition makes no mention of what assets
Ravalomanana may actually hold abroad, nor does it have any
legal standing: these issues have not yet been considered by
any court, Malagasy or international.


5. (C) COMMENT: The Platform has seized upon a defining issue
of this conflict (Ravalomanana's perceived personal wealth),
but with no proof of wrongdoing or evidence of illicit
foreign holdings, their petition comes off as scarcely more
calculated than their near-daily public speechifyiny on Place
de 13 Mai. While many of the grievances listed in the
petition are likely legitimate, the document is based on two
rather sizable assumptions: one is that he actually owns
ill-gotten foreign assets, and the other is that there is a
legal case for freezing them. Neither of those is a given.
Indeed, there is very little information here, even of an
apocryphal nature, on what the President may actually own
abroad. END COMMENT.
MARQUARDT