CARG CONTINUES TO IMPEDE THE TRAVEL OF EMBASSY PERSONNEL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGUI 000171

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/C
USUN FOR DMUERS
PARIS FOR RKANEDA
LONDON FOR PLORD
NAIROBI FOR AKARAS
AFRICOM FOR JKUGEL
INR FOR CNEARY
DRL FOR SCRAMPTON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM PINR CT
SUBJECT: CARG CONTINUES TO IMPEDE THE TRAVEL OF EMBASSY PERSONNEL

REF: A. (09 BANGUI 85)

B. (09 BANGUI 86)


1. (SBU) SUMMARY: On Wednesday, July 29, 2009, Management
Officer and Locally Engaged Staff were stopped for two hours by
Central African gendarmes outside Grimari, Central African
Republic. They were on their way to the town of Alindao to
deliver tools to a Self-Help Project. This is the fifth time
that members of the Embassy have been stopped from traveling and
the fourth time since Post has started formally notifying the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) of all travel. Following an
intervention by the Foreign Minister, the group was allowed to
continue. The Ambassador will seek a meeting with President
Bozize in the coming days to protest and discuss the state of
the relationship. END SUMMARY.


2. (SBU) Starting in late March, 2009 (09 BANGUI 85),the CARG
has required that all missions notify the MFA of any travel to
``sensitive'' areas outside of Bangui (09 BANGUI 86). Though
Post disagrees with the CARG's interpretation of article 27 of
the Vienna Convention and has yet to received a definition of
what constitutes a ``sensitive'' area, it has dutifully notified
the MFA of all subsequent travel outside Bangui, stating clearly
the purpose of travel and membership of the delegation. Despite
this, mission personnel are still stopped at checkpoints outside
Bangui, this latest event being the fourth in as many months.
Though all of the incidents have been cleared up and sometimes
appear to be the result of a lack of communication between the
MFA, the Ministry of Defense and the police, yesterday's
incident was the result of direct orders by the Minister of
Public Security, Jules-Bernard Ouande; orders that he issued
only after learning that the delegation had left Bangui.
Elements close to President Bozize continue to view AmEmbassy
Bangui, and the Ambassador in particular, as hostile to the
CARG.


3. (SBU) Ironically, the Ambassador was at a lunch for the
incoming Central African ambassador to the US, Stanislas
Moussa-Kembe, when the delegation was stopped. At the beginning
of the lunch, the Ambassador discussed the trip with the Foreign
Minister, General Antoine Gambi, who expressed pleasure that the
embassy had a Self-Help project in his home district. He was
thus very surprised when the Ambassador later took him aside
privately to tell him that the delegation had been stopped. He
promised to take action upon his return to his office. In the
interim, POLOFF learned from the traveling party that they had
been stopped on the direct orders of Minister Ouande. When asked
by telephone for an explanation for the hold up, Minister Ouande
told POLOFF that American diplomats, ``cannot presume to travel
were they wish in the country. In no other country are diplomats
allowed to travel freely without permission.'' When POLOFF
replied that the MFA had been notified of the specifics of the
trip, Ouande angrily suggested that Post check with the MFA and
then proceeded to hang up the phone without further discussion
(Widely known to drink heavily, the Minister sounded very
inebriated on the phone).


4. (SBU) The Ambassador was told by Mousa-Kembe that he,
Mousa-Kembe, had recently been called from the airport at 0630
by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as the
airport authorities were reluctant to allow the Ambassador to
board a UN flight to Obo, CAR. The Ambassador was travelling
with various UN officials and the French military attache to Obo
to meet with Congolese refugees and assess the threat from
incursions by the Lord's Resistance Army (It is not exactly
clear why Moussa-Kembe was called, as he was the Chief of
Protocol at the time, but it is interesting that the Ambassador
was unaware of the difficulties).


5. (SBU) COMMENT: AmEmbassy Bangui has made it a point to travel
widely in the CAR so as to be as informed as possible in a
little understood country with few reliable media outlets. It is
clear that GARG dislikes this, especially following the

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Ambassador's visit to Ndele which found evidence that suggests
that the CARG forces had executed some twenty people in the
village of Sokumba. It is clear that Minister Ouande and other
close advisors to the president do not think it appropriate/do
not want the U.S. Embassy to look too closely at state of the
CAR and this is hindering the work of the Embassy. (Note:
Minister Ouande, who is extremely close to the Bozize, is the
president's known hatchet man and is notorious for his
indiscriminant and impulsive arrests of innocents. Posted as a
junior diplomat for some six years in the former Yugoslavia,
Ouande is evidently still an adherent to the old communist
belief that diplomats are not supposed to look too deeply into
the affairs of host nations [Interestingly, Mousa-Kembe was
First Secretary at the CAR embassy in Belgrade at the time]).
Continued efforts to restrict embassy travel will be a major
issue as the CAR moves towards elections. Therefore, the
Ambassador will seek a meeting with President Bozize to
reiterate the range of U.S. assistance and engagement in the
CAR, outline our efforts in support of the upcoming elections,
and protest the harassment of Embassy staff. END COMMENT.
COOK