BRAZZAVILLE IN BRIEF - APRIL 2, 2009

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 BRAZZAVILLE 000101 SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/EX, AF/C, AF/PAPD, AF/RSA, AF/EX, PM PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD PREL PGOV PHUM BEXP SENV CF CH FR VE SUBJECT: BRAZZAVILLE IN BRIEF - APRIL 2, 2009 BRAZZAVILL 00000101 001.2 OF 004 INDEX ¶1. French President's visit ¶2. Pointe-Noire port improvements to begin in October ¶3. Bilateral US-Congo trade ¶4. Venezuela Opens Embassy ¶5. First Conviction for Chimp Trafficking ¶6. Tibet, Anyone? ¶7. Who's in Charge? SARKOZY'S VISIT -------------- ¶1. (SBU) French President Nicholas Sarkozy's visit has been well-covered in the press, but we thought it might be useful to offer some musings on the visit and its impact in Brazzaville. Contextually, Paris is extremely important to Congo(B). The upper crust of Congolese society seems to view itself collectively as more French than Congolese. Everyone who has the money to do so owns an apartment or a house in Paris. Many ministers in Sassou's government and the top business people seem to commute from Paris to work in Brazzaville; many in Sassou's cabinet use French roaming cellphones as their main means of communication, so they can receive calls in Paris as easily as in Brazzaville. We are told on impeccable authority that the head of Congolese Customs lives in Paris and is served by a twice-weekly messenger service for documents that he must sign. (SBU) Sarkozy's message: We are not up on the nuances of his Dakar and Cape Town speeches, which he seemed to "clarify and complete" during his remarks in Brazzaville, but his main message in Brazzaville was one of partnership and equality, conducted transparently in general and in particular with the publication of all military and defense agreements in Africa. Evoking the long history between France and Congo(B),citing Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza and Charles de Gaulle, Sarkozy pointed toward the future and toward a large number of French investors lining up to do business in Congo(B). He promised France's support for HIPC debt relief and offered continuing support for Congo Basin environment and conservation efforts (linked to climate change and global warming). (SBU) Politically, so far as we can tell, Sarkozy has only met Congo's President Denis Sassou-Nguesso once, during Sassou's 2007 visit to Paris. The most important political fact of Sarkozy's visit was that it occurred just 100 days prior to Congo(B)'s presidential election. Sarkozy made an effort to mitigate the perception that he had come to praise Sassou; in his speech to Parliament (where Sassou was not present),he said the right thing: "France does not support any candidate~.I have not come to do this~The French people would not understand it, and the Africans would not accept it." And he made an effort to meet a sampling of the opposition, apparently telling them (according to press reports) that he supported an election in a calm atmosphere and that he believed the opposition and the government should conduct a dialogue to achieve this objective. (The opposition spokesman, Pascal Tsaty Mabiala, seized on the point of dialogue, their main desideratum, in his remarks to the press, and subsequently the government proposed that the dialogue occur on April 11 or 14; the opposition is still griping in public about the proposed agenda, since it doesn't a priori concede all their demands regarding a truly independent electoral commission, a census, etc.) (SBU) Results of the visit: One very interesting agreement was signed, finalizing a loan of approximately 30 million euro from the French development agency (signed by Secretary of State for Cooperation and Francophone affairs Alain Joyandet) to the Port of Pointe-Noire (signed by the Director General of the Port). Part of the funding will be provided by the European Development Bank, the Central African Development Bank, and the European Fund for Infrastructure in Africa. The loan, with a term of 15 years with a 5-year grace period, is intended to finance infrastructure improvements at the Port (see below). The interesting part, however, is the explicit and direct BRAZZAVILL 00000101 002.2 OF 004 association of this loan to the December grant of a 27-year concession to French transport/shipping giant (at least in Africa) Groupe Bollore to operate the container terminal at Pointe-Noire. Though Sarkozy and Sassou witnessed the signing, the loan repayment is entirely an obligation of the Port authority, apparently without a Congo government guarantee. No further terms of the loan have been released. (SBU) Miscellany: Even Sarkozy's morning jog down the cornice (with four burly French bodyguards and several Congolese) has been a subject of commentary, with one editorialist noting that his safe excursion into the center of town contrasted sharply with those who say Congo(B) is in a crisis (and thus implicitly making the argument that Sassou has brought "peace" to Congo(B)). Transport: We noticed with some envy that Sarkozy landed at Maya Maya Airport in a French military helicopter (one of three that transported the party),sitting on a side-facing seat with the door open. We wish we had been able to take that trip, for the fantastic view he must have had crossing the river from that vantage point. Even this point attracted commentary, with an opposition-oriented paper wondering whether he needed the helicopters for protection under current circumstances in Congo(B),and offering an unfavorable comparison to his arrival in the DRC on a civilian-style aircraft. Mrs. Sarkozy: Despite much anticipation and expectation, she didn't show up. Had she come here, the visit would have taken a much more exciting and glamorous tone. French residents left out: We have heard a great deal of griping by French residents here, both from the French official mission and the private sector, that they were provided no opportunity to "grip and grin" with the French President. Those who have unloaded on us (and to the press, in one instance) are resentful that their efforts to do their work, or make their investments profit, in a difficult environment, were not recognized. We have the impression that the petroleum sector (Total and its contractors) and some of the larger companies (CFAO, for example) were quite well represented at the dinner hosted by Sassou, especially those whose principals were included in the delegation. But the worker bees are buzzing unhappily. One who wasn't left out was French Ambassador Nicolas Normand, who left Friday night for Paris with the objective, we understand, of finding his next diplomatic assignment. MORE ON THE PORT OF POINTE-NOIRE -------------- ¶2. (U) During the visit of President Sarkozy, the Director General of the Autonomous Port of Pointe-Noire, Jean-Marie Aniele, spoke of the plans for the infrastructure improvements of the port (mentioned above). A German consultant is preparing the terms of reference for a tender to be issued later this year, for a three-year program of work involving extending the basin by 300 meters, with accompanying extension of the quai and dredging alongside. At the same time, the main channel will be dredged to 15 meters (currently it is approximately 11 meters),to enable the port to accept vessels carrying up to seven thousand containers. Aniele emphasized that Groupe Bollore had not taken a concession on the entire port, only the container operation. He noted that the loan from the French development agency had been under negotiation since 2003. COMMENT: Undoubtedly, the Bollore concession helped speed things up. END COMMENT. BILATERAL US-CONGO(B) TRADE PATTERNS, OR "IT'S ALL ABOUT OIL~AND CHICKENS" -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶3. (SBU) While researching the Investment Climate report (on the wires April 1),we had occasion to review the detailed Congolese Customs figures for bilateral trade between the United States and the Congo(B). Note: All numbers in this article are rough, since we are converting figures in FCFA to dollars and have arbitrarily decided to use a rate of 500 FCFA to the dollar, which will achieve the purpose of comparison herein. The average during the year, or on any particular valuation BRAZZAVILL 00000101 003.2 OF 004 moment, will be different. Congolese Exports to U.S.: USD 639,010,460 Of which Crude Oil: USD 633,918,366 Balance minus crude: USD 5,092,094 Of which wood/woodproducts: USD 1,151,750 The balance is scattered across a large number of customs categories, with no single category of a value larger than USD 800,000, and that one item is drilling equipment. We believe the remaining $4 million or so of Congolese exports to the U.S. are oil production items being returned to the U.S. for repair, refurbishment, or redeployment by the oil service companies. In sharp contrast, following is a summary of U.S. exports to Congo(B): U.S.-origin imports: USD 63,132,321 Of which: pipes, oil and gas: USD 13,587,687 Frozen chicken parts: USD 5,763,590 Drilling equipment: USD 5,760,000 Generators/parts: USD 2,721,000 Pipe Valves/joints: USD 2,435,872 Note that U.S. exports to Congo(B) amount to only 10% of exports in the other direction. With respect to the categories enumerated above, we cite these large items simply as examples, since most of the items on the customs document are in the categories of industrial equipment, various chemicals, etc., making it clear that most of U.S. exports to Congo, like Congo's exports to the U.S., are related to the petroleum production here. But there is a tiny bit of diversification: The second largest category of U.S. exports to Congo, falling between oil piping and drilling spare parts (2 billion FCFA) is frozen chicken parts, which racked up sales in Congo(B) of 2.88 billion FCFA, around USD 5.7 million. Food (with frozen chicken parts in the lead, with a volume of 3.8 million kilograms) amounted to about 10% of Congo's total imports from the United States. Other U.S exports to Congo are scattered through a very large number of customs classifications in quite small amounts. We particularly enjoyed the item "articles de friperie" (used clothing, we think) which amounted to nearly $1 million. VENEZUELA OPENS RESIDENT EMBASSY IN BRAZZAVILLE -------------- -- ¶4. (SBU) Press accounts report the presentation of credentials March 28 of a resident charge(e) d'affaires of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Josefina Magdelena Simone Viera. She will be resident in Brazzaville, upgrading Venezuela's presence here from its former representation by a non-resident charge' based in Luanda. In the presentation meeting with the Foreign Minister, she noted that Brazzaville would be Venezuela's 18 the resident presence in Africa and that it had been established pursuant to the agreement of April 6, 2006 establishing diplomatic relations between Caracas and Brazzaville. During Foreign Minister Ikouebe's visit to Caracas in December, 2008, the two countries signed an assistance agreement covering activities in housing, health infrastructure, and schools, based on a Venezuelan program called "school sponsorship in Africa" (parrainage d'une ecole en Afrique, in French). Construction of one school, in Gamboma in Plateaux Department (north) has already begun. A second agreement signed during Ikouebe's visit was a procedural MOU regarding political consultations between the Congolese and Venezuelan ministries of external relations. (SBU) COMMENT: Venezuela's approach to the continent is very much like Iran's, seemingly focused on resident embassies in fellow petroleum producing countries, with a small but highly visible assistance package to provide public diplomacy opportunities, political oomph, and goodwill. There seems to be a complementary program of small (again highly-visible) assistance activities in the non-petroleum countries. Though it may sound somewhat old-fashioned, it works. Venezuela's purpose in Congo(B) is without a doubt intended to enlist another "anti-imperialist" ally, in a country where that sort of nonsense is still very much part of public discourse. END BRAZZAVILL 00000101 004.2 OF 004 COMMENT. FIRST CONVICTION FOR WILDLIFE TRAFFICKING -------------- ¶5. (U) We are extremely pleased to note that a Brazzaville court on March 19 sentenced a wildlife trafficker to a year in prison, a 100,000 FCFA fine, and a 1,000,000 FCFA damages and interest payment to the Ministry of Forest Economy. The trafficker was arrested on December 30 while trying to sell a live chimpanzee, a protected species under Congolese law. This represents the first such conviction, ever, in Congo(B) and augurs well for the prospects of the the John Aspinall Foundation forest law enforcement program. This program, to be partially funded, we understand, by the US Fish and Wildlife Service via a grant to the Wildlife Conservation Society, has hired investigators, lawyers and a press person to support Congo(B) efforts to bring wildlife traffickers to justice here. There are eight other cases pending in court in Brazzaville. WEIRD STUFF -------------- ¶6. (SBU) TIBET, ANYONE? We see in the papers here that the Chinese Ambassador had a press conference this week to commemorate the "day of the liberation of the Tibetan serfs" (sic),accompanied by a documentary film. Weirdest part of it was that he said, and we quote, "the main concern of the Chinese government at the time was the peaceful liberation of Tibet, which had for a long time been under the domination of imperialist forces." COMMENT: We think the Dalai Lama would be amused were he to learn that he was an "imperialist." Or that he had owned six thousand slaves, as the Ambassador went on to explain. END COMMENT. ¶7. (SBU) Who's in charge? We took a holiday on Friday, March 20, to conform to the national mourning declared for the arrival of the remains of Edith Bongo, President Sassou's daughter and First Lady of Gabon. We responded to the announcement from the Ministry responsible, but it turns out there was a separate announcement from the Prime Minister's office declaring that it would not/not be a holiday, thus engendering massive confusion in town. In some neighborhoods, mainly those through which the cortege was supposed to pass on the way from the airport to the President's residence at Mpila, the police and gendarmes were enforcing a holiday by asking merchants to close their stores. In others, it was business as usual (to the extent such was possible with VIP movements all day long). EASTHAM