BRAZZAVILLE IN BRIEF - JANUARY 15, 2009

UNCLAS BRAZZAVILLE 000015 DEPT FOR AF/EX PMO MARTINEZ DEPT FOR AF/C DESK OFFICER PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PGOV AMGT ABLD SCUL KPAO CF SUBJECT: BRAZZAVILLE IN BRIEF - JANUARY 15, 2009 ¶1. NEW YEAR GREETINGS: We wish all our correspondents and well-wishers a happy 2009. After a holiday break, we today resume publication of "Brazzaville in Brief." It is our intention to publish this series each week, on Thursday or Friday, to highlight ongoing interesting developments in Brazzaville in addition to spot reporting in greater depth on particular topics. We welcome feedback by any channel. ¶2. CHANGE IN BRAZZAVILLE: Today, January 15, represents Embassy Brazzaville's last day in the "temporary offices" we have occupied for nearly three years in the BDEAC building in Brazzaville. On Friday, we commence the move to our New Embassy Compound. ¶3. Embassy Brazzaville took down the flag on June 18, 1997, in the middle of a civil war. We will put it back up on Tuesday, at a new $62 million New Embassy Compound, during a low-key "opening of work" ceremony. The previous chancery building was looted and gutted during the fighting in 1997, and since that time, Brazzaville personnel have worked from Kinshasa or, since 2006, from the "temporary offices." ¶4. Ground was broken for the $62 million NEC project in June, ¶2007. The new building reached "substantial completion" on November 13, 2008, three months ahead of schedule, and Under Secretary Kennedy signed our Certificate of Occupancy last week. The state-of-the-art structure, on a ten-acre property, totals 20,000 square feet and was designed to accommodate 114 desk positions. Hats off to OBO, DS, B.L. Harbert International, and a multitude of other personnel and consultants for a rapid and high-quality job. Note to readers: We are still hoping that we can organize a formal dedication ceremony later in the year with senior Washington participation. POLITICS FEATURE ARTICLE: SIGNING UP WITH THE MAJORITY?: ¶5. With the presidential election six months away (in July, 2009) we perceive an orchestrated bandwagon getting under way. The most prominent example is Jacques Joachim Yhombi-Opango. ¶6. Yhombi-Opango, 70, is one of the "great men" of recent history. As an army officer, he was the first general officer of independent Congo, serving later in Congo's turbulent history as the country's fourth President (1977-1979) and as Prime Minister (1993-1996). He is also a northerner, from Owando. From 1972, he was a stalwart of the ex-Marxist single (and currently ruling) Parti Congolais du Travail (PCT),considered to be of the right wing of the party. After the third President Marien Ngouabi was assassinated in 1977, Yhombi-Opango served for two years as President. After his forced resignation in 1979, he was detained for several years, accused by Sassou Nguesso of having attempted to form a "rightist faction" in the PCT. ¶7. In August 1992, he ran sixth in the presidential election, with 3.49% of the vote. In his native Cuvette region, Mr. Yhombi-Opango placed second, with 27% of the vote, behind Sassou Nguesso. He backed Pascal Lissouba and Lissouba's Union Pan Africaine pour la Dimocratie Sociale (UPADS) in the first round the 1993 parliament election, held in May. After the election, Mr. Yhombi-Opango was appointed as Prime Minister by the president Lissouba on June 23, 1993. ¶8. Yhombi-Opango left Congo in October, 1997 after Sassou Nguesso came out on top in the civil war. He returned to Congo in August, 2007. Keeping his hand in politics, Yhombo-Opango resumed leadership of his party, the Rassemblement pour la Dimocratie et le Diveloppement (RDD). ¶9. In recent days, Yhombi-Opango has withdrawn from the opposition coalition, denying that his party was ever in the opposition (though it signed certain coalition agreements with other parties). He says that Congo is too small to have social democrats (which he claims to be) in both the opposition and the ruling "majority." 10, Thus, last the RDD announced that it will join the ruling coalition Rassemblement pour la Majoriti Prisidentielle(RMP) to support the candidacy of the president Denis Sassou Nguesso for the upcoming president election. ¶11. Why? We hear two theories advanced, in addition to the one cited by Yhombi-Ophango. The cynics say that it was because Yhombi-Opango was permitted to return home after ten years of exile. This permission came with a house, cars, and his ex-presidential stipend. The government also accepted his party's revival with the understanding, tacit or implied, that at his age, Yhombi-Opango won't be a competitor to Sassou Nguesso in 2009. ¶12. But there's another explanation offered: Yhombi-Opango's Kouyou ethnic group and the Mbochi of Sassou Nguesso have been almost literally at daggers drawn since the assassination of the president Marien Ngouabi and at least one other Kouyou leader. Many Kouyous believes that the (Mbochi) president Sassou Nguesso had a hand in the assassinations. Some say that Yhombi-Opango has joined the government side in an attempt at reconciliation between these two groups - or at least an attempt not to stir up more animosity with a Yhombi Opango candidacy. COMMENT: This is neither the first nor the last declaration of support for Sassou by leaders of other political formations. This one is more notable than most due to Yhombi Opango's stature as a former President and Prime Minister. END COMMENT. PROGRAM NEWS SELF HELP FUNDS OBLIGATED: ¶13. On December 17, the Ambassador signed seven grants with local NGOs obligating our entire $40,000 self-help budget for the year (reduced from last year's $60,000). ¶14. The grants comprise the following activities on the part of local groups, who are obliged under the terms of the program to contribute 25 percent of the cost of the project: --- Two water wells in the Sangolo-Mbaloula area of southern Brazzaville ($10,000); --- A 50,000 liter cistern to store potable water in Etsouali in Plateau (North) ($10,000); --- Five hand-powered wheelchairs and seven sewing machines and supplies for handicapped in Brazzaville ($5,000); --- Bovine husbandry project in Kindamba, Pool ($5,000); --- Funds to establish a traditional soap factory to employ 63 unemployed youth in Bifouiti, south Brazzaville ($3,000); --- Support for the creation of a cassava paste factory in Gamboma, Northern Congo ($6,000); and --- Support for a tailoring training project for youth in Brazzaville ($1,000). COMMENT: We could use effectively as much self-help funding as the Department might see fit to provide. We hope this reduction in funding is only temporary. END COMMENT. MUSEUM CONSERVATION - CULTURAL PRESERVATION ¶15. The Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) grant to assist the RoC National Museum to develop databases and research capabilities for Congolese artifacts got underway in December with the arrival of Elisabeth Cornu, a curator at the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco. Ms. Cornu has extensive experience working helping museums modernize their processes. She presented a number of training sessions to the museum staff, taught photography, and designed storage space for the collection. Ms. Cornu will return this summer to help with installation of equipment that has been funded with the AFCP grant. EASTHAM