PRESIDENT OF SENEGAL URGES GUINEA ELECTIONS IN 2009

C O N F I D E N T I A L CONAKRY 000442 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/29/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV GV SUBJECT: PRESIDENT OF SENEGAL URGES GUINEA ELECTIONS IN 2009 REF: CONAKRY 432 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Kent C. Brokenshire for Reason 1.4 B/D ¶1. (C) Visiting Senegalese President Adoulaye Wade reportedly urged Guinea's military junta leader Moussa Dadis Camara to stick to the original 2009 election schedule. Mohamed Salifou Keita who was involved in the July 26 visit as an assistant to the Prime Minister, told Charge July 29 that during a two and a half hour meeting with Dadis, Wade also urged Dadis to announce a firm election date. According to Keita, Wade promised that once Dadis announced an election date, he would launch an international campaign to lift sanctions on Guinea. ¶2. (C) When initially announced, Wade's visit to Conakry sparked some concern in diplomatic circles. UNDP Country Coordinator Mbaranga Gasarabwe told Charge July 24 that Wade might use the visit to usurp the power of the International Contact Group for Guinea (ICG-G) by proposing his own election schedule. On several occasions Dadis has referred to Wade as his 'father," and recently told the ICG-G that he revered and respected Wade as much as he revered and respected Libya's Muammar Qadhafi. ¶3. (C) Wade's firm endorsement of elections in 2009 was unexpected. According to Keita, Wade has had to reevaluate his ties with Dadis in light of the July 11 communique in which Dadis announced on national television that narco forces were arming along Guinea's borders with Liberia, Senegal and Guinea-Bissau (Reftel). "The border issue showed everyone that Dadis is irrational," said Keita. Dadis' announcement resulted in the cancellation of the Mano River Union Summit. According to Keita, Wade took considerable heat in the Senegalese press for his open friendship with Dadis. "With the July 21 communique he discovered what Dadis is really like," surmised Keita. ¶4. (U) During Wade's brief visit to Conakry, he also met with members of the ruling CNDD, the government and the Forces Vives, which comprises civil society, union and political party leaders, and makes up a potent political force in Guinea. Wade urged political players to move toward elections in 2009, and made a special appeal for the CNDD and Forces Vives to work at building and effective and continuing dialogue. ¶5. (U) In final remarks at the airport, Wade stated that reports of potential narco-military attacks on Guinea from Senegal are false, and that the concept of Senegal serving as a base for such attacks is absurd. Guinea's government-owned television station broadcast Wade's remarks on his willingness to appeal to the international community to lift sanctions on Guinea, but edited out his initial statement that Dadis needed to set a firm date for elections first. The station also erased Wade's comment that Guineans have agreed to go to the polls in 2009. BROKENSHIRE