Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09LIBREVILLE247
2009-06-03 09:41:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Libreville
Cable title:  

GABON WORRIED ABOUT UPCOMING CONGO (BRAZZAVILLE)

Tags:  PREL KDEM CF CG GB 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO9196
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHLC #0247 1540941
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 030941Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY LIBREVILLE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1187
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L LIBREVILLE 000247 

SIPDIS

KINSHASA ALSO FOR CHARLES FORD AND PLEASE PASS EMBASSY
BRAZZAVILLE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/2019
TAGS: PREL KDEM CF CG GB
SUBJECT: GABON WORRIED ABOUT UPCOMING CONGO (BRAZZAVILLE)
ELECTION

REF: LIBREVILLE 0246

Classified By: DCM Nathan Holt for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIBREVILLE 000247

SIPDIS

KINSHASA ALSO FOR CHARLES FORD AND PLEASE PASS EMBASSY
BRAZZAVILLE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/2019
TAGS: PREL KDEM CF CG GB
SUBJECT: GABON WORRIED ABOUT UPCOMING CONGO (BRAZZAVILLE)
ELECTION

REF: LIBREVILLE 0246

Classified By: DCM Nathan Holt for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) Gabon views the July 12 presidential election in the
neighboring Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) with "great
concern," according to Minister of Defense Ali Bongo Ondimba.
Bongo said a significant number of Congolese have crossed
the ROC/Gabon border in recent weeks, fearing a resurgence of
political violence in ROC. Bongo said there is no doubt that
ROC President Denis Sassou-Nguesso will win the
election--fairly or otherwise--but Gabon has worries about
the electoral aftermath. End Summary.

--------------
Outcome Not in Doubt
--------------


2. (C) There is no doubt that ROC President Sassou-Nguesso
will win the upcoming July 12 election, Gabonese Defense
Minister Ali Bongo Ondimba told the Ambassador. "They are
very determined," Bongo said of the Congolese president and
his allies. Ali Bongo, the son and potential successor to
ailing Gabonese President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba, met the
Ambassador at his home May 30 for a wide-ranging discussion
of Gabonese and regional issues (septels).


3. (C) Nevertheless, Bongo said, Sassou-Nguesso faces a
formidable "northern" ethnic alliance and "mathematically, he
could have a problem." Bongo and his family are ethnic
Bateke, one of ROC's larger ethnic groups. "The leader" of
the northern alliance has been in Gabon recently for senior
level consultations, Bongo said. Although he named neither
the leader nor the alliance, we assume that Bongo was
referring to Mathias Dzon, an ethnic Teke and leader of the
opposition Alliance for the Republic and Democracy (ARD).


4. (C/NF) Separately, the head of a Gabonese military
intelligence service told the DCM that Gabon sees
Sassou-Nguesso as intransigent and inflexible with his
political opponents. "He does not know how to share," Col.
Abel Oyiba commented, "and that will lead to trouble." Oyiba
said he had met recently with ROC opposition leaders, whom he
did not name. The defense minister added that "the problems
will come after" the election, perhaps in two or three years,
if Sassou-Nguesso does not change his governing style.

--------------
Border Crossing?
--------------


5. (C) "About three months ago" Gabon began to receive
reports of ROC citizens crossing the border to wait out the
electoral period with friends and family members in Gabon,
Bongo explained. Bongo did not estimate the number of people
involved. Col. Oyiba said he would travel personally to the
border region within the next two weeks to assess the
situation.

--------------
Strained Relations
--------------


6. (C) Bongo also admitted that relations between the two
countries are currently strained, at least at senior levels,
because of hard feelings over the death and funeral
arrangements for Gabonese First Lady Edith Lucie Bongo
Ondimba (reftel). Edith Bongo, the wife of President Bongo
and the daughter of President Sassou-Nugesso, died in Morocco
March 14 after a long illness. She was buried in Congo
(Brazzaville) at the insistence of Sassou-Nguesso and his
family, to the dismay of President Bongo.

--------------
Comment
--------------


7. (C) Gabon's ties to Congo (Brazzaville) are deep, and
those of the ruling Bongo family even deeper. It is
difficult for us to judge the validity of the defense
minister's concerns about the upcoming ROC elections. It is
nevertheless interesting to note how closely this is being
tracked in Libreville, and that the level of concern here is
rising. End Comment.
REDDICK