Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09OUAGADOUGOU645
2009-08-14 08:56:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Ouagadougou
Cable title:  

BURKINA FASO: DISSENTION IN THE RULING PARTY

Tags:  PREL PGOV UV 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO2443
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHOU #0645/01 2260856
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 140856Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY OUAGADOUGOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5298
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 OUAGADOUGOU 000645 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV UV
SUBJECT: BURKINA FASO: DISSENTION IN THE RULING PARTY

Classified By: CDA Samuel C. Laeuchli for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 OUAGADOUGOU 000645

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2019
TAGS: PREL PGOV UV
SUBJECT: BURKINA FASO: DISSENTION IN THE RULING PARTY

Classified By: CDA Samuel C. Laeuchli for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: On July 17th, a key powerbroker in the
ruling political party was suspended indefinitely. Salif
Diallo, an important player on the Burkinabe political scene
and formerly a close ally of President Compaore, was
disciplined by the party after he publicly criticized the
State institutions and indirectly the President and his
family. The move by the party is an indicator of internal
political maneuverings among potential successors to
Compaore, including his brother. END SUMMARY


What happened? Why such turmoil over the comments of a single
man?
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2. (C) Salif Diallo, aka "Gorba," is a heavyweight in the
Congress for Democracy and Progress (CDP),the majority
presidential political party. For the last twenty years he
has been an unfaltering supporter of President Compaore, has
been his presidential campaign director, close advisor and
has spent 18 years in the government. In November 2000
Diallo was nominated as Minister of Agriculture. Eight years
later he was dismissed, some say as a result of tensions with
the President's influential brother and possible presidential
successor, Francois Compaore. In a move to sideline Diallo,
the President sent him to a "golden exile" as Burkina's
Ambassador to Austria. Within the CDP, Diallo was a Regional
Political Commissioner for the North, and elected as first
Vice-President of the Party until his dismissal in July 2009
(Note: The CDP, established in 1996 by Compaore, represents
the unification of ten different allied parties and
habitually draws more than 80 percent of votes. End Note.)


3. (C) On July 8, 2009 Diallo was interviewed by a Burkinabe
newspaper (l'Observateur Paalga),and when asked to comment
about the political situation in Burkina Faso he explained
that he advocated a "new institutional start." Encouraged to
elaborate further, Diallo suggested that not only should the
National Assembly be dissolved, but also that a government of
national unity should be established together with a
parliamentary regime. The most controversial remarks
attacked the Presidency by stating that Burkina Faso should

not engage in "patrimonisation" of that supreme institution,
meaning that the succession should not be a family affair.
The thinly veiled accusation was that Francois Compaore
should not be designated as President Compaore's de facto
successor.


4. (C) Diallo's reform suggestions were not in line with
official CDP party policy and were taken by the party leaders
as a direct attack on the President and the state
institutions. On July 15th, the CDP governing bureau
convoked Diallo for an explanation and gave him a chance to
retract his statement. While he apologized for the manner in
which these statements had been made, he did not recant his
declarations and as a result the fourth CDP party Congress
(July 23-25) voted to suspend his membership indefinitely.

The political maneuvering angle: the real issue behind the
sanction
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--------------


4. (C) Officially the CDP disciplined Diallo for three
reasons: first for violating the CDP's internal code of
conduct and having gravely ignored the organizational
principles of the CDP, secondly for having negatively
impacted the cohesion of the party, and thirdly for refusing
to recant his critique of the national institutions. In
reality, Diallo was sanctioned for attacking the President's
family by raising the question of his succession and
seemingly opposing himself to a familial succession order
(Note: While Diallo's suspension from the party attracted a
great deal of media attention, he is not the first senior
member of the party to have been disciplined, but certainly
the most visible and vocal one. End Note.)


5. (C) COMMENT: Clearly Diallo had his eye on the
Presidency (probably not for 2010, but rather for 2015) so
his call for changes in the institutions and warning about
"patrimonisation" come from his vested interest in ensuring
that Compaore's succession is an open game. Within the CDP
there are also other claimants to the presidential
succession. The three heavyweights that remain within the
CDP and who have presidential aspirations are: Roch Marc
Christian Kabore (President of the National Assembly and
President of the CDP),Simon Compaore (current mayor of
Ouagadougou and second VP of the party),and Francois
Compaore (advisor and brother of the President). It appears
that the CDP's veneer of unfaltering unity has begun to

OUAGADOUGO 00000645 002 OF 002


crack. Diallo's suspension has prompted many CDP members
from his native region of the Yatenga to suspend their own
membership while a number of voices have risen to say that if
the CDP does not reinstate Diallo, then the Yatenga region
will become "the bastion of opposition." None of this is
likely to weaken President Compaore's present political
position, but shows that Burkinabe are seriously thinking
about the succession and what it will mean for the country.
END COMMENT.
LAEUCHLI