ALIEN SMUGGLING CASE EMBROILS PARLIAMENTARIANS,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 YAOUNDE 000074 SIPDIS STATE FOR AF/C E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2019 TAGS: PREL PGOV KCOR CVIS KFRP PHUM CM SUBJECT: ALIEN SMUGGLING CASE EMBROILS PARLIAMENTARIANS, THREATENS ELECAM HEAD REF: YAOUNDE 36 Classified By: Political Officer Tad Brown for Reasons 1.4 b and d. ¶1. (U) Summary. Post is investigating allegations--reported in the independent press--that Samuel Azuu Fonkam, recently named to head Cameroon's new elections agency (ELECAM),abused his former position as the Deputy Secretary General of the National Assembly to provide official cover for malafide visa applicants in exchange for cash payments. If the allegations against Azuu are proven, we believe that Biya will be hard-pressed to keep Azuu at the helm of ELECAM, which is already beset by controversy (ref a). Beyond Azuu's role, however, Post already possesses ample evidence that at least two Members of Parliament--Rose Abunaw Makia and Francis Abi Enwi--used their positions to help malafide visa applicants obtain visas under official cover for this and previous "official" trips. End summary. Azuu Implicated in the Press ============================ ¶2. (SBU) The January 8 issue of private daily newspaper Mutations ran the headline "Illegal Immigration" over a front page story titled "ELECAM President Implicated In Fake Document Scam." From that article and subsequent conversations, Post has learned that airport police detained four individuals seeking to board the December 26 Air Maroc flight en route to the United States. Airport police grew suspicious because the travelers, who possessed travel documents indicating they were National Assembly employees on official business, did not have service passports and otherwise did not appear to be government officials. Poloff spoke with Leger Ntiga, the Mutations journalist who broke the story. Ntiga said his contacts with the police told him that the students admitted, in secondary questioning, that they had each paid 3,000,000 CFA (about $6,000) to Azuu so that he would furnish official cover for the fraudulent trip. The Fake Delegation =================== ¶3. (SBU) Post's Consular files reveal that visas were issued to the four individuals as part of a delegation of National Assembly officials traveling to Irvine, California for a conference on water management. In the initial interviews in early December, CONOFF requested additional evidence of their standing with the National Assembly; the applicants submitted travel orders and pay slips as evidence that they worked on the National Assembly staff. Francis Abi Enwi, a Member of Parliament, contacted CONOFF to assure him that the applications were genuine and to provide detailed descriptions of the trip and the role of the alleged support staff. The supporting documents included doctored documents from the National Assembly and an invitation to the conference at the University of California at Irvine. This Isn't the First Time ========================= ¶4. (SBU) The fraudulent invitation from the University of California submitted with the delegation pushed by Abi Enwi was a doctored replication of a genuine letter of invitation issued to Rose Abunaw Makia, a Member of Parliament and the Vice President of the National Assembly. Abunaw is implicated in an earlier fraudulent trip with similar characteristics; in April 2008 she lobbied the Consular Section to issue visas to 17 individuals who, she argued in emails and phone calls to CONOFF, were National Assembly staff traveling on official business. CONOFF reviewed the Arrival Departure Information System database for the members of that delegation and found that none of the 17 individuals whom Abunaw helped receive visas have yet departed the United States. Is Fonkam Azuu Involved? ======================== ¶5. (U) Since the January 8 Mutations article, Fonkam Azuu has publicly denied that he received bribes from the members of the delegation pushed by Abi Enwi or that he helped them obtain visas. A spokesperson for the ruling Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) party, of which Fonkam Azuu has been a prominent member, dismissed the Mutations story as a complete fabrication. Gregoire Owona, Minister at the Presidency in charge of relations with the National Assembly and a senior CPDM official, condemned Mutations' reporting as malicious and false. In response to these statements, Ntiga told Poloff on January 13 that Mutations YAOUNDE 00000074 002 OF 002 was considering bringing a defamation suit against any officials who continued to accuse Mutations of fabricating the story. Raising the Issue with the GRC ============================== ¶7. (C) Ambassador met with Prime Minister Ephraim Inoni on January 15 to discuss USG views on ELECAM's leadership (ref b). When the Ambassador told Inoni that Embassy was investigating the apparent links to Members of Parliament and Azuu specifically, Inoni requested that the Ambassador let him know of any evidence of malfeasance from GRC officials, promising any transgressions would be dealt with harshly. CONOFF and A/RSO met with representatives from the police and the protocol office of the National Assembly, both of whom confirmed that the four individuals are not officials at the National Assembly and that the documents submitted in support of their applications were fraudulent. On January 15 and 17, respectively, Consular Chief informed Joe Nzume, Director of the Americas Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Cavaye Djibril, President of the National Assembly, about our concerns with the Azuu, Enwi and Abunaw cases, which they promised to look into. ¶8. (C) Post sent a letter dated January 21 to Inoni's office requesting further information from the Government of Cameroon (GRC) regarding these violations of the visa process. Inoni telephoned the Ambassador to say he had "shown" the letter to "the boss" (Biya). Inoni said the GRC would take steps against those implicated in the scandal. Comment: Taking Action to Protect the Visa Process ========================= ¶8. (C) We are outraged that Members of Parliament so easily abused the GRC's formal channels to subvert US visa law. We have conveyed--and will continue to press--the severity of the matter to the Prime Minister, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the National Assembly, and the Police. For their efforts to smuggle illegal aliens into the US, Post has found Rose Abunaw Makia and Francis Abi Enwi ineligible under Section 212(a)(6)(E) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. That Inoni immeditately raised the issue with Biya and promised swift action gives us reason to be hopeful that the GRC will take some action in response to these transgressions. Comment: (cont.) Fonkam Azuu's Case =================================== ¶9. (C) Fonkam Azuu's alleged involvement is another matter. Although we do not yet have evidence of Fonkam Azuu's involvement, Ntiga's report (shored up by subsequent reports from other media houses) that the students implicated Fonkam Azuu gives us pause. If it is true that Fonkam Azuu accepted bribes in exchange for abusing his official position to help malafide applicants, Post would consider requesting a decision from the Department regarding possible 212f and other ineligibilities. Perhaps most importantly, such a determination would place tremendous pressure on the Government of Cameroon, and especially President Paul Biya, to reconsider Fonkam Azuu's nomination to ELECAM. End Comment. GARVEY