KONATE APPOINTS NEW PRESIDENTIAL CABINET

UNCLAS CONAKRY 000105 SENSITIVE SIPDIS C O R R E C T E D COPY CAPTION E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC PHUM GV SUBJECT: KONATE APPOINTS NEW PRESIDENTIAL CABINET REF: A. CONAKRY 00044 ¶B. CONAKRY 00046 ¶C. CONAKRY 00102 ¶1. (U) A new presidential cabinet was announced last night, February 16, at 2000 hours. The twenty-three person cabinet consists of eleven members of Dadis Camara's CNDD government and twelve other individuals. ¶2. (U) In an announcement earlier in the day, Interim President Sekouba Konate stated that the presidential cabinet would act only in an advisory role to the President, and would not threaten the power of Jean Marie Dore's government. Konate also stated that the PM Dore and his Ministers would be solely responsible for making policy and pushing elections forward. The cabinet, he said, would act only to aid the President's role in government. ¶3. (SBU) Moussa Tiegboro Camara, former Minister of High Crimes, Anti-Drugs, and Grand Banditry (reftels A & B) was appointed as the Minister Counselor to the President of the Republic in Charge of Special Services, Anti-Drugs, and High Crimes. Claude Pivi, former Minister of Presidential Security under the CNDD, was appointed as Minister of State in Charge of Presidential Security. Pivi and Tiegboro were both implicated by the UN Commission of Inquiry report as having a part in the September 28 violence in Conakry. Members of the Forces Vives have been insistent throughout the government formation process that neither Pivi nor Tiegboro should be members of the new government. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶4. (SBU) It is not at all a surprise that Konate kept several CNDD hard-liners in his presidential cabinet (reftel C). Despite the Forces Vives' insistence that many of these hard-liners be removed from the government, many of them privately realized that Konate would need to appoint Pivi and Tiegboro to leadership positions to keep them from challenging the civilian-led government. Thus far, there has been no outcry from civilian leaders about the appointments - likely because they expected the outcome. While Konate's speech seems to have reassured some that the presidential cabinet would remain in the background of the transition, others have expressed concern that the cabinet itself could become a parallel system that would challenge PM Dore's authority; a concern that Konate's reassurance has not entirely dispelled. Moller