VZCZCXRO2515
RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHPC #0529/01 1421000
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 221000Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY LOME
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7076
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LOME 000529 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
PARIS FOR D'ELIA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM KDEM TO
SUBJECT: TOGO: UNCOMPROMISING POSITIONS DURING THE NATIONAL 
DIALOGUE? 
 
REF: A. LOME 447 
     ¶B. LOME 452 
     ¶C. LOME 32 
 
LOME 00000529  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Classified By: Poloff Rona Rathod for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
¶1.    (U) Summary.  Three weeks after the official opening of 
the Togolese national dialogue, discussions are moving along 
at a tortuous pace.  In leading the proceedings, dialogue 
chair Yawovi Agboyibo of the opposition CAR party has been 
ponderous, as have been the agreed-to procedures.  This week, 
the nine delegations concluded the initial discussion round, 
to be followed by individual sessions with the dialogue board 
to find consensus on the twelve points of discussion. 
Whether unresolved topics will be heard by a facilitator 
remains unsettled.  Following a visit to Lome, Louis Michel's 
comments about the dialogue sparked some rancor among 
Togolese who believe that he has de-linked holding free and 
fair elections from the rest of the reforms Togo has pledged 
to make in order to resume receiving EU development 
assistance.  Electoral reform being the most contentious 
subject of discussion, the delegates spent an entire week 
discussing it without coming up with very many concrete 
agreements.  Since several parties are being too partisan in 
the negotiations, many issues are being tabled to be hashed 
out later.  However, it seems likely that a transitional 
government will be put in place after the talks.  End 
summary. 
 
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SLOW AND STEADY CAN WIN THE RACE... OR NEVER SEE THE FINISH 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
----- 
LINE 
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¶2.    (SBU) Three weeks after the official opening of the 
Togolese national dialogue (see ref A), discussions are 
moving along, albeit at a tortuous pace.  After Prime 
Minister Edem Kodjo kicked off the first session of the 
dialogue, and after a prolonged and acrimonious dispute about 
voting procedures to be used during the process, the nine 
delegations, selected CAR (Action Committee for Revival) 
president Yawovi Agboyibo to chair the proceedings.  The 
participants also voted in Kissem Walla-Tchangai, former 
member of the electoral commission who announced last year's 
presidential election results and current member of a women's 
NGO close to the ruling party, as vice-chair and Gilbert 
Bawara, Minister Delegate to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
charged with cooperation, as rapporteur.  As chairman of the 
dialogue, Agboyibo has been very ponderous, reporting to the 
press issues addressed in the sessions in a lethargic, 
meandering manner, without providing much substance. 
 
¶3.    (C) The dialogue process has been moving sluggishly not 
only because of the languid Agboyibo, but also as a result of 
vague procedures.  The opposition UFC (United Forces for 
Change), at the behest of its self-exiled president Gilchrist 
Olympio, threatened to leave its seat at the dialogue empty 
if the delegations finalized agreements by majority vote 
rather than consensus.  In order to convey the seriousness of 
his threat, Olympio tasked Robert Dussey of the Community of 
Sant'Egidio in Togo with transmitting a message to Togolese 
President Faure Gnassingbe reiterating this position. 
Therefore, each of the twelve official topics of discussion 
must be addressed in two stages.  (Note.  Four more topics 
were added after ref B:  1) institutional reform outside of 
the election context, 2) financing of political parties, 3) 
the call to resume cooperation, and 4) putting in place a 
mechanism to follow the implementation of decisions made 
during the dialogue.  End note.)  In the first stage, each of 
the nine groups has the opportunity to express their opinions 
about the twelve points of discussion and then discuss them 
in a plenary session.  In the second stage the participants 
will attempt to reach consensus on each subject. 
 
¶4.    (SBU) Mired in these equivocal procedures, the 
representatives at last brought stage one of the negotiations 
to a close on May 16.  In a May 17 press conference, Agboyibo 
confirmed that the second stage of the talks had commenced 
and indicated that during the second stage, the dialogue 
board would meet with each party individually to prod them to 
make concessions on issues that could potentially derail the 
negotiations.  Burkinabe president Blaise Campaore has also 
reportedly offered to meet the delegations individually in 
Ouagadougou to consult on their perceptions of what has so 
far taken place.  The conclusions of the individual sessions 
will be compiled into a draft agreement, which the board will 
 
LOME 00000529  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
then pass to each delegation for their comments and 
amendments.  They plan to reconvene in a plenary session on 
May 24 to formulate a definitive political agreement. 
 
¶5.    (U) Which prompts us to wonder about what will happen 
to polemical issues that do not find consensus during the 
national dialogue.  The participants have not arrived at a 
final determination about whether to use the good offices of 
a facilitator to resolve disputed issues (see ref C). 
Despite this, the delegations seem to have a tacit 
understanding that a facilitator will assist them to work 
through unresolved topics. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
EU COMMISSIONER'S VIEWPOINT SPARKS RANCOR 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶6.    (U) Strenuous grumblings were heard around Lome after 
European Union (EU) Commissioner Louis Michel's May 4-5 trip 
to meet with participants of the national dialogue.  Michel 
made comments suggesting that the issue of elections was the 
most important for the EU in order to resume bilateral 
assistance.  Arranging free and fair national legislative 
elections is one of the outstanding obligations of the 22 
commitments the Togolese government made to the EU.  He hoped 
for a complete agreement on an electoral framework and an 
indicative date for nationna legislative elections for the EU 
to be able to move on making available 20 million euros of 
European Economic Development Funds.  By putting priority on 
the elections, Michel is seen to have de-linked this issue 
from the rest of the commitments Togo made to the EU, thereby 
prompting some Togolese to accuse Michel of losing sight of 
the essential purpose of the dialogue:  truth and 
reconciliation among Togolese. 
 
¶7.    (U) Others felt that what Michel said was exactly right 
and that malcontents are missing the nuance of his 
statements.  They have put forth the opinion that free and 
fair elections will demonstrate that Togo is on a positive 
trajectory toward real democratic systems and will calm the 
increasingly volatile population so that a new government can 
continue to implement the other commitments.  This camp views 
a successful election as an immediate result and the other 
commitments as ongoing processes. 
 
-------------------- 
ELECTION CONTENTION 
-------------------- 
 
¶8.    (U) The participants' handling of the election issue, 
however, may not bode well for restarting assistance.  After 
a full week of talks, the delegates finally saw the 
conclusion of negotiations about this first, and most 
contentious, topic of focus.  Despite wrapping up talks about 
elections at the end of last week, several issues key to 
putting the election process in motion remain unresolved. 
Although all parties have agreed that the government should 
undertake an electoral census, the modalities remain to be 
defined.  Similarly, the representatives did agree that 
international civil and military observers would be welcome 
during the next election, but did not unanimously consent to 
local observers. 
 
¶9.    (U) More troublesome is the fact that no inroads have 
been made on defining the composition of the powerful 
electoral commission.  The essential quandary hinges on 
whether to categorize opposition parties playing a role in 
the current government, namely the CPP (Panafrican Patriotic 
Convergence) party of the prime minister (who is no longer 
involved in the dialogue) and the foreign affairs minister's 
PDR (Party for Democracy and Revival), as truly opposition or 
as part of the ruling party.  The ruling RPT (Rally of 
Togolese People) reportedly refuses to classify the two 
political factions as part of their own group and wants to 
label them opposition. 
 
¶10.   (U) Talks about electoral districting have also fallen 
flat, with the opposition demanding more seats in Lome than 
the RPT is willing to relinquish.  The government is 
insisting on completing the general population consensus 
before even mentioning redistricting.  The end result of this 
lack of consensus is that the provisional national 
legislative election date has been pushed back from November 
2006 to early 2007.  Notwithstanding these uncompromising 
positions, the delegates have found consensus on technical 
issues, such as distribution of voter cards and what fee to 
levy upon candidates. 
 
 
LOME 00000529  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
------------------------ 
DITHERING LOVES COMPANY 
------------------------ 
 
¶11.   (SBU) The prolonged sessions without consensus prompted 
Jean-Pierre Fabre, Secretary General of the UFC, to complain 
that the delegates are bracketing every issue, simply 
agreeing to disagree.  Foreign Minister Zarifou Ayeva 
commented that the government had made a mistake in electing 
not to employ a facilitator and conducting the dialogue 
within Togo.  The obduracy of the delegates has also 
triggered some behind-the-scenes nudging, with Michel telling 
Faure quietly that his RPT group needs to take a broader view 
of the talks and be more forthcoming with compromises.  The 
EU observer to the dialogue (ECOWAS and Burkina Faso are also 
represented) also accused the GoT itself of being too 
partisan in its negotiations. 
 
-------- 
COMMENT 
-------- 
 
¶12.   (C) While UFC party members charge other delegations of 
being unyielding, they too are not willing to budge on many 
issues.  Nevertheless, it is heartening to see the major 
Togolese opposition party playing a part in talks it has 
repeatedly threatened to boycott because of prior failed 
dialogues.  Notwithstanding the resoluteness of some of the 
parties, they will in all likelihood appoint a transitional 
government following the conclusion of the talks.  However, 
next steps remain as vague as ever with disagreement being 
the most common theme of this dialogue. 
DIFFILY