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DE RUEHUJA #2201/01 3150818
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P 100818Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY ABUJA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4395
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
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RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC
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RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
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RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABUJA 002201 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W, INR/AA, PM 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV MASS PHUM ICRC ECOWAS NI
SUBJECT: NIGERIA: ECOWAS AND INTERNATIONAL RED CROSS 
SPONSOR SALW CONFERENCE 
 
REF: ABUJA 503 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: From October 27-29, ECOWAS and the 
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) co-sponsored 
a seminar on international humanitarian law treaties in West 
Africa entitled "Even War Has Limits."  Poloff attended the 
October 29 session, which was open to observers from foreign 
missions, and which dealt primarily with the implications of 
small arms/light weapons (SALW) control efforts for the 
region.  With the first speaker giving a basic explanation of 
the ECOWAS Small Arms Convention and a subsequent speaker 
offering presentations on "The Explosive Remnants of War" and 
"The Convention on Cluster Munitions," the event provided an 
interesting look at efforts within ECOWAS to encourage member 
states to ratify the SALW protocol, as well as to muster 
support for the Convention on Cluster Munitions to be signed 
in Oslo on December 3, 2008.  Attendees included 
representatives from every member state, the chairman of 
Nigeria's National Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons 
Air Commodore Danjuma Otaru, and key Commission for Political 
Affairs, Peace, and Security (CPAPS) officials.  The event 
was deemed a success and showed ECOWAS's maturity as a 
regional organization and its determination to strengthen the 
civil aspects of regional security, beyond the standing up of 
the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF).  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (U) The October 29 portion of the ECOWAS-ICRC Seminar on 
International Humanitarian Law Treaties in West Africa, "Even 
War Has Limits," dealt with several SALW topics as they 
pertained to ECOWAS member states.  The first presentation, 
"Ratification and Implementation of Small Arms Convention in 
West Africa," was led by Dr. Cyriaque Agenekethom, head of 
ECOWAS's Small Arms and Light Weapons Unit in CPAPS.  Dr. 
Agenekethom first covered the basic goals of ECOWAS's Small 
Arms Convention, which included the creation of a legal 
framework to strengthen SALW control; the consolidation of 
the gains of the 1998 Moratorium on the import, export, and 
manufacture of SALW; and continued assistance to member 
states in efforts to regulate the flow of SALW into and out 
of their borders.  He also spoke on several specific 
Convention articles that dealt with the matter, especially 
Articles 4-6, which set out the parameters of how member 
states request an exemption from the Convention.  Six states 
have already ratified the Convention -- Niger, Burkina Faso, 
Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Togo -- and only two more member 
nations need to do so to bring the Convention into force. 
Attendees at the conference made a strong plea for the 
remaining nine countries to ratify the convention. (Note: Air 
Commodore Otaru reports that the Convention is currently in 
President Yar'Adua's hands, though it has been there for some 
time; he hopes it will be ratified in Nigeria in the near 
future.  End note.) 
 
¶3. (U) Peter Herbby, head of the ICRC's Legal Division's Arms 
Unit, spoke on "The Explosive Remnants of War," highlighting 
the devastating effects of unexploded ordnance on societies 
emerging from conflict.  He claimed that "mines, cluster 
munitions, and explosive remnants are all weapons which can't 
stop killing" due to their failure rate and the fact that 
they may remain in place for decades after peace is declared; 
furthermore he claimed the problem is worsening due to ever 
more efficient ways of delivering larger quantities of 
ordnance.  He specifically singled out the 1997 Ottawa Mine 
Ban Treaty, which banned anti-personnel mines, as a 
tremendous step forward in SALW control, and also mentioned 
the 2003 Protocol on the Explosive Remnants of War as 
especially effective, inasmuch as it assigns responsibility 
for ordnance clean-up in post-conflict regions. 
 
¶4. (U) Herbby started his second lecture, entitled 
"Convention on Cluster Munitions," by showing a 16-minute 
presentation on the difficulties faced by civilians in areas 
where cluster bombs have been dropped, particularly in 
southern Lebanon, where both sides used cluster munitions 
during the 2006 fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.  He 
described the key sticking points during the negotiations 
surrounding the May 2008 adoption of the text of the 
 
ABUJA 00002201  002 OF 002 
 
 
Convention on Cluster Munitions in Dublin, including the 
adoption of a legal definition of cluster munitions and the 
conduct of joint operations with non-Convention states.  He 
also gave tips on how to defeat the argument that cluster 
munitions can be a military necessity.  The rest of the 
session was spent urging member states to sign the Convention 
in Oslo, with one ECOWAS official encouraging member states 
to "shame the world" by portraying themselves as the victims 
of these weapons.  (Note: The only known use of cluster 
munitions in West Africa was by Nigeria in Sierra Leone in 
¶1997.  End note.) 
 
¶5. (SBU) COMMENT: U.S. opposition to the Cluster Munitions 
Convention was addressed only tangentially during the 
conference, but later Herbby told Poloff he had recently 
visited with PM officers in the Department to discuss 
possible avenues of cooperation between the U.S. and 
campaigners.  Pleas to support the ban are falling on fertile 
soil in West Africa, as signing the convention will cost 
ECOWAS nations nothing and will in return gain them 
international goodwill. 
 
¶6. (SBU) COMMENT CONT'D:  This event showcases ECOWAS's 
increasing maturity and ability to coordinate with other 
interested parties in order to reach its goals -- ICRC 
Regional Delegate Jacques Villetaz noted that this 
conference, the first of its kind, could not have taken place 
a few years ago given ECOWAS's state of development then.  It 
also shows its effectiveness in building up the civilian 
aspects of its conflict prevention and resolution 
capabilities, which have remained stunted relative to its 
efforts in standing up the ESF (reftel).  But the real work 
remains: the signing of international unexploded ordnance and 
cluster munitions treaties are mostly feel-good measures in a 
region devastated by SALW proliferation -- which continues 
largely unabated via corrupt officials and the region's 
porous borders.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶7. (U) This cable coordinated with Consulate Lagos. 
Sanders