P R 261428Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE
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UNCLAS BRAZZAVILLE 000023 
 
 
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SUBJECT: BRAZZAVILLE IN BRIEF - JANUARY 22, 2009 
 
NEW DIGS 
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¶1. As we noted last week, the U.S. Embassy in Brazzaville has 
now opened in the new embassy compound. 
 
Our address is: 
 
Boulevard Maya Maya 
Brazzaville, Republic of Congo 
 
The main embassy number is (country code 242) 612-2000.  We will 
be updating our website information over the next several days. 
 
The Foreign Minister of Congo, Basil Ikouebe, spoke at the 
opening ceremony.  He praised the United States for constructing 
a building within the theme of "accelerated municipalization" 
which would contribute to the beautification and improvement of 
the Congolese capital as well as standing as a gesture of 
friendship and confidence for the future of U.S.-Congo 
relations.  Citing a proverb, he said that, "the stranger who 
builds a house in a village shows clearly his determination to 
stay there, if not forever for a very long time."  The Minister 
recalled that when he was Congo's Permanent Representative in 
New York, he had read the book on U.S. Embassy architecture 
"Building Diplomacy" with pleasure but also with regret, since 
it did not include an embassy in the Congo.  Now, he said, this 
had been rectified. 
 
Turning to events of the day in Washington, the Minister noted 
the conclusion of the term of President Bush, thanking him 
profoundly for the building as well as the interest he had taken 
in Africa.  He noted that there could not be a better moment to 
open a new American embassy, on the day of the inauguration of 
Barack Obama as President, due to the immense expectations the 
whole world held toward the new President. 
 
FEATURE ARTICLE 
 
¶2.  The political parties:  Union Panafricaine pour la 
Democratie Sociale 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
-------------- 
 
Whose Side are they on, anyway ? 
 
This week, the UPADS (Union Panafricaine pour la Dimocratie 
Sociale) announced that if the upcoming Presidential election is 
not "transparent, fair, and equitable" then UPADS would not 
participate.  What follows is a description of UPADS and its 
history for our readers. 
 
The UPADS is a political party historically associated with 
former President Pascal Lissouba.   Lissouba himself, however, 
has been in exile in Paris for many years.  He is reportedly ill 
and has been incommunicado for quite some time.  It is said that 
sporadic negotiations are under way for his return to Congo, 
doubtless in an apolitical role.  Much was made of a meeting 
between Mrs. Sassou-Nguesso and Mrs. Lissouba in December during 
the first lady's trip to France. 
 
In the 1991-1992 transition to multiparty elections, the UPADS 
was part of the Alliance Nationale pour la Democratie (AND) 
which also included the Party Congolais du Travail (PCT) the 
current ruling party. 
 
In the election held in June-July 1992, UPADS won 39 out of the 
125 seats, and together with its AND allies (mainly the PCT), 
gained a slight majority of seats in the National Assembly.   In 
the August 1992 Presidential election, UPADS leader Pascal 
Lissouba won in the second round over Bernard Kolilas, the 
leader of the Mouvement Congolais pour la Democratie et le 
Diveloppment Integral (MCDDI), with 61 percent of the vote. 
 
A UPADS-led government, with Stiphane Maurice Bongho-Nouarra? as 
Prime Minister, was appointed after Lissouba took office. 
However, the PCT withdrew from the pro-Lissouba alliance and 
joined the opposition after it received only three ministerial 
positions in the government, thus breaking the slim 
parliamentary majority.  On October 31, 1992, the Union for 
Democratic Renewal-led opposition coalition and the PCT defeated 
Bongho-Nouarra's government in a no-confidence vote.  Lissouba 
consequently dissolved the National Assembly and called a new 
election, but public protests forced him to accept the formation 
of a national unity government dominated by the URD and PCT in 
the lead-up to the election. 
 
In the 1993 parliamentary election, the Presidential Tendency 
("President" in this case meaning Lissouba), of which UPADS was 
the main component, won a majority of the seats decided in the 
first round, 62 out of 114, with UPADS itself holding 49 of the 
¶62.  But, true to form, the URD and PCT opposition denounced the 
election as fraudulent and refused to participate in the second 
round, in which the Presidential Tendency won an additional 
seven seats.  These results of the second round were annulled 
and when a second round revote was held in October 1993, the 
Presidential Tendency won only three of the eleven available 
seats. 
 
During the presidential election held on 10 March 2002, UPADS 
took second place but received less than 3 percent of the vote, 
with Sassou Nguesso the overwhelming victor.  In the 
parliamentary election held on 26 May and 23 June 2002, UPADS 
won only 2 out of 137 seats. 
 
Anticipating the 2007 parliamentary election, and with Lissouba 
in exile, the party held its first extraordinary congress in 
December, 2006.  Pascal Tsaty-Mabiala was elected 
secretary-general of the party.  UPADS broke with the rest of 
the opposition in deciding to participate in the June 2007 
parliamentary election; most other opposition groups boycotted. 
 
The party put forward about 50 candidates but won only three of 
the 46 declared in the first round. Tsaty-Mabiala said that the 
party would only participate in the second round of the election 
in July if the electoral rolls were improved, voter registration 
cards were properly distributed, and the composition of the 
electoral commissions was changed.  He also said that the second 
round should be delayed to allow time for these things to be 
done.  The election was delayed by two weeks, but the party won 
only an additional seven seats, bringing its total to 10 seats 
in the National Assembly.  Tsaty-Mabiala denounced the results 
as fraudulent and that the election was neither transparent nor 
fair, alleging that five UPADS candidates, in Mossendjo, 
Moutamba, Nkayi, Mabombo and Dolisie electoral districts in the 
south, had won but were deprived of victory in the results.  One 
was subsequently seated as a result of legal action. 
 
Currently, the party is divided into three and possibly four 
factions:  (1) Tsaty Mabiala's; (2) a second led by former party 
secretary general Christophe Moukouiki; and (3) a third led by 
former State Minister and Minister of Interior and Security 
during the Lissouba administration Martin Mberi. 
 
In December, the party (via Mabiala) announced that its 
candidate for the coming presidential election would be Ange 
Edouard Poungui.  But on January 17, Tsaty Mabiala announced 
that the UPADS will use all the legal means to obtain a 
transparent, just and fair election.  Otherwise, UPADS will not 
take part in the presidential election. 
 
Comment:  There's a widespread view that what is happening in 
the UPADS is a systematic dismantling led by the party in power. 
 There are at least two "independent" announced presidential 
candidates with strong UPADS roots, and the Tsaty Mabiala group 
believes that both Mounoukeke and Mberi maintain close relations 
and contacts with Sassou-Nguesso.  The factionalism and threats 
of boycotts that characterize the UPADS in the present era are 
an obstacle to the emergence of a more unified opposition for 
the July presidential election. 
 
¶3.  OIL PRODUCTION EXPECTED TO RISE in 2009 
------------------------------------------- 
 
According to estimates produced by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons, 
Congo (Brazzaville)'s crude oil production for calendar year 
2008 was estimated to be 87 million barrels.  The Ministry 
announced a forecast for 2009 projecting an increase to 110 
million barrels (thus, if the forecast is met, rising to over 
300,000 b/d).  The projected increase is attributed to two new 
fields that came on line for the first time in 2008, Total's 
Moho-Bilondo and ENI's Awa-Paloukou, as well as the expected 
impact of new entrant Murphy Oil's deep water Azurite field, 
where production should begin sometime in 2009.  (Murphy, 
headquartered in El Dorado, Arkansas and operating out of 
 
Houston, is ramping up its personnel in Pointe Noire this month 
to install an innovative, industry-first collection system.) 
 
Other significant activities in the hydrocarbon sector noted by 
the Ministry include a 2008 seismic exploration program in the 
Cuvette Basin in north-central Congo by Pilatus Energy, ongoing 
efforts to maintain production at existing fields, and the 
beginning of construction of a gas collection system which will 
feed electricity generation plants at Djeno (the site of the 
present oil terminal) and Cote Mateve, which are expected 
initially to produce 350 MW of electric power when completed. 
 
 
EASTHAM