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C O N F I D E N T I A L ABIDJAN 000447 
 
SIPDIS 
 
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KINSHASA PASS TO BRAZZAVILLE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/03/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ASEC IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE: GBAGBO ISSUES COMBATIVE STATEMENT 
 
 
Classified By: POL/ECON Jim Wojtasiewicz, reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) 
 
¶1. (C) On April 25 President Gbagbo issued a statement 
through his press spokesman laying out his views on how the 
country should move forward toward elections.  The statement 
was typical of Gbagbo: combative, defensive, disingenuous and 
hardly presidential.  Gbagbo denied that he had agreed at the 
April 8 meeting of Ivoirian political leaders with AU 
Chairman Sassou that identification of citizens and 
disarmament should proceed simultaneously.  He called that 
meeting a "lecture" given by Sassou and noted that no signed 
agreement or communique resulted from it.  Gabgbo questioned 
the "common sense and logic" of trying to identify citizens 
in the north when war has "massively displaced" the 
population there, and rebels who have committed "massacres, 
excesses, acts of humiliation and all sorts of torture" 
continue to "run wild."  However, since these matters come 
under the authority of the prime minister, Gbagbo said he 
would accept simultaneous identification and disarmament. 
 
¶2. (C) Also typically for Gbagbo, the statement went on at 
length to assert that he, and only he, has carried out all 
the commitments made in the various Ivoirian peace 
agreements, while others have implemented these agreements 
"cunningly and dishonestly."  He referred in particular to 
paragraph 6 of the Pretoria II agreement, which he said 
withdrew from the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) any 
authority to register voters.  Rather, Gbagbo asserted, the 
Pretoria II agreement gives this authority to the National 
Institute of Statistics (INS), which is only required to 
report its actions to the CEI.  (Note:  In fact, the relevant 
sentence of Pretoria II reads, "The leaders reaffirmed that 
the IEC is the sole institution in charge of the electoral 
process and the National Institute of Statistics should 
report to the IEC on matters relating to the elections.")  He 
asserted furthermore that the voter registration list is 
"permanent" and only needs to be updated, and that to seek to 
establish a new list would be to call into question all of 
the previous peace agreements and require their renegotiation. 
 
¶3. (C) Comment.  The "permanent" voter list Gbagbo is 
referring to is the one that was used in the elections that 
brought him to power as president and gave his FPI (Ivoirian 
Popular Front) party control of the National Assembly in 
¶2000.  The opposition has claimed since before those 
elections were even held that many opposition supporters, 
especially northerners, were excluded from that list.  If the 
voter registration process were to be truly transparent and 
fully inclusive it would not matter whether the previous list 
was updated or a new list was prepared: the outcome would be 
the same.  However, by insisting that registration must 
remain in the hands of the INS, which is controlled by Gbagbo 
cronies, he is conceding that the only way he can win the 
election is by cooking the voter registration list.  End 
Comment. 
 
Hooks