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R 260957Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABIDJAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1374
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RUEHKI/AMEMBASSY KINSHASA 0311
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 1356

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ABIDJAN 000554 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
KINSHASA PASS TO BRAZZAVILLE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2016 
TAGS: PREL PGOV ASEC IV
SUBJECT: COTE D'IVOIRE:  SEVENTH MEETING OF THE 
INTERNATIONAL WORKING GROUP 
 
REF: A. ABIDJAN 414 
 
     ¶B. ABIDJAN 320 
     ¶C. ABIDJAN 190 
     ¶D. ABIDJAN 60 
     ¶E. 2005 ABIDJAN 2017 
     ¶F. 2005 ABIDJAN 1862 
 
Classified By: POL/ECON A. Lewis, for reasons 1.4 (b) & (d) 
 
¶1.  (C) Summary.  The International Working Group (IWG) 
held a largely uneventful seventh meeting on May 19.  Prime 
Minister Banny, UN High Representative for Elections (HRE) 
Studeman, Ivoirian Chief of Staff General Mangou, and New 
Forces Chief of Staff Bakayoko, along with the head of the 
Electoral Commission (CEI) and the head of the National 
Disarmament Commission (PNDDR) gave presentations.  The two 
military Chiefs of Staff, who spoke passionately about the 
political hurdles for disarmament and their work to secure 
the sites for the pilot identification program, provided 
some element of drama.  The visiting French Junior Minister 
for Cooperation unsuccessfully argued for aggressive 
language in the final communique regarding the National 
Assembly.  The final communiqui was relatively bland, 
cheerleading for Banny's team and the peace process and 
alluding to sanctions for those who undermine the peace 
process.  End Summary 
 
¶2.  (U) The International Working Group (IWG) held its 
seventh meeting in Abidjan on May 19.  Congolese Foreign 
Minister Rodolphe Adada and UN Special Representative of 
the Secretary General (SRSG) Pierre Schori co-chaired the 
meeting.  Ambassador Hooks led the U.S. delegation.  Also 
attending were ministers from Ghana and Guinea, the French 
Junior Foreign Minister for Cooperation, and Deputy South 
African Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad.  In addition, there 
were representatives from the UK, the AU, the EU, the 
International Organization of French Speaking Countries 
(Francophonie), and the World Bank. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The meeting was largely uneventful, featuring a 
rambling presentation by Prime Minister Banny, and short 
briefs by the HRE, the Chair of the CEI, the PNDDR 
Coordinator, and the Licorne and ONUCI Force Commanders. 
In addition, in what turned out to be the most interesting 
presentation of the day, FANCI Chief-of-Staff General 
Philippe Mangou and FAFN Chief-of-Staff Soumahila Bakayoko 
provided an update on the disarmament process. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Banny's presentation lasted almost 90 minutes. 
He spoke for about an hour and then took questions.  With 
tongue firmly in cheek, Banny insisted that the timing of 
the start of the pilot identification process and the 
pre-regroupment phase of DDR, just one day before the IWG, 
was a mere coincidence.  He also discussed his missions to 
Washington and Europe and thanked the assembled 
representatives from the EU, World Bank and the U.S. for 
their support. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) During the Q&A with Banny, French Junior Minister 
for Cooperation Brigitte Girardin tried without success to 
engage Banny on the question of the current status of the 
National Assembly and the boycott of the Assembly by 
opposition members.  (Note: The National Assembly, despite 
the recommendation of the IWG to disband, continues to meet 
sporadically with nearly half of its membership, all 
opposition politicians, boycotting the sessions.  The 
President of the National Assembly, FPI hardliner Mamadou 
Koulibaly, recently announced that he was suspending the 
salaries of all members who do not attend the sessions. 
Girardin spoke at length against the discrimination 
directed against the boycotting opposition deputies and 
wanted to know what the IWG could do to help rectify the 
situation.  Banny refused to bite.  He stated that the 
non-payment of these members was indeed a problem, and that 
it could become a stumbling block to peace, but that this 
was not an issue that he had the time for.  He 
characterized the issue as one of many that "various 
political forces" in Cote d'Ivoire seem to be stirring up 
to distract him from his prime tasks:  disarmament, 
identification, voter registration, and organization of the 
elections. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Minister Girardin later tried to include 
aggressive language in the communique calling on the 
Ivoirian government to "immediately rectify" the National 
Assembly problem and "end the discrimination" experienced 
by the opposition deputies.  The French delegation had 
floated similar language in the morning prior to the IWG 
 
ABIDJAN 00000554  002 OF 003 
 
 
meeting at the EU breakfast and were told politely to drop 
the language.  When Girardin persisted in the discussion on 
the communiqui draft, she found no support for the language 
and it was deleted after opposition from an AU official and 
the South African, Francophonie, and U.S. delegates. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Banny was also asked about recent press reports 
indicating that he was looking to extend his mandate 
because it is impossible to get to elections on time. 
Banny told the assembled members of the IWG to "ignore the 
press" and continue to publicly support elections in 
October.  He acknowledged that "time was short" but asked 
everyone to stay focused on the work left to be done and 
not get distracted by what will happen if elections do not 
occur in October.  The HRE in his briefing also stressed 
that "technically" there was time to get to elections in 
October, "assuming one works day and night," and that he 
and his team too were pushing for completion of all the 
tasks by that date.  To that end, the HRE announced a new 
MOU between the National Identification Commission and the 
CEI to conduct simultaneous issuance of identification 
cards and registration of voters.  There are still no dates 
set for the beginning of these processes.  However, Robert 
Beugre Mambe, the Chairmen of the CEI, indicated during his 
presentation that 27 community teams would start deployment 
during the week of May 22 to lay the groundwork necessary 
for voter registration. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) The HRE, the SRSG, the "Mediation" representative 
from South Africa and the commanding generals of Licorne 
and ONUCI all complained about a lack of coordination with 
Banny's office.  Banny addressed this point during his 
presentation, indicating that he would appoint a "Chief of 
Project" for identification, disarmament, voter 
registration, and redeployment of the civil service.  Given 
that each of these four critical tasks is already being 
headed up by a "Commissioner" (PNDDR) or "Chairman" (CEI) 
the addition of a "Chief" for each project is not likely to 
improve coordination. 
 
¶9.  (C) Just prior to the presentation by General Mangou 
and General Bakayoko, General Irastoza, the Licorne 
Commander, and General Amoussou, acting ONUCI Force 
Commander, provided briefings on the current security 
situation.  Both raised their concerns about the continued 
instability in the west and accused the FANCI of complicity 
with western militia leaders.  In addition, they both 
mentioned that the lack of police and judiciary in the Zone 
of Confidence made their jobs patrolling this region even 
harder.  To encourage free movement of persons to and from 
the pilot identification sites, both Licorne and ONUCI have 
beefed up road patrols on all the major transportation 
corridors. 
 
¶10.  (C) While General Amousou mentioned, almost in 
passing, that he had some concerns about disarmament, 
General Irastoza laid out four potential stumbling blocks 
which could halt the process:  1) there is inadequate 
command and control in the south to ensure that if the 
order is given to disarm, that the troops will in fact do 
so; 2) there are major discrepancies in the numbers being 
provided by the north--apparently the FAFN has only 2000 
weapons for 40,000+ soldiers--and these must be corrected 
before talks can move forward; 3) General Bakayoko seems 
committed to disarmament but neither the warlord of Man nor 
Korhogo appears ready to follow Bakayoko's lead; and 4) the 
continued presence of armed militias in the West remains a 
potential flash-point. 
 
¶11.  (C) The IWG then heard from Generals Mangou and 
Bakayoko.  Mangou told the group that FANCI would have all 
its troops slated for disarmament in its pre-regroupment 
sites (FANCI bases) by May 28.  The troops would remain in 
place there until disarmament.  Mangou added that, even if 
the FAFN does not disarm, if he is given an order by Prime 
Minister Banny to disarm, he and his troops will carry it 
out.  Bakayoko was extremely defensive during his 
presentation.  He continuously waved a copy of the signed 
calendar for disarmament, agreed to in July 2005, and 
explained that the FAFN was using the pilot phase of 
identification to conduct a pilot pre-regroupment.  Once 
the pilot phase was completed, his troops would return to 
their original positions.  Bakayoko insisted that because 
the disarmament calendar indicates that pre-regroupment is 
simultaneous with identification, and that because the 
pilot identification process is not identification (e.g. no 
id cards will be issued) the FAFN's actions are perfectly 
consistent with the agreement he has signed.  Bakayoko and 
 
ABIDJAN 00000554  003 OF 003 
 
 
Mangou both said they are looking forward to the next 
four-way military talks in Yamoussoukro on May 30.  Both 
also agreed that the sequencing in the July 2005 calendar 
is acceptable.  Bakayoko hoped that the upcoming meeting 
would produce new, more realistic dates for disarmament. 
 
¶12.  (C) The PNDDR Coordinator, General Ouassenan Kone, 
offered very little substance in his presentation.  General 
Kone spoke eloquently about the need to expand the PNDDR's 
Community Rehabilitation Program to include more "wayward" 
youth, but in the Q&A session, he was unable to answer 
basic questions about the total number of participants in 
the DDR process.  He was also ignorant of the PNDDR's 
global budget figures and had to rely on his staff to 
provide the information requested by the group.  Kone was 
appointed to bring order to the DDR Commission, but his 
performance calls into question his ability to do so. 
 
¶13.  (C) Comment:  The IWG meetings continue to provide a 
forum to gather information on the latest progress or lack 
thereof in the peace process.  Final communiquis tend to be 
bland, representing as they do the lowest common 
denominator of consensus of the heterogeneous IWG.  The IWG 
still spends too much time on ancillary issues, such as the 
non-payment of boycotting deputies, while failing to really 
grapple with core issues such as DDR, identification, 
security, and the mountains of work that must yet be 
completed before elections can take place.