VZCZCXRO9895
PP RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #1205/01 1381844
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 181844Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5173
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAKAR 001205 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR DRL/PHD, DRL/IRF, AF/RSA, AF/W AND INR/AA 
PARIS FOR POL - D'ELIA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/18/2016 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PINS KJUS SG
SUBJECT: FOUR HIGH LEVEL POLITICAL ARRESTS IN SENEGAL 
 
REF: DAKAR 00837 
 
Classified By: DCM Robert P. Jackson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
¶1.  (U) In the past two months, there have been a series of 
high profile arrests of political figures.  Labor leader 
Ibrahima Sene (Reftel), Amath Dansokho, Secretary General of 
the Labor Party (PIT), Jean Paul Dias, head of the center 
right party BCG, and Pape Diouf, Mayor of the City of Bambey, 
have all been arrested under differing charges and 
circumstances engendering much controversy.  END SUMMARY. 
 
SENE AND DANSOKHO: DISSEMINATION OF FALSE INFORMATION 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
¶2.  (U) As reported previously (Reftel), leading figures of 
PIT have been under fire for some time.  On March 22, 
Ibrahima Sene, a member of the PIT's Central Committee, was 
arrested and charged with dissemination of false information 
related to a press conference in which he claimed 440 billion 
CFA francs (CFAF) (USD 800 million) had been removed from 
Senegal.  He was released and charges dropped for lack of 
evidence, but the impact of the press conference did not stop 
there.  On March 24, Amath Dansokho was given orders to 
appear at the Division of Criminal Investigations (DIC) to 
answer questions about the same press conference.  He went 
for six hours of questions on April 6, when a crowd of 
supporters gathered outside the DIC.  The next day, 
investigators went to his house to ask him to return for 
questioning, but he refused.  Hearing that Dansokho was asked 
to return to the DIC, opposition party leaders went to his 
house to form a human shield.  Jean Paul Dias was there and 
gathered rocks to throw at any investigators who tried to 
take Dansokho.  He joined the coalition of opposition parties 
(the CPA) while this was taking place and also made a public 
statement that, henceforth, no political party convened to 
the DIC would agree to go.  Ex-Prime Minister Idrissa Seck 
paid a visit to praise Dansokho's patriotism and sacrifice. 
 
¶3.  (C) Although the DIC dropped its demand that he return 
for questioning, Dansokho was charged with dissemination of 
false information, and his trial has been scheduled for May 
¶19.  Sene stressed to us that Wade had targeted Dansokho as 
part of a strategy of intimidating opposition militants.  The 
view of those within Wade's governing coalition, though, is 
more nuanced.  Bassirou Sarr, who is close to And Jef leader 
and Minister of State Landing Savane, says the arrests were 
uncoordinated and haphazard, with Senior Minister of Justice 
Cheikh Tidjiane Sy and Interior Minister Ousmane NGom 
competing to please Wade through judicial police arrests of 
Wade critics. 
 
JEAN PAUL DIAS ARRESTED LEAVING CHURCH 
-------------------------------------- 
¶4.  (C) On April 14, Jean Paul Dias was arrested leaving 
Dakar's Cathedral, where he was celebrating the Catholic holy 
day of Good Friday.  His arrest was portrayed by the media as 
scandalous, given that elements of the DIC had been 
surveilling him in the Cathedral ahead of time.  One 
newspaper labeled this an act of profanity and questioned 
whether the police would have dared to enter a mosque in 
order to arrest someone.  Religious and political leaders 
alike criticized the arrest.  Over coffee, Dias told us 
security forces were in the Cathedral but could not arrest 
him there because he was protected by other Church-goers.  In 
fact, he said, they had to "chase" his car for some distance 
upon his leaving the Cathedral in order to intercept and 
arrest him.  He was questioned for ten hours after his arrest 
but was released, he says, after some Catholic members of the 
Wade government brought in the priest who was saying Mass at 
the Cathedral when Dias was there.  On April 20, he was 
charged with "threatening state security" and "disturbing 
public order" as a result of the statement he made on April 7 
in connection with Dansokho's case.  Dias was imprisoned the 
same day he was formally charged. 
 
¶5.  (U) Claiming to be in fear of his life, he immediately 
went on a hunger strike, refusing to eat any food brought to 
him in prison.  He dropped his hunger strike within a few 
days, after his family was permitted to bring him food.  On 
May 10, he was set free under provisional freedom but had to 
be forced out of the prison.  He initially refused to go, 
wanting nothing less than complete dismissal of the charges, 
but finally was persuaded to leave.  Upon release, he joked 
to reporters that "soon, President Wade's political prisoners 
could make a football team."  The charges against Dias remain 
pending. 
 
¶6.  (C) Dias told us the GOS was set to go after him as soon 
 
DAKAR 00001205  002 OF 002 
 
 
as he joined the CPA.  He believes the GOS wanted to 
immobilize him because he brought to the opposition a 
willingness to confront the GOS.  He also said the charges 
the GOS levied against him were "empty" but were used because 
the GOS did not want to inflame religious sentiment. 
According to Dias, Wade only ordered him released on May 10, 
because Wade was shortly to receive an international prize in 
Paris and wanted to avoid controversy.  Dias plans to push to 
have all charges against him permanently dropped. 
 
SECK ALLY PAPE DIOUF ARRESTED FOR DESTROYING A WELL 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
¶6.  (U) On May 7, Pape Diouf, Mayor of Bambey, was arrested 
by gendarmes from Diourbel, for having ordered the 
destruction of a well being built by the Minister of Urbanism 
and a local adversary, Assane Diagne.  Diouf was charged with 
destruction of public property.  Diouf claimed the Minister 
did not have authority to proceed with the project, but the 
two men are long-time political rivals.  Diouf was also a 
friend to ex-Prime Minister Idrissa Seck.  Omar Sarr, Seck's 
spokesman, described the unfolding of events as an effort by 
the GOS to cover up a blunder by putting all responsibility 
for the arrest on Diagne.  At his trial on May 12, he and 
three co-defendants were given a suspended sentence of two 
years in prison, plus fined 500,000 CFAF (USD 1,000) and told 
to pay two million CFAF (USD 4,000) in damages. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
¶7.  (U) The facts of these three cases are different. 
Charges against Dansokho stem from a press conference that 
had the potential to embarass the Government.  Nevertheless, 
given that the charges against Sene were dropped, Dansokho 
would have likely faced the same outcome -- had it not been 
for the human shield gathered at his house.  The fact that 
the DIC was forced to back down may have been an even greater 
embarassment and ensured that the case would not end there. 
The case against Dias also flowed from the PIT press 
conference, but it raised religious questions that have not 
surfaced in Senegal for many years.  Dias has played up this 
dimension of his arrest, referring to himself as a 
"political, Catholic prisoner."  Diouf is the odd man out, 
arrested presumably for going too far in a rivalry that has 
lasted for years.  Nevertheless, this series of arrests of 
high profile politicians has led to many in Senegal wondering 
if this is the wave of the future.  END COMMENT. 
 
¶8.  (U) Visit Dakar,s classified website at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/af/dakar/. 
JACOBS