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Viewing cable 07CONAKRY127, PRESIDENT CONTE LIVES IN ANOTHER WORLD

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07CONAKRY127 2007-02-02 10:01 2011-08-30 01:44 CONFIDENTIAL Embassy Conakry
VZCZCXRO6204
OO RUEHPA
DE RUEHRY #0127/01 0331001
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 021001Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY CONAKRY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0588
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE//POLAD/J2// PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CONAKRY 000127 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2017 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINS KDEM GV
SUBJECT: PRESIDENT CONTE LIVES IN ANOTHER WORLD 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Jackson McDonald.  Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
1.  (C) On February 1, I met for nearly an hour with Guinean 
President Lansana Conte.  The conversation was disjointed, 
with Conte frequently digressing and going off on tangents. 
He minimized the importance of the recent general strike, 
including the use of lethal force against civilian protesters 
on January 22.  He would not engage on political questions 
such as the appointment of a prime minister and the need to 
build national consensus.  Conte was alert, but, as usual, 
his level of discourse remained very basic.  This 
conversation was frustrating; I was trying to talk about ways 
out of the current crisis with a human relic whose time has 
long since passed.  End Summary. 
 
------- 
SETTING 
------- 
 
2.  (C) President Conte received me for almost an hour 
yesterday afternoon, February 1.  We again met in the shade 
of a banyan tree in the parking lot of the burned-out Palais 
des Nations, a large edifice that housed the Presidency until 
it was destroyed in the 1996 mutiny.  This is Conte,s 
preferred setting:  outdoors, under a tree, with a steady 
breeze.  Conte holds court like a village chief, and this 
setting is the closest thing to a village in downtown 
Conakry. 
 
3.  (C) When I arrived, President Conte was sitting in an old 
leather armchair, with President of the National Assembly 
Aboubacar Sompare, President of the Supreme Court Lamine 
Sidime, and President of the Economic and Social Council 
Michel Kamano sitting around him in white plastic chairs. 
Business crony Mamadou Sylla had enthroned himself on a low 
retaining wall.  The atmosphere was gloomy.  Another business 
crony, Guido Santullo, wandered by and took a seat toward the 
end of the meeting.  No one spoke except Conte and me. 
 
--------------------- 
IT HAPPENS EVERYWHERE 
--------------------- 
 
4.  (C) After offering New Year,s greetings, I referred to 
the recent general strike as a Guinean matter that the 
Guineans themselves needed to resolve.  I added, however, 
that the United States considered itself a friend of Guinea 
and wanted to be helpful if it could. 
 
5.  (C) President Conte replied that Guinea is a difficult 
country to govern, because Guineans are proud.  He gave a 
negative connotation to the word &proud,8 implying that 
Guineans are too proud to yield or compromise.  Conte said 
that before Guineans could get along with each other they 
first had to &accept each other.8  He asserted that every 
family and every nation has quarrels.  It happens everywhere. 
 Guinea is no exception.  He said Guinea would have to settle 
this quarrel itself; its friends, including the United 
States, could only play a supporting role (Vous pouvez venir 
en appoint, c,est tout.). 
 
------------------- 
THEY ARE TESTING ME 
------------------- 
 
6.  (C) When I referred again to the strike, President Conte 
cited a traditional proverb:  "they have thrown dust in the 
air to see which way the wind is blowing8 (that is, the 
protesters are testing him to see how far they can push him). 
 
 
------------------ 
IT'S NOT OUR FAULT 
------------------ 
 
7.  (C) I told President Conte that no one was attacking him 
personally.  That said, life is tough for most Guineans. 
Frustrations are running high.  Guineans are not demanding 
much.  All they want is a normal existence:  the chance to 
work, to raise a family, and to put food on the table.  They 
want hope. 
 
8.  (C) President Conte responded with an archaic ideological 
jab about how Africans continue to suffer from &colonial 
domination.8  Africans are not at fault, he claimed. 
Westerners are at the root of Africa,s problems. 
 
9.  (C) Feigning offense, I took exception, noting that the 
 
CONAKRY 00000127  002 OF 003 
 
 
United States had never possessed colonies in Africa and had 
never dominated the continent.  President Conte took the 
point, adding that even before colonialism Africans had been 
dominating other Africans.  He said:  &If I want something 
from my neighbor, I will try to get it.  Africans and African 
countries have always behaved that way.8 
 
------------------------------------ 
THEY SHOULD RETURN TO THEIR VILLAGES 
------------------------------------ 
 
10.  (C) I said that, on January 22, I had seen with my own 
eyes thousands of demonstrators as they passed by the embassy 
heading downtown.  I told President Conte that these were not 
the hoodlums who had been throwing rocks and burning tires 
earlier in the strike; rather, these were ordinary Guineans, 
upstanding citizens frustrated with their current plight and 
wanting a decent life. 
 
11.  (C) President Conte replied, &they shouldn't be here; 
they are young people who abandoned their villages thinking 
life would be easier in the city; they're wrong; life is 
easier in the village; they should go back.8 
 
-------------------- 
FATHER OF THE NATION 
-------------------- 
 
12.  (C) I tried to appeal to President Conte,s 
paternalistic instincts as the &father of the nation8 for 
the past 23 years.  Conte interrupted, &so you think I've 
been around too long?8  He then digressed into a long 
discourse about how term limits do not work in Africa.  Once 
a chief, always a chief, he said. 
 
13.  (C) I said that was not my point.  Rather, as &father 
of the nation,8 he had a paternal responsibility to bring 
together all the sons and daughters of Guinea.  If ever 
Guineans needed to unite for the good of their country, it 
was now, I said.  I urged him to try to build consensus. 
 
14.  (C) President Conte repeated that quarrels happen in all 
families and all countries.  He said that Guineans had 
quarreled before and that this time was no different. 
 
15.  (C) I countered that this time was, in fact, different. 
Guineans had killed Guineans.  Throughout my stay in Guinea, 
Guineans had told me they were different, that they would 
never kill each other, that Guinea was not Liberia or Sierra 
Leone.  Recent events, especially the shootings on January 
22, had proven otherwise.  Guineans had killed other Guineans 
by the dozens.  They had violated their own values; they had 
violated an important taboo. 
 
16.  (C) Incredibly, President Conte denied that any Guinean 
had killed a fellow Guinean on purpose.  He maintained that 
the deaths had been caused by stray bullets.  (Either he was 
lying, or no one has told him what really happened on January 
22.) 
 
17.  (C) I urged President Conte to hold the killers 
accountable.  If not, then they would feel free to kill 
again.  If not, others would also feel free to kill.  I said 
the last thing Guinea needed was to succumb to a downward 
spiral of violence. 
 
18.  (C) President Conte appeared not to realize the depth of 
popular discontent or the extent of last week's bloodshed. 
He responded that Guineans had, in fact, killed each other in 
the past and that Guinea would survive this time, too. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
CONTE WILL RETIRE FROM THE MILITARY WHEN HE IS NO LONGER 
PRESIDENT 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
19.  (C) Next, I tried to gauge how much President Conte was 
focusing on appointing a new prime minister.  I recalled that 
he had once told me that he was a farmer, a general, and a 
president.  He smiled and nodded.  I said that as commander 
in chief, he had several subordinate generals, a bunch of 
colonels, and many other soldiers to carry out his orders. 
As President of the Republic, it was also important for him 
to have civilians -- a prime minister and ministers -- to 
carry out his policies. 
 
20.  (C) President Conte did not take the bait.  He again 
digressed, saying that he was not the president of the 
military but rather the president of all Guineans.  I agreed. 
 He said that he had never resigned from the military but 
would do so when he was no longer president.  &When I am no 
longer president or when they (the military) no longer want 
 
CONAKRY 00000127  003 OF 003 
 
 
me to be president, then I will resign from the military, go 
to my village, and not look back,8 he asserted. 
 
21.  (C) I replied that, as of now, he remained both 
commander in chief of the armed forces and President of the 
Republic.  I tried again to determine whether he was focusing 
on the need to appoint a new prime minister and government to 
assist him in his role as president.  Conte would not engage 
in this line of discussion; he began to reminisce about how 
he had traveled to every village in Guinea when he was 
paymaster for the army in the early 1960s. 
 
------ 
HEALTH 
------ 
 
22.  (C) President Conte was alert throughout the meeting. 
Obviously tired and worn by age and disease, he nonetheless 
focused on the conversation most of the time (this is not 
always the case).  He seemed to enjoy the banter, even when I 
contradicted him, but he always made certain he had the last 
word. 
 
23.  (C) He was barefoot and hung his right leg over the arm 
of his chair for much of the meeting.  He stood up (with a 
little help) and then walked (unassisted and barefoot) about 
thirty feet to the outhouse.  He then returned (unassisted) 
and sat down.  He smoked less than usual.  His personal 
hygiene continues to deteriorate. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
24.  (C) President Conte is a tired old man whose time has 
come and gone.  The world has passed him by even though he is 
still in office.  President Conte is no longer up to his 
leadership responsibilities.  He is not -- and evidently 
never has been -- a man with world view or a view of the 
future. 
 
25.  (C) President Conte does not seem to comprehend the 
groundswell of popular support for change.  He is in a state 
of denial.  (He is not alone in this regard.)  He minimized 
the importance of the recent general strike, mass 
demonstration, and killing of at least 59 people by the 
security forces.  He appeared to think that the same old 
recipes would still work today.  (He is not alone in that 
regard either.) 
 
26.  (C) President Conte evidenced no sense of urgency to 
appoint a prime minister.  That said, he holds his cards 
close to this chest, and he makes decisions according to his 
own timing.  We can only hope that the Presidents of the 
National Assembly, Supreme Court, and Economic and Social 
Council, who were meeting with Conte when I arrived, were 
trying to nudge him towards the timely selection of a new 
prime minister.  The atmosphere was gloomy, however, when I 
arrived. 
 
27.  (C) The presence of Mamadou Sylla and Guido Santullo is 
not encouraging.  President Conte continues to meld his 
official and personal worlds.  He appears to have no 
disinterested advisors.  He seeks solace in the spirit world; 
his marabous had performed sacrifices for him shortly before 
my arrival. 
MCDONALD