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RR RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN
DE RUEHYD #0179/01 0441147
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 131147Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY YAOUNDE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7293
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0047
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0032
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 0177
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1504
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 0007
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1760
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 YAOUNDE 000179 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/C, CA/VO, AND EEB 
EUCOM FOR J5-A AFRICA DIVISION AND POLAD YATES 
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA ACTION OFFICERS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2017 
TAGS: CM CVIS KCOR KFRD PINR PREL NI
SUBJECT: CAMEROON'S DIPLOMATS: IN THE COUNTRY'S DISSERVICE, 
FALLING DOWN ON THE JOB 
 
REF: A. 1997 YAOUNDE 6690 
     ¶B. 94 YAOUNDE 1224 
 
Classified By: P/E Officer Tad Brown for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1.  (C)  The recent death of Cameroon's long-serving 
Ambassador to the E.U. resparked recurring public and media 
commentary on Cameroon's dramatically stagnant diplomatic 
corps.  More than a dozen Cameroonian ambassadors have 
occupied their positions for more than 10 years, several have 
been in place for over twenty years, and tired Cameroonian 
COMs are the Deans of the Diplomatic Corps in many important 
capitals.  Cameroonians complain that, despite the pressing 
need for an energetic diplomatic corps to promote tourism and 
foreign investment, their diplomatic emissaries prioritize 
personal and political gain above any sense of national duty. 
 A shake-up of postings has been rumored to be in the offing 
for some time now, and the main reason to believe the 
situation will improve is that it could not get much worse. 
While hope is in the air, this situation is a sad commentary 
on how things "work" in Cameroon -- a land where years can 
pass waiting for Biya's decisions to be taken -- and then 
implemented.  End summary. 
 
-------------------------------------------- 
And We Thought Four-Year Tours Were Too Long 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (C)  Isabelle Bassong, Cameroon's Ambassador to Belgium 
and the European Union since 1988, died November 9, 2006 of 
complications related to cancer.  Bassong's death again drew 
national attention to the unusually long tenures of 
Cameroonian diplomats.  On the list of embassies with a COM 
in place more than 10 years: Washington, Rome, Addis Ababa, 
Bonn (not Berlin!), Beijing, Moscow, and London.  Despite 
recurrent rumors of his recall (since at least 1997, ref A), 
Cameroon's Ambassador to the United States, Jerome Mendouga, 
continues to add to his nearly 13 years at his leafy 
residence off Rock Creek. 
 
¶4.  (C) President Biya told Ambassador Marquardt nearly two 
years ago that he was replacing Mendouga, a process which 
continues to grind on without resolution.  Indeed, Mengouga 
spent three months in Yaounde in late 2006 literally waiting 
for Biya to call him in to discuss his future, but he never 
got the call and returned to Washington just before the 
holidays.  Before he left, Mendouga confirmed to the 
Ambassador the rumor that he expects to be sent to London 
after Washington.  (Mendouga's successor Paul Pondi was in 
Washington for more than 10 years, making the Pondi-Mendouga 
tenure one of the few to rival Ahidjo-Biya for longevity.) 
 
¶5.  (C) Mendouga's counterpart at the UN, Martin Belinga 
Eboutou, is a neophyte in comparison, having served only nine 
years in New York.  Belinga, who served for only ten months 
as Biya's Director of Civil Cabinet (chief of Staff) before 
being sent to New York, gets generally high marks for his 
work there.  Mendouga, for his part, is intelligent, 
sociable, and clued in, but seems averse to heavy lifting to 
advance important Cameroonian priorities, like qualifying for 
MCA. 
 
----------------------------- 
What Do Diplomats Do, Anyway? 
----------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (C)  Globally, there is ample anecdotal evidence 
suggesting that Cameroon's diplomats have less interest in 
national or citizen services than in their private affairs. 
One Cameroonian employee at Post recounts an exchange that is 
not atypical: a Cameroonian Embassy official in Paris 
explained frankly that the Embassy was uninterested in him or 
any other Cameroonians whose parents were of no political 
consequence.  In our own experience, the Cameroonian Embassy 
in Washington often is unable or unwilling to help with 
bread-and-butter Embassy responsibilities like arrangements 
 
YAOUNDE 00000179  002 OF 003 
 
 
for official visitors (who do not trust the Embassy to 
accomplish anything and so come to us for help). 
 
¶7.  (C)  We know (and hear) little about working-level 
diplomats in Washington, but receive fairly frequent calls 
from the law firm hired to lobby on their behalf.  It is also 
clear that there is little concept of a normal chain of 
command through the Foreign Ministry:  ambassadors' 
allegiances are to various individuals in the government, and 
ultimately to Biya, which makes cohesive action elusive for 
the GRC.  Ambassadors know that their only real boss is Biya; 
as long as he is satisifed (or at least not unhappy with 
them), their tenure is safe. 
 
-------------------------------- 
DIPLOMATIC COVER FOR POLITICAL, 
PERSONAL MISSIONS AND VISA FRAUD 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (C)  A review of Consular records reveals that less than 
transparent factors might be at play in allocating precious 
postings at Western embassies (and that such shenanigans are 
not just the province of the Ministry of External Relations). 
 An A2 visa, for example, was issued in January 2006 to 
Yvette Doris Mbogba to represent the Ministry of Finance at 
Cameroon's Embassy in Washington, DC.  Mbogba was joined by 
her daughter, her niece and a domestic servant.  Her boss at 
the Finance Ministry, Finance Minister Polycarpe Abah Abah, 
is also the father of her child.  Abah Abah's wife, Caroline 
Abah Abah, and daughter Josiane, have also served in the 
Ministry of Finance but have not yet been assigned overseas. 
Officials with the British High Commission in Yaounde have 
told us privately that they have begun to refuse visa cases 
recommended by Cameroon's High Commissioner in London after 
determining that many applicants were improperly given 
official cover. 
 
¶9.  (C) UN Ambassador Martin Belinga is also well known to 
the consular section for needing to replace drivers and other 
domestic help on a regular basis. The Department is still 
considering a special advisory opinion request on a visa 
application submitted by a relative of Belinga who was 
recruited as a cook.  In addition, an Embassy Yaounde 
initiative to eliminate reciprocal visa fees, which would be 
very advantageous to Cameroonian travellers and help promote 
trade, investment, and tourism toward Cameroon, seems to have 
faltered on the fact that the Cameroonian Embassy in 
Washington depends on visa fees for its operating budget. 
 
¶10.  (U)  Another problem is the failure of the GRC to 
replace ambassadors who die or leave their posts.  Philomen 
Yang was High Commissioner in Ottawa "for 20 years and 8 
months" before he was named a Minister at the Presidency in 
December, 2004; the post has remained vacant ever since. 
Cameroon's sensitive relationship with Nigeria is hampered by 
the fact that there has been no High Commissioner there for 
15 years.  The last Charge d'Affaires left Abuja in November, 
¶2005.  Nigeria is pressing the GRC to name one, as part of 
improving relations since the Bakassi issue was resolved last 
June and in keeping with an agreement the two countries made 
at the time, but that nomination seems caught up in the 
overall reshuffle being prepared.  The only movement at the 
COM level in recent years, in fact, was the transfer to Paris 
of the Ambassador in Tokyo after the death of the incumbent 
in Paris in early 2006; the Tokyo slot remains vacant.  At 
the time of his death last year, Cameroon's Ambassador to 
Paris had been there for almost 11 years. 
 
-------------------------- 
COMMENT: PLUS CA CHANGE... 
-------------------------- 
 
¶11.  (C)  We continue to hear rumors that President Biya will 
soon announce a shake-up of at the top of Cameroon's 
diplomatic missions.  Last year saw a rotation at the DCM 
level, the first in years.  Foreign Minister Mebara recently 
announced a "Conference of Ambassadors" -- which would be the 
first time in two decades that Cameroonian Ambassadors return 
to Yaounde to meet and discuss together.  Mebara told the 
Ambassador that the rotation of Ambassadors must occur before 
 
YAOUNDE 00000179  003 OF 003 
 
 
the Conference, so, despite his high-profile announcement, it 
is obviously not imminent.  Cameroon needs an energetic 
diplomatic corps to lobby for much needed foreign investment, 
tourism and other objectives.  We will do our best to remain 
optimistic that the new team, when announced, will be up to 
the challenge.  One worrying sign, however, is the GRC's 
reaction to filling the vacant slot in Brussels, showing once 
again that form takes precedence over substance.  Mebara 
confided to the Ambassador that Bassong would have been 
replaced, but as a result of her death, naming the slate of 
new ambassadors had to be postponed; it would be insulting to 
her family, he said, to move "too swiftly".  End comment. 
MARQUARDT