VZCZCXRO8519
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHDK #0705/01 0880836
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 290836Z MAR 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 7964
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DAKAR 000705 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/W, AF/RSA AND INR/AA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SOCI TBIO PHUM PINS PREL KDEM KISL SG
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR GROVER JOSEPH REES' VISIT TO DAKAR 
 
REF: STATE 039149 (NOTAL) 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
¶1.  (U) In meetings with the Senegalese government, civil society, 
NGOs and Catholic and Muslim religious leaders, Ambassador Grover 
Joseph Rees, Special Representative for Social Issues, discussed 
U.S. contributions to the fight against HIV/AIDS, the humanitarian 
crisis in Sudan, U.S. problems with the Maputo Plan of Action, and 
more effective multilateral engagement to better assist society's 
most vulnerable.  He urged Senegal to lead in condemning human 
rights abuses in Sudan and Zimbabwe and in opposing the Maputo Plan 
of Action.  END SUMMARY. 
 
THE FOREIGN MINISTRY 
-------------------- 
¶2.  (SBU) Ambassador Rees met with Mame Baba Cisse, who has just 
become Director of the Foreign Affairs Ministry's Department for 
International Organizations after a stint at the U.N. in New York. 
Rees outlined the objectives that brought him to Africa, including 
President Bush's wish to bring down infant morality rates, enhance 
the efficacy of organizations such as UNICEF to which the U.S. 
contributes heavily, combat violence against women and especially 
rape, encourage African justice systems to be sensitive to the needs 
of the vulnerable, expand development to the economically marginal, 
and bring down the percentage of international organizations' 
budgets that goes for conferences and consultancy fees so that more 
donor funding can go directly to those in need. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) Ambassador Rees raised key African issues: 
 
-- He emphasized the deplorable humanitarian situation in Darfur and 
urged Senegal to lead in persuading the U.N. Human Rights Council 
(UNHRC) to take a strong stand in response to Khartoum's refusal to 
allow an UNHRC inspection team into Darfur.  While recognizing that 
African Union (AU) and Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) 
states usually take a common position, he appealed to Senegal's 
sense of constructive diplomacy to break free from the mold and take 
a stand against a brutal regime.  A "no action motion," he 
emphasized, is the exact opposite of what the U.S. sought on this 
issue. 
 
-- On Zimbabwe, Ambassador Rees condemned attacks on members of the 
country's opposition party and pushed Senegal to lead the UN Human 
Rights Council to speak out more forcefully against Mugabe's rights 
abuses. 
 
-- Ambassador Rees voiced U.S. concerns that the Maputo Plan of 
Action requires countries to integrate all HIV/AIDS programs with 
family planning/reproductive health programs, an integration that 
would likely divert badly needed HIV/AIDS fund to family planning, 
and also seemed designed to require African countries to make 
abortion more widely available.  He reminded Cisse that the Plan 
contained indicators with which national health plans would be 
expected to comply if the Plan of Action were adopted. 
 
MINISTRY OF HEALTH 
------------------ 
¶4.  (SBU) On March 15, Ambassador Rees met at the Ministry of Health 
with Secretary General Moussa MBaye; Technical Advisor for 
Reproductive Health Dr. Aboubacry Sy (who had attended the Maputo 
Conference); AIDS Division Chief Dr. Abdoulaye Wade; and MBaye Sene, 
the Ministry's focal point for mutual health organizations.  The 
thrust of Ambassador Rees' message was U.S. concerns about the 
Maputo Plan of Action, and U.S. expectations about the role and 
effectiveness of multilateral organizations working in health.  He 
explained that the Maputo Plan of Action contained six indicators 
that would effectively include abortion services as a mandatory 
component of reproductive health; an inclusion that the U.S. 
believes is inconsistent with the international consensus on 
reproductive health. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Health Ministry officials made clear Senegal has no plans 
to legalize abortion.  They affirmed that, as Senegal prepares for 
the upcoming Johannesburg conference of African Union Ministers of 
Health, they will consider very carefully all details, indicators 
and exact language in the document.  They did not promise that 
Senegal would  not agree to the document, but they indicated strong 
agreement with U.S. concerns.  In terms of HIV/AIDS and family 
planning, there was a sense that integration should be encouraged 
where it works and makes sense, but that governments should not be 
forced to integrate in cases where it might dilute or divert funds 
from one focus to another. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) During a 30-minute meeting with Minister of Health Abdou 
Fall on March 21, Ambassador Rees stressed that the Maputo Plan of 
action was not a consensus document, could create "an abortion 
industry in waiting," implied that many African countries need to 
change their legislative frameworks as related to abortion, and 
required the integration of HIV/AIDS with family planning programs, 
 
DAKAR 00000705  002 OF 003 
 
 
which is not always a good idea.  The Minister responded that these 
are major health issues, especially in a country like Senegal, where 
the U.S. is a major strategic partner.  Fall noted national 
differences, highlighting that different African countries have very 
different HIV/AIDS infection rates and that abortion is a bigger 
issue in countries where rape has been used as an instrument of war. 
 Fall said the GOS believed that abortion should only be legal in 
extreme cases.  Citing legislation outlawing female genital 
mutilation, Fall said that laws should either encourage change or 
aid societies in adapting to change. 
 
A WOMAN'S VIEW OF SENEGALESE ISLAM 
---------------------------------- 
¶7.  (SBU) Ambassador Rees had coffee with Penda MBow, former 
Georgetown researcher and lecturer at Michigan, who has just been 
hired to teach at Columbia.  MBow runs a modestly funded but 
successful NGO (the "Citizen Movement"), is an expert on Islam and 
especially on the Sufi Tidjane Brotherhood, and is outspokenly 
critical of what she sees as Islam's shortcomings in providing 
social protections. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) MBow said she had been chastised and, in the early 1990's, 
beaten for her demands that Senegalese Islam reflect women's needs 
and contributions to society and Islam.  Sufi Islam is tolerant and 
flexible, but its openness has not extended to women.  Moreover, 
Senegal's marabouts and other religious leaders have resisted her 
calls for more attention to women's legal rights.  As a target of 
religious conservatives, she knew she had to live a life of 
exemplary rectitude, and therefore "controlled" her lifestyle. 
Fortunately, she said, her work was paying dividends:  Marabouts who 
censured her a decade ago now recognize the benefits of her social 
activism. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Both agreed international organizations must be made even 
more efficient in lowering infant mortality and protecting rights of 
women and children.  Islam shares with other major religions an 
emphasis on welfare of the neediest, but Senegalese Islam could do 
more. 
 
SENEGAL'S ISLAMIC INSTITUTE 
--------------------------- 
¶10.  (SBU) Ambassador Rees engaged Islamic Institute Director 
Ibrahime Badiane on the responsibility for the protection of 
society's vulnerable that is inherent in religious faith.  The 
Institute is financed in part by the Senegalese Government but is 
largely independent.  While Badiane told Ambassador Rees that he 
monitors mosque sermons and calls imams if he hears they have 
preached something disturbing, he has no authority to sanction or 
dictate sermon content. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Ambassador Rees and Badiane agreed that religious leaders 
share a responsibility for identifying and trying to rectify 
society's shortcomings.  High rates of infant mortality and violence 
against women, Badiane said, were simply unacceptable in a country 
like Senegal which, by African standards, had relatively high 
literacy rates, working communications systems, a commitment to 
democracy and, especially, a religious presence, mainly Muslim but 
also Christian, throughout the country. 
 
LUNCH WITH THE WORLD BANK AND UNICEF 
------------------------------------ 
¶12.  (SBU) Over lunch, UNICEF Resident Representative Ian Hopwood 
and Demba Balde, World Bank specialist in social development, 
described their priorities.  Ambassador Rees took advantage of this 
very amiable meeting to press for greater efficiency and results in 
the fight against infant and maternal mortality.  All agreed that 
Senegal and the rest of West Africa have a special responsibility to 
curb abuse of the tradition of sending very young religious students 
onto the streets to beg.  This had once been a valid religious 
practice, but now is often simply an avenue of exploitation in 
cities like Dakar.  Ambassador Rees urged with special emphasis U.S. 
support for UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman's efforts to raise 
UNICEF'sproductivity to a level commensurate with funding it 
receives from the U.S. and other major donors. 
 
THE ARCHBISHOP OF DAKAR 
----------------------- 
¶13.  (SBU) Archbishop of Dakar Adrien Sarr received Ambassador Rees 
at his home and seemed first surprised and then extremely pleased 
that President Bush and Secretary Rice had established the new 
diplomatic post for social affairs.  The Archbishop  indicated that 
marital fidelity and abstinence were not prominent enough in African 
anti-HIV/AIDS plans.  The Church, he said, had established what he 
estimated to be about four percent of Senegal's health facilities, 
roughly comparable to the Catholic percentage of the population. 
The Archbishop stressed that the Church is ready to work with the 
U.S. to lower infant and maternal mortality in a way that respects 
the right to life and maternal dignity. 
 
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION AND HEALTH RESEARCH 
 
DAKAR 00000705  003 OF 003 
 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
¶14.  (SBU) World Health Organization Country Representative Dr. 
Antonio Pedro Felipe gave a rundown of strategic and action plans 
for child health they intend to implement with the Senegalese 
Government.  Rees commented that such plans were worthwhile but not 
always fully implemented or fully successful in practice, Felipe's 
staff outlined how plans had been or would be carried out on the 
ground. 
 
¶15.  (U) In a brief morning coffee, Professor Souleymane MBoup, the 
researcher who identified the HIV2 virus and the head of the 
bacteriology virology laboratories at the university's Aristide Le 
Dantec teaching hospital, explained some reasons why Senegal's 
HIV/AIDS rate was low, including Islam's positive restraining 
influence. 
 
RADDHO 
------ 
¶16.  (SBU) Alioune Tine of the RADDHO human rights group had 
returned recently from Sudan, called the situation in Darfur 
genocide, and added that President Wade was the first African leader 
to call it that.  Tine said Wade was between a rock and hard place 
as he will be hosting the next Organization of the Islamic 
Conference (OIC) summit and most Arab states support Sudanese 
President Bashir.  Tine mused that some in the African Union resist 
U.S. efforts in Darfur to reflect their opposition to the U.S. 
presence in Iraq, adding that the African Union's "labor union 
mentality" and Libyan dominance are hindrances to real action on 
Darfur.  He asked the U.S. to intensify lobbying on Darfur among 
Africans in the U.N. Security Council. 
 
¶17.  (U) Ambassador Rees has cleared this cable. 
 
¶18.  (U) Visit Embassy Dakar's SIPRNET website at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/af/dakar. 
 
JACOBS