VZCZCXRO2158
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHCO #0561/01 2061138
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 251138Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY COTONOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9710
RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHPC/AMEMBASSY LOME 3860
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORP
RUCOWCA/COGARD MIO EUROPE ROTTERDAM NL
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUCOCGA/COMLANTAREA COGARD PORTSMOUTH VA
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1132

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 COTONOU 000561 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPRTMENT FOR AF/W (BANKS) AND AF/RSA 
LOME FOR DCM J.A. DIFFILY 
PARIS FOR D'ELIA 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EAID EINV ETRD EWWT PGOV KHLS PTER BN
SUBJECT: PORT OF COTONOU: UPDATE ON DEMARCHE CONCERNING ISPS CODE 
COMPLIANCE 
REF: COTONOU 389 
 
COTONOU 00000561  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. On July 24, 2007, United States Coast Guard 
(USCG)Lieutenant Commander Robert Keith, Charge d'Affaires J.A. 
Diffily, and Millennium Challenge Corporation Benin Acting Resident 
Country Director Randall Wood met with officials from the Port of 
Cotonou and the Beninese Merchant Marine to assess progress made 
pursuant to the International Ship and Port Security (ISPS) Code 
demarche delivered to the Government of Benin on May 21 (Reftel). 
That demarche outlined numerous deficiencies at the Port of Cotonou 
and gave the GOB ninety days to meet the minimum requirements of the 
ISPS Code and avoid inclusion on the Port Security Advisory List.  A 
tour of the port indicated that relatively little progress has been 
made, and that a great deal of work needs to be done if the August 
21 deadline specified in the demarche is to be met. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. Christophe Aguessy, General Director of the Port of Cotonou, was 
the principal GOB representative at the meeting.  Representatives of 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were also present.  The Minister of 
Transportation and Public Works, whose ministry is responsible for 
the port, sent his regrets. Mr. Aguessy opened the meeting by 
thanking the USG for its involvement in efforts to improve the Port 
of Cotonou and its willingness to provide feedback prior to the 
expiration of the 90-day period specified in the demarche.  He 
distributed a timeline chart showing progress (or lack thereof) for 
each activity intended to ensure compliance with the ISPS code. 
According to the timeline, few of the activities will be completed 
before August 21, and even the purchase of and installation of signs 
noting demarcated zones, perhaps the simplest and least difficult of 
the required tasks, showed an expected completion date of September 
30, 2007.  Several other activities, including the extension of the 
south perimeter wall, the heightening of several perimeter walls, 
and improved lighted, are scheduled for completion as late as 
September or October.  To cite a particularly worrisome example, the 
heightening of the south perimeter wall has not yet begun, and even 
the process of engaging a construction company to heighten the wall 
is not scheduled to begin until the last week of July, and the 
procurement process alone is scheduled to extend well past the 
August 21 deadline. 
 
¶3. Lieutenant Commander Keith thanked Mr. Aguessy for his 
presentation and efforts made to date, but noted that the Port of 
Cotonou is still far from being in compliance with ISPS code with 
only four weeks remaining before the deadline.  He further noted 
that certification would be based on performance, not plans or good 
intentions.  He pointed out that many of the ISPS specifications do 
not require lengthy procurement processes, such as posting guards at 
perimeter areas where the wall has not yet been extended, and 
initiating a publicity campaign to inform the public of security 
requirements that will limit public access to port facilities.  He 
also questioned why so little progress had been made since September 
2006, when the United States Coast Guard made its initial assessment 
of the Port of Cotonou, and why the GOB had apparently waited until 
the delivery of the formal demarche, and its 90-day deadline, before 
beginning to implement improvements. 
 
¶4. Lieutenant Commander Keith then reiterated the likely 
consequences of the Port of Cotonou not meeting ISPS code by August 
¶21.  These would include the Port of Cotonou being placed on the 
Port Security Advisory List, which would place additional 
requirements on ships wishing to dock at Cotonou, as well as leading 
to possible increased insurance costs and a potential decline in 
ship traffic and revenue.  He ended by expressing his hope that the 
GOB and USG could work together to insure that ISPS requirements are 
met by the deadline, and cited some positive accomplishments, such 
as identification badges being provided for many key staff members, 
additional gendarmes to help patrol the port facility, and the 
division of the port into five different zones, which have been 
demarcated on the ground using concrete monuments and painted 
lines. 
 
¶5. After the meeting, Port of Cotonou staff accompanied the USG 
personnel on a long tour of the port, designed to showcase the 
progress that had been made.  The staff pointed out several new 
concrete perimeter walls which had been built, such as one next to 
the eastern jetty where the dry bulk carriers dock, and the USG 
personnel observed a three-person work crew in place along the south 
perimeter, mixing concrete to begin construction of a wall there. 
 
¶6. (SBU) However, many of the same deficiencies noted in the U.S. 
Coast Guard's previous inspection remain, and it was evident that 
 
COTONOU 00000561  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
several measures had been enacted purely for the benefit of the USG 
visitors.  For example, the three-person work crew had obviously 
started working only hours before, and were still clearing 
vegetation from the site with hand tools.  While the port's 
different zones were demarcated, no effort was being made to prevent 
entry to any of the zones, and the concrete monuments were all but 
invisible unless you knew where to look for them.   Hundreds of 
unidentifiable persons milled around the port, filling up water jugs 
from the port's basin, and sleeping or eating under vehicles.  No 
visible efforts were being made to identify or control these 
persons, and at one point security personnel did not challenge a 
person who entered the port from the beach wearing a jacket over his 
head.  Few of the people within the port facilities had badges or 
any clearly identifiable need to be in the port area.  Drying 
laundry around the port perimeter and cooking fires suggest that 
many of these unauthorized persons have spent long periods of time 
within the port facility.  At least fifty trucks were parked in the 
southwest area of the port facility, with their drivers and crews 
playing cards in the shade, sleeping, or making tea on charcoal 
fires.  Several motorcycles loaded with jugs of gasoline or water, 
presumably for sale within the port, entered without being 
challenged. 
 
¶7. (SBU) At the front gate, the USG team witnessed port security 
staff turning away people who had no badges, but it was immediately 
clear by the growing backlog of people, their confusion about why 
they were being turned away, and the large volume of people exiting 
the port facility, that this sudden enforcement of port policy had 
been staged for the USG's benefit.  An embassy staff member who was 
traveling on the road next to the port at that time confirmed that 
the suddenly strict access controls caused a major traffic jam of 
trucks and other vehicles on the road. 
 
¶8. (SBU) Ms. Rahanatou Anki Dosso, Director of the Merchant Marine, 
offered many excuses for the current state of the port facilities 
and repeatedly promised that the port would meet the August 21 
deadline for ISPS compliance, but it soon became evident that she 
had no clear idea of what ISPS compliance entailed.  When questioned 
about several problems at the port, she replied that the situation 
either posed no problem, or that it was not the responsibility of 
her office.  For example, when questioned about a barbed wire fence 
that had fallen into disrepair, she replied that she did not think 
that this mattered in terms of ISPS compliance, and considered it 
normal for fences to rust and deteriorate.  Earlier, Mr. Aguessy had 
stated that it was pointless to string barbed wire, because "people 
will just cut it."  He had no response when asked why his security 
people could not prevent this from happening. 
 
¶9. (SBU) COMMENT: The lack of progress toward ISPS compliance is 
worrisome, especially considering the importance of the Port of 
Cotonou to the economy of Benin.  Also troubling is the fact that in 
many cases correcting the noted deficiencies would not require large 
capital investments and is often more a matter of willpower and 
determination than money.  During the July 24 meeting, and in a 
subsequent follow-up meeting on July 25 with General Director 
Aguessy and other GOB officials, Lieutenant Commander Keith and 
Embassy officers stressed the seriousness of ISPS compliance and the 
urgency with which the GOB must address the shortcomings outlined in 
the demarche of May 21.  They also emphasized that it is concrete 
results which will count, not good intentions or honest efforts. END 
COMMENT. 
Lauterbach