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O 111649Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1684
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 2623
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 1452

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 000072 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/11/2018 
TAGS: PREL MOPS MARR EUN PINS CD CT FR
SUBJECT: CHAD/C.A.R. PKO:  FRANCE TO PROVIDE MISSING 
ELEMENTS 
 
REF: 07 PARIS 4661 
 
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, 1.4 (b/d 
). 
 
¶1.  (C)  SUMMARY:  France will provide helicopters and 
additional troops, heretofore lacking, that will enable the 
EU-led peacekeeping mission to deploy to Chad and the Central 
African Republic (C.A.R.), MFA DAS-equivalent Christine Fages 
informed us on January 10.  She said the EU would discuss 
force-generation issues in Brussels on January 11 and that 
she expected EU partners would be satisfied with the 
arrangements and agree to field the mission.  She said that 
force commander General Nash's approval would follow, with an 
operations plan to be presented on January 18.  The force 
could begin deploying at the beginning of February.  Fages 
also noted French relief that the "Arche de Zoe" child 
smugglers had been returned to France from Chad but that the 
case would likely continue to irritate bilateral relations. 
SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (C)  MFA DAS-equivalent for West Africa Christine Fages 
on January 10 confirmed press reports indicating that France 
would provide helicopters and additional troops in order to 
allow the EU to deploy its peacekeeping mission to Chad and 
the C.A.R.  The operation had been in limbo for several 
months during which France tried, in vain, to secure 
commitments from EU partners (and non-EU states as well), 
mainly in the area of air transportation, medical support 
facilities, and additional troops.  (See reftel for further 
details.)  Fages said that, despite intense lobbying, no 
further commitments seemed likely and that French President 
Sarkozy decided to increase France's contribution so that the 
operation could go forward. 
 
¶3.  (C)  Fages said that final numbers had not been 
determined but that France's contribution would consist of 
"about a dozen" transport helicopters and "several hundred" 
more troops.  (The press has reported a troop contribution 
ranging from 500 to 800.)  She said that France might also 
provide a small number of fixed-wing aircraft, and she 
indicated that press reports that Italy would provide a field 
hospital were correct.  Fages said she was hesitant to give 
precise details before France formally presented its case at 
the January 11 EU force generation meeting in Brussels. 
 
¶4.  (C)  Fages said, however, that she expected that European 
partners would, based on France's additional contributions, 
agree to deploy the operation.  She said that Irish General 
Nash, commanding the force, would give his assent and that he 
would present an operations plan to the EU on January 18. 
Deployment could start at the beginning of February. 
 
¶5.  (C)  Fages noted that the force would be more "French" 
than the GOF would have liked but she stressed that it was 
still a "European" operation, with some 21 European countries 
participating.  Most importantly, the French would comprise 
only one of the three highly visible combat battalions (the 
other two being Irish and Polish).  When asked if the GOF 
resented the lack of support from its EU partners, Fages took 
the high road and said that France was well aware of the 
resource constraints facing all member states, some of whom 
were engaged in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, and that 
transport helicopters were in very short supply worldwide. 
She refused to criticize, in particular, the UK and Germany, 
both of which the French had lobbied intensely but without 
success.  "They are the biggest, so naturally we asked them, 
but we understand their limitations." 
 
¶6.  (C)  Under the gun for some months, Fages was visibly 
relieved that the operation was back on track.  She said that 
it was equally important to get UNAMID up and running so that 
balance would prevail along all sides of the 
Sudan-Chad-C.A.R. borders. 
 
Arche de Zoe 
------------ 
¶7.  (C)  Fages was also quite relieved that the six French 
citizens convicted in Chad of having tried to smuggle over 
100 children to France had been repatriated.  She noted the 
legal problems they now face for having allegedly violated 
French law in trying to bring the children to France.  "But 
that's the Justice Ministry's problem," she said.  Fages 
commented that the sentences they received in Chad seemed 
unfair -- some, like leader Eric Breteau, deserved harsher 
 
PARIS 00000072  002 OF 002 
 
 
sentences than did some of the others, who were "mere 
followers."  The French courts did have some leeway in how 
the Chadian sentences would be executed in France and Fages 
expected the six to benefit from French provisions for 
time-off-for-good-behavior that might not exist in Chad. 
 
¶8.  (C)  Fages said that the case would continue to be an 
irritant bilaterally.  The GOF had already announced that it 
would not, on behalf of the six, pay the substantial fine the 
Chadian courts had imposed, on the grounds that the six were 
personally liable and that the French state was not.  "You 
can be sure the Chadians will make noise about this, 
particularly since the six have no resources," she said. 
Although the case would continue to raise problems, Fages 
said that "these would be nothing compared to what we would 
face if they remained in Chad."  She also noted that the 
Arche de Zoe case now had far less potential to block or 
derail the EU PKO for Chad and C.A.R., France's immediate 
priority for the region. 
 
 
 
 
 
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm 
 
 
PEKALA