VZCZCXRO7418
RR RUEHPA
DE RUEHOU #0268/01 1001159
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 091159Z APR 08
FM AMEMBASSY OUAGADOUGOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3527
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE WASHINGTON DC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 OUAGADOUGOU 000268 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
AF/W FOR EPLUMB, JHUTCHISON 
 
E.O. 12958: DECLASSIFY ON 04/09/2028 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR EAGR UV
SUBJECT: Burkina Faso: French DCM on Compaore's 
Health, Sexual Peccadilloes; Fired Ag Minister's 
Arms Trafficking in Sudan 
 
REF: (A) TD-314/015048-08; B) OUAGADOUGOU 237 
 
OUAGADOUGO 00000268  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Classified by Amb. J Jackson for reason 1.4 (b)(d) 
 
¶1. (S) Key Points: 
 
The French DCM told us April 8 that: 
 
-- Burkina Faso President Compaore was recently 
operated on for cataracts in Paris. 
 
-- Compaore is probably in good health, but may 
have contracted HIV/AIDS after years of sexual 
promiscuity. 
 
-- Compaore has better relations with Sudan 
President Al-Bashir than with Chadian President Deby. 
 
-- One reason Compaore recently fired his 
long-time confidante Salif Diallo is because 
of Diallo's arms trafficking to Sudan via an 
aircraft whose markings linked it to Burkina Faso. 
 
While the DCM's comments about Compaore and Diallo 
are speculative, we report them because of the 
importance of the subjects, and the Brun's excellent 
position as a foreign observer of the Burkinabe 
political scene. 
 
Key Judgment: 
 
-- While we find the assertions of Diallo's 
arms trafficking credible (ref a), we doubt that 
Compaore condoned Diallo's actions.  On the 
contrary, Diallo's trafficking, or at least the 
fact that foreign governments learned of it, could 
very well have been one of the last straws behind 
Compaore's decision to remove Diallo, one of two 
closest men in his inner circle. 
 
¶2. (C) Embassy recently reported on rumors 
surrounding the health of President Blaise Compaore, 
and the recent dismissal of his Agriculture Minister 
Salif Diallo (ref b).  DCM recently called on French 
DCM Xavier Brun April 8 to discuss a variety of 
issues, including Cote d'Ivoire, and April 8-9 
general strikes in Burkina Faso over the rising 
cost of living (septels). 
 
¶3. (S) Ref b reported that observers had noted that 
Compaore had become much thinner over the last two 
years, and speculated that he had fallen ill, 
perhaps with prostate cancer.  When DCM inquired 
about this and reports that Compaore had received 
medical treatment during two recent visits to Paris 
(one to meet with French President Sarkozy, and the 
second a few days later), Brun stated that Compaore 
visited the Val-de-Grace military hospital in Paris 
for consultations about cataracts during his first 
stay, and had a successful operation for their removal 
on the second visit.  Brun added that he had no 
knowledge that Compaore had cancer or any other 
serious health problem. 
 
¶4. (S) Brun passed on, however, speculation that 
both Compaore and Diallo were HIV positive, which 
Brun found believable because of their reputed 
sexual promiscuity, particularly of Compaore. 
(Note: Ref b also reported on Diallo's ill health, 
attributed to a heart attack.  End note.)  Brun 
added that, while Compaore and his wife Chantal 
had had two children early in their marriage, one 
of whom died, their marriage, had de facto ended 
years ago.  Brun said that Compaore's wife had 
cheated on him, which enraged the President, who 
beat his wife so badly that she was hospitalized 
for 15 days.  Since then, Brun said, Chantal has 
lived apart from her husband at a home next to 
the Prime Minister's residence in central Ouagadougou, 
and that Chantal and Compaore had maintained a 
"protocol marriage" for reasons of the President's 
image. 
 
¶5. (S) Brun stated that Compaore had a reputation 
as a sexual "gourmand" whose appetite was so strong 
that he had previously had "Rasputin-like" escapades 
with the wife of at least one of his cabinet ministers. 
 
OUAGADOUGO 00000268  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
He said that Compaore's behavior was reflective of 
his "monarchical" attitude whereby a man in power 
believed that he could enjoy the "droit de cuissage" 
(right)  to have sexual relations with any woman whom 
he chose (somewhat analogous to the right of some 
African chiefs to link up with any woman in the 
village that they desired). 
 
¶6. (C) When DCM inquired about Brun's assessment 
of recent events in Chad, Brun stated that Compaore's 
relations with Chadian President Idris Deby were 
not warm and that (for reasons that Brun did not 
state), Compaore thought that Deby had been 
"ungrateful" toward Burkina Faso.  Brun further 
asserted that Compaore had better relations with 
Sudan President Umar Hassan Al-Bashir, and cited 
Burkina Faso's votes in the UN to defend positions 
favorable to Sudan as evidence of positive 
Compaore-Bashir relations. 
 
¶7. (S) In the context of discussing Chad, Brun 
stated that one reason Diallo had been fired 
from Compaore's government in part because Diallo's 
trafficking of arms to Sudan.   Diallo had 
previously been active in arms trafficking in 
Liberia and Sierra Leone, he stated, and had been 
making money trafficking arms via what he described 
once as "Burkina Airlines" and the second time as 
"Faso Airlines."   When DCM inquired whether Diallo 
had acted with or without Compaore's knowledge, Brun 
felt that there it would have been hard for Diallo 
to have engaged in arms trafficking deals without 
Compaore knowledge.  (Comment: Brun provided no 
details about how the trafficking was carried out, 
or the origin of the arms.  See ref B on a Burkina 
Faso registered aircraft marked "Faso Airways" 
involved in arms trafficking in Sudan.) 
 
Jackson