VZCZCXRO4706
RR RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHBP #0835/01 2910545
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 170545Z OCT 08 ZDS
FM AMEMBASSY BAMAKO
TO RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9697
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 BAMAKO 000835 
 
C O R R E C T E D  C O P Y - (CORECT FORMATTING) 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL SOCI TBIO KHIV ML
SUBJECT: HHS SECRETARY LEAVITT'S VISIT TO MALI 
 
REF: A. BAMAKO 40 
     ¶B. BAMAKO 735 
 
BAMAKO 00000835  001.2 OF 005 
 
 
1.(U)  Summary.  U.S. Secretary of Health and Human 
Services (HHS) Michael O. Leavitt's August 13 to 16, 2008 
visit to Mali reinforced the United States' strong support 
for the health sector in this country and, in particular, 
for malaria eradication and research. Visiting several 
sites throughout Mali, the Secretary observed and 
participated in PMI activities designed to reduce malarial 
deaths in Mali by fifty percent under President Bush's 
Malaria Initiative (PMI).  In meetings with Malian 
President Amadou Toumani Toure, Minister of Health Oumar 
Ibrahima Toure, local officials, researchers and 
practitioners, the Secretary heard first-hand how PMI 
malaria- eradication efforts are affecting Malians at all 
levels.  He also received thanks from the Malian government 
and community officials and for the U.S. Government's 
commitment to malarial research and eradication.  In a very 
moving ceremony on August 14, at the Embassy in Bamako, 
Secretary Leavitt presented a Jefferson Star to the husband 
and children of Kellie Lartigue, who died in Mali in 
December 2007 while serving as the in-country Director for 
the HHS Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 
 
2.(U)  Summary continued. Joining the Secretary in Mali 
were the President's Malaria Coordinator, Rear Admiral R. 
Timothy Ziemer (U.S. Navy, ret.); Director of the HHS 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Julie 
Gerberding; Special Assistant to the Secretary for 
International Affairs at HHS, William Steiger; HHS 
Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation Benjamin 
Sasse; Deputy HHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, 
Holly Babin; the Director for Africa in the HHS Office of 
Global Health Affairs, Dr. Samuel Adeniyi-Jones; and 
Counselor to Secretary Leavitt, Richard Campanelli.  The 
Regional Director for Africa of the World Health 
Organization, Dr. Luis Gomes Sambo, also joined the 
Secretary for most of his visit.  End Summary. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Meeting with the Minister of Health 
----------------------------------- 
 
3.(SBU)  The Secretary officially began his visit on 
Friday, August 15, by meeting with his Malian counterpart, 
Minister of Health Oumar Ibrahima Toure.  During this 
meeting, the Minister told the Secretary about several new 
initiatives in Mali.  He mentioned the development of a 
telemedicine network to connect medical centers throughout 
Mali, for which the Government of Mali is seeking support. 
The Minister also discussed an initiative to increase 
reproductive health care, including voluntary family 
planning and maternal, prenatal and postnatal care. 
(Comment: It remains to be seen how more traditional 
elements of Malian society will greet this initiative. 
Recent attempts to repeal the death penalty and change 
family law to provide stronger protection for women failed 
after protests led by religious leaders. End comment.)  In 
 
BAMAKO 00000835  002.2 OF 005 
 
 
addition to thanking the Minister for the cooperation in 
vaccination and malaria initiatives, the Secretary shared 
with the Minister that Malian Dr. Michel Sidibe would be 
an excellent candidate for Executive Director of the Joint 
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), but that 
it would behoove African nations to agree on a single 
candidate to put forward.  The Secretary and the Minister 
discussed the renewal of the Memorandum of Understanding 
(MOU) between HHS and the University of Mali School of 
Medicine and Pharmacy for the Center of Excellence in 
Malaria Research.  HHS has transmitted a draft of the 
text to the Malian government in both English and French 
and is awaiting feedback. Although the Minister of Higher 
Education has jurisdiction over the University (and would 
be the signatory on the MOU), Minister Toure offered to help 
gain the necessary clearances with the Malian Government. 
(Note:  HHS has proposed doing the signing through a 
Digital Video Conference later this Fall.  End note.) 
 
-------------------------------- 
Commemorating a Fallen Colleague 
-------------------------------- 
 
4.(U)  HHS/CDC Director Dr. Gerberding and Minister Toure 
joined the Secretary in presenting the Jefferson Star for 
Foreign Service to the family of HHS/CDC employee Kellie 
Lartigue, who died in an automobile accident in Mali 
on December 21, 2007. Secretary Leavitt praised Kellie's 
devotion to combating the spread of HIV in Africa (Ref. A). 
During a private meeting with the Lartigue family, the 
Secretary reiterated his profound respect for the passion 
Kellie brought to her work in saving lives in Africa. 
 
---------------------- 
Anti-Malarial Spraying 
---------------------- 
 
5.(U)  The Secretary and his party traveled to Koulikoro, 
45 miles from Bamako, to take part in a mosquito 
eradication project under the PMI.  After touring 
a warehouse stocked with equipment supplied by the U.S. 
Government for pesticide spraying inside homes, the 
Secretary, along with Minister Toure, Admiral Ziemer, Dr. 
Gerberding and Dr. Sambo donned protective gear to help 
spray the interior of a local residence.  In talking to the 
press after the spraying, Secretary Leavitt expressed his 
gratitude for the levels of cooperation the spraying 
project has received from Malian partners and the public. 
Admiral Ziemer observed that Mali's interior spraying 
program is among the best-developed and executed he has 
seen. 
 
----------------------------------- 
Hearing from Peace Corps Volunteers 
----------------------------------- 
 
6.(U)  The Secretary and his delegation met over lunch 
with four Peace Corps volunteers who are working on health 
and small-enterprise development projects in Mali.  The 
Secretary heard specifically about malnutrition and malaria 
problems the volunteers deal with on a daily basis. The 
volunteers also spoke to the Secretary about challenges 
 
BAMAKO 00000835  003.2 OF 005 
 
 
they faced at the community level when trying to improve 
health care among largely illiterate, poverty-stricken 
populations. 
 
--------------------------- 
HHS Funded Research on View 
--------------------------- 
 
7.(U)  The Secretary and his delegation, again accompanied 
by the Minister of Health, called on the research 
laboratories at the University of Mali School of Medicine 
and Pharmacy, funded by the HHS National Institutes of 
Health (NIH).  Included were the HIV/Tuberculosis lab, 
a parisitology lab and the mosquito-breeding room. The 
Secretary expressed pleasant surprise at the depth and 
sophistication of anti-malarial and other research 
activity underway at the school.  Upon seeing a Level-3 
bio-containment lab, funded by HHS, members of the 
Secretary's group expressed pride the United States had 
helped make such a facility available to researchers in 
Western Africa. 
 
8.(U)  The Secretary then addressed a group of Malian 
researchers, professors and students.  After promising 
to work for continued U.S. support for the malaria and 
HIV/AIDS initiatives in Africa, and thanking the students 
and researchers for their work, the Secretary heard from 
several faculty who expressed their desires for funding 
from the United States (and the Malian Government) in other 
areas of public health, including potable water and mental 
health. The Secretary then fielded questions from students 
on several topics. One of the students asked about funding 
for malaria-related basic research, as opposed to the 
applied focus of PMI.  Admiral Ziemer responded that other 
organizations supported basic research, mentioning 
specifically the Gates Foundation, and that PMI would 
continue to carry out projects aimed at real-time 
reductions in infections and deaths from malaria in the 
field. 
 
-------- 
Timbuktu 
-------- 
 
9.(U)  On Saturday, August 16, 2008, the Secretary, 
Minister Toure, Dr. Sambo and the HHS delegation flew to 
Timbuktu. After meeting with local officials, the 
delegation toured a new health center, and then met with 
civic leaders from the area.  After reiterating the support 
of the United States for health activities in Mali, the 
Secretary heard from different non-governmental 
organizations on their efforts in the northern part of 
the country.  In responding to questions, the Secretary 
stated that he would push for continued funding of 
malaria-eradication projects under the PMI, stressed the 
importance of HIV testing, and promised to look into the 
possibility of potable-water projects in the region. 
(Comment:  Local women were particularly vocal in their 
advocacy for help to improve their communities, especially 
regarding water.  End comment.) 
 
10.(U)  The Secretary also met with members of a U.S. 
Special Forces detachment that spent two months in northern 
 
BAMAKO 00000835  004.2 OF 005 
 
 
Mali to provide medical and veterinary care in remote areas 
in the desert.  The team briefed the Secretary on their 
activities in healing camels and families, and spoke of 
helping to bring the Malian Government and basic health 
care to places that had not seen either in some time. 
Members of the Secretary,s delegation, coincidentally, 
discovered in conversations with the Director of the 
Provincial Hospital in Timbuktu, that teams of Cuban 
health workers are stationed at that hospital and two 
locations in the desert, on two-year assignments, embedded 
in the communities. 
 
11.(U) The Secretary's party then paid a courtesy call 
on Abderrahmane ben Essayouti, the Grand Imam of Timbuktu. 
When asked by the Secretary what was his main concern for 
his followers, the Imam answered that peace and security 
were the most important.  The Imam added that this includes 
health, and that he frequently includes messages on 
HIV/AIDS, malaria and other health concerns when preaching 
to his flock.  The Imam then personally guided the 
delegation through his partially U.S. funded library of 
ancient Islamic manuscripts, some dating from the eleventh 
century, and then provided a tour of the fourteenth-century 
mud-walled, sand-floored Djingareyber Mosque next door. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Very Personal Insights from the President 
----------------------------------------- 
 
12.(SBU) The Secretary, together with the Charge, Dr. 
Adeniyi-Jones and Mr. Steiger, met with the Honorable 
Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT), President of Mali, 
on the evening of August 16, 2008.  The President's 
comments regarding the August 6 coup d'etat in neighboring 
Mauritania are reported in Ref. B.  After discussing 
their mutual respect for the Malian-USA relationship and 
intention to continue and expand cooperation, Secretary 
Leavitt informed ATT of our support for Mali's candidate 
Dr. Sidibe for the UNAIDS Executive Director position. 
He also asked ATT about his role in the military overthrow 
of Mali's former dictator, Moussa Traore, in 1991. 
Secretary Leavitt asked ATT why he did what he did, what he 
told his family, and how, after taking power, was ATT able 
to step away from the Presidency, unlike so many others 
who overthrow Governments.  ATT responded he felt obliged 
to take action when it became clear the Moussa Traore 
regime did not understand the people's desire for democracy. 
ATT said he made his final decision to oust Traore when 
the military began killing citizens, including women and 
children. As for his family, ATT said he gathered his 
military gear, and told his wife that he simply needed to 
go to his office because of the troubles.  The next morning, 
he called his wife to inform her he was Head of State.  He 
also said he and the others involved in the coup had 
accomplished what they wanted, the removal of the dictatorship, 
and that once a stable Government had been set up and elected, 
 
BAMAKO 00000835  005.2 OF 005 
 
 
it was time for them to retire from the spotlight and 
let democracy work its course.  The Secretary wondered if 
ATT intended to write a book, since his life held lessons for 
many, not just in Africa but throughout the world. ATT 
said he was planning on doing just that when his second and 
final presidential term ends, in 2012. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
13.(SBU)  The visit by Secretary Leavitt demonstrably 
reinforced the priority the United States places on its 
relationship with Mali, particularly when it comes to 
health and development. Well-covered in the press, the 
range of activities by the Secretary underlined how these 
activities touch all Malians.  The Secretary also left 
with a clear understanding the Malians are serious when it 
comes to improving their health care, whether it be through 
clinics in isolated areas, anti-mosquito campaigns, 
or conducting world-class research.  The Secretary also saw 
his perceptions reinforced that health-diplomacy efforts 
undertaken by U.S. military units are a powerful tool for 
pursuing national-security, political and humanitarian 
goals.  The presence of Cubans in the Malian desert also 
underscores the importance some nations, which do not share 
our values, place on medical missions as a means to gain 
goodwill and curry political favor, with the potential to 
undermine our own effort.  The Secretary intends to 
advocate for more deployments like the one he saw in 
Timbuktu.  End comment. 
 
¶14. (U) Secretary Leavitt's party cleared this cable. 
 
LEONARD