VZCZCXRO9759
PP RUEHMA RUEHPA
DE RUEHDK #1442 3531526
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181526Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY DAKAR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1591
INFO RUEHZK/ECOWAS COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS DAKAR 001442 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/W 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL SG MR
SUBJECT: SENEGAL: Gadio Visits Mauritania 
 
On December 15 Senegalese Foreign Minister Cheikh Tidjane Gadio led 
a diplomatic mission to Mauritania for talks with military junta 
chief, General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, and ousted President Sidi 
Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.   According to the National Front for 
the Defense of Democracy (FNDD), a national alliance of parties 
which favor the return of President Abdallahi to power, the subject 
of the meeting between Gadio and the deposed president, which took 
place at Abdallahi's home some 250 kilometers east of the capital 
Nouakchott, was the friendly bilateral relations between the two 
countries.  Local press is reporting that Gadio was dispatched to 
Mauritania at the behest of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to 
obtain information about the country's state of affairs.  It is 
further being reported that since the return of Gadio to Senegal the 
military junta has announced that it will release President 
Abdallahi from house arrest on December 24. 
BERNICAT