VZCZCXRO3200
PP RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHLC #0564/01 3361541
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 011541Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY LIBREVILLE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0757
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0395
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0968

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 LIBREVILLE 000564 
 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/C PLEASE ALSO PASS EMBASSY BANGUI AND EMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE 
LONDON AND PARIS PLEASE PASS TO AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/01/2018 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM AO BY CM CT CD CG CF EK GB
TP 
SUBJECT: GABON:  FRENCH GENERAL DESCRIBES STRENGTHS, 
WEAKNESSES OF ECCAS/CEEAC SECURITY INITIATIVES 
 
REF: LIBREVILLE 0420 
 
Classified By: DCM Nate Holt for reasons 1.4(b) and (d). 
 
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Summary 
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¶1.  (C) The senior French military officer in Central Africa 
provided visiting AF/C Deputy Director Siria Lopez with a 
tour d'horizon of French military perspectives on activities 
of the Economic Community of Central Africa States 
(ECCAS/CEEAC), including ECCAS's 700-person peacekeeping 
operation in the Central African Republic (CAR), its ongoing 
efforts to create an AU-sanctioned standby peacekeeping 
brigade, and the possible deployment of military observers to 
the Chad/Sudan border.  In their October 28 meeting, General 
Claude Reglat stressed that while ECCAS/CEEAC is recovering 
from a long period of dormancy and will require significant 
external support for the foreseeable future, it is 
nevertheless in some ways ahead of other African regional 
organizations in developing a peace and security 
infrastructure.  In any case, Reglat emphasized, ongoing 
eacekeeping operations in CAR provide ECCAS/CEEAC ith 
invaluable real-word experience in coordinatng a 
multi-national Africa diplomatic and militay response to a 
regional crisis.  End Summary. 
 
------------------ 
Tough Neighborhood, 
Feeble Leadership 
------------------ 
 
¶2.  (C) Reglat said he is "very concerned with the situation 
in Eastern Congo and the possible consequences in Kinshasa." 
One consequence of the deteriorating situation is that DRC 
President Joseph Kabila, who is acting president of 
ECCAS/CEEAC, is "being pulled in many different directions." 
As a consequence, "there is no real leader" of ECCAS/CEEAC at 
present.  Gabon's Bongo has "played the main role" in 
ECCAS/CEEAC peace and security efforts to date but now wants 
to step back.  There are no obvious candidates among the 
other heads of state to succeed Bongo in this role, Reglat 
said.  He therefore hopes Bongo will continue as a de facto 
leader, or at least coordinator, of ECCAS/CEEAC peace and 
security efforts.  Reglat is the commander of the French 
Forces in Gabon, with responsibility for all ten ECCAS/CEEAC 
countries (Angola, Burundi, CAR, Cameroon, Chad, 
Congo-Brazzaville, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sao Tome 
and Principe). 
 
----------------------------------- 
Peacekeeping in CAR:  FOMUC/MICOPAX 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (C) The centerpiece of ECCAS/CEEAC security efforts is 
the FOMAC/MICOPAX peacekeeping operation in the Central 
African Republic (CAR), Reglat continued.  ECCAS/CEEAC 
assumed responsibility for the operation in July, replacing a 
long-serving Gabonese commander with Congolese Vice-Admiral 
Hilaire Mokoko.  The military component of FOMAC/MICOPAX 
consists of four company-sized units of approximately 105 
persons each from Gabon, Congo (Brazzaville), Chad and 
Cameroon.  A 120-person Angolan civilian police unit will 
join FOMAC/MICOPAX soon, Reglat added.  The overall size of 
the force is slated to grow from 500 to approximately 700 
persons, Reglat said. 
 
¶4.  (C) France provides logistical and other support for the 
military components of FOMUC/MICOPAX, the general explained. 
France does not support the police or other civilian units. 
These components of the peacekeeping operation receive 
support from CEEAC/ECCAS member states and the European 
Union, Reglat explained.  France has 200 soldiers in Bangui, 
he added, and "we do not want to expand this force."  Thus 
France sees the ECCAS/CEEAC forces as critical for stability 
in CAR. 
 
¶5.  (C) The European Union has a memorandum of understanding 
covering various aspects of its security assistance to 
ECCAS/CEEAC, including the administration of salary and 
benefit payments to peacekeeping forces, Reglat continued. 
France, however, has no direct agreement with ECCAS/CEEAC for 
military assistance.  Instead France operates through a 
"ghost agreement" with Gabon.  France is in the process of 
updating the military support arrangements for ECCAS/CEEAC 
 
LIBREVILLE 00000564  002 OF 003 
 
 
and thinks that it will continue to operate through a 
bilateral agreement with Gabon, Reglat said.  The EU is also 
updating their agreement for financial and other support for 
various ECCAS/CEEAC security activities, including 
FOMAC/MICOPAX, Reglat added. 
 
¶6.  (C) Colonel Phillippe Bonnel, Reglat's executive officer, 
described French assistance in greater detail.  France 
provides training to national components of the peacekeeping 
force in their countries of origin, he explained.  "We focus 
on skills linked to peacekeeping operations," he said, citing 
convoys, patrols, civil-military relations and human rights. 
Cameroon, Gabon and Congo (Brazzaville) are "doing good," he 
reported, but the Chadian contingent in CAR is problematic. 
They constitute a kind of presidential guard for CAR 
President Bozize, Bonnel said, and because the Chadian troops 
do not speak French they communicate poorly with other PKO 
components.  The Chadian troops are also distracted by events 
in their home country, he added, and during the rebel advance 
on N'djamena in February 2008 many abandoned their posts in 
CAR to head back to Chad. 
 
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Standby Brigade 
--------------- 
 
¶7.  (C) General Reglat told us that the ECCAS/CEEAC standby 
peacekeeping brigade is "growing with many difficulties." 
The next significant test of the brigade's readiness will 
occur in Angola in 2010, when they will carry out a major 
multi-national exercise.  The brigade is not a standing 
force, Reglat emphasized, but rather a collection of units 
and other capacities identified for mobilization in various 
ECCAS/CEEAC member states.  Gabon, for instance, will provide 
medical and logistics capacity to the brigade.  France's 
approach so far has been to engage member states bilaterally 
to help them "grow their own contribution." 
 
¶8.  (C) Some of the initial allocation of responsibilities 
within the standby brigade was mis-directed, the French 
officers claimed.  Cameroon, for instance, is supposed to 
provide a light armored battalion which it is currently 
unable to equip.  Reglat said the member states should tap 
into their actual current capacities--such as Cameroon's 
capable contingent of paratroopers--rather than components 
that will need to be built from the ground up. 
 
¶9.  (C) Reglat emphasized that it is artificial to draw sharp 
distinctions between ECCAS/CEEAC's three current and 
contemplated security missions:  the FOMAC/MICOPAX 
peacekeeping force in CAR, the regional standby peacekeeping 
brigade, and the proposed deployment of a small team of 
military observers on the Chad/Sudan border.  "You can't 
differentiate the three," Reglat said.  When France provides 
training for a country's peacekeeping component prior to 
deployment in Bangui, he said, it is simultaneously 
strengthening ECCAS/CEEAC's overall peacekeeping capacity. 
The countries involved are trying to develop more broad-based 
peacekeeping expertise, he emphasized, "identifying staff 
officers and others earmarked for participation."  If 
ECCAS/CEEAC deploys military observers to the Chad/Sudan 
border, he predicted, "they will use people who have been 
involved in the Central African Republic in the past." 
Likewise, Gabon's General Augustin Roger Bibaye Itandas, who 
headed regional peacekeeping forces in CAR for three and one 
half years has been identified by Gabon as a lead expert in 
the Chad/Sudan Contact Group's Ceasefire Committee (and was 
recently named National Security Counselor to President 
Bongo). 
 
¶10.  (C) In this sense, Reglat argued, "the regional brigade 
is not standby, it's acting."  And despite logistical and 
other difficulties "it is good for African people to manage 
these operations." 
 
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Possible Assistance 
------------------- 
 
¶11.  (C) Finally, Reglat discussed how the United States and 
others might assist ECCAS/CEEAC in the future.  He emphasized 
the need for ground mobility, including commercial, 
civilian-grade trucks.  Likewise, he said, ECCAS/CEEAC would 
benefit from standardized civilian-grade communications 
equipment.  All vehicles and equipment should be provided 
with close attention and adequate funding for maintenance, he 
 
LIBREVILLE 00000564  003 OF 003 
 
 
emphasized.  ECCAS/CEEAC also has significant training needs 
that the United States and others might help address.  Any 
assistance should be closely coordinated with ECCAS/CEEAC's 
existing partners, France and the EU, Reglat stressed. 
 
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Comment 
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¶12.  (C) Much of what General Reglat told us was not new. 
However, his wide-ranging and remarkably candid description 
of ECCAS/CEEAC's strengths and weaknesses was invaluable. 
Deputy Director Lopez was not able to clear this message 
prior to departure.  End Comment. 
REDDICK