VZCZCXRO7021
OO RUEHGI
DE RUEHC #0544/01 1622303
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 112235Z JUN 09
FM SECSTATE WASHDC
TO AMEMBASSY BANGUI IMMEDIATE 1379

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 STATE 060544 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP ELAB KCRM KPAO KWMN PGOV PHUM PREL SMIG CT
SUBJECT: CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC -- 2009 TIP REPORT: 
PRESS GUIDANCE AND           DEMARCHE 
 
REF: A. (A) STATE 59732 
     ¶B. (B) STATE 005577 
 
¶1. This is an action cable; see paras 5 through 7 and 10. 
 
¶2. On June 16, 2009, at 10:00 a.m. EDT, the Secretary will 
release the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report at a 
press conference in the Department's press briefing room. 
This release will receive substantial coverage in domestic 
and foreign news outlets.  Until the time of the Secretary's 
June 16 press conference, any public release of the Report or 
country narratives contained therein is prohibited. 
 
¶3. The Department is hereby providing Post with advance press 
guidance to be used on June 16 or thereafter.  Also provided 
is demarche language to be used in informing the Government 
of the Central African Republic (CAR) of its tier ranking and 
the TIP Report's imminent release.  The text of the TIP 
Report country narrative is provided, both for use in 
informing the Government of the CAR, and in any local media 
release by Post's public affairs section on June 16 or 
thereafter.  Drawing on information provided below in paras 8 
and 9, Post may provide the host government with the text of 
the TIP Report narrative no earlier than 1200 noon local time 
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA countries and OOB 
local time Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts.  Please 
note, however, that any public release of the Report's 
information should not/not precede the Secretary's release at 
10:00 am EDT on June 16. 
 
¶4. The entire TIP Report will be available on-line at 
www.state.gov/g/tip shortly after the Secretary's June 16 
release.  Hard copies of the Report will be pouched to posts 
in all countries appearing on the Report.  The Secretary's 
statement at the June 16 press event, and the statement of 
and fielding of media questions by G/TIP,s Director and 
Senior Advisor to the Secretary, Ambassador-at-Large Luis 
CdeBaca, will be available on the Department's website 
shortly after the June 16 event.  Ambassador de Baca will 
also hold a general briefing for officials of foreign 
embassies in Washington DC on June 17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
¶5. Action Request: No earlier than 12 noon local time on 
Monday June 15 for WHA, AF, EUR, and NEA posts and OOB local 
time on Tuesday June 16 for SCA and EAP posts, please inform 
the appropriate official in the Government of the CAR of the 
June 16 release of the 2009 TIP Report, drawing on the points 
in para 9 (at Post's discretion) and including the text of 
the country narrative provided in para 8.  For countries 
where the State Department has lowered the tier ranking, it 
is particularly important to advise governments prior to the 
Report being released in Washington on June 16. 
 
¶6. Action Request continued:  Please note that, for those 
countries which will not receive an "action plan" with 
specific recommendations for improvement, posts should draw 
host governments' attention to the areas for improvement 
identified in the 2009 Report, especially highlighted in the 
"Recommendations" section of the second paragraph of the 
narrative text.  This engagement is important to establishing 
the framework in which the government's performance will be 
judged for the 2010 Report.  If posts have questions about 
which governments will receive an action plan, or how they 
may follow up on the recommendations in the 2009 Report, 
please contact G/TIP and the appropriate regional bureau. 
 
¶7. Action Request continued: On June 16, please be prepared 
to answer media inquiries on the Report's release using the 
press guidance provided in para 11.  If Post wishes, a local 
press statement may be released on or after 10:30 am EDT June 
16, drawing on the press guidance and the text of the TIP 
Report's country narrative provided in para 8. 
 
¶8. Begin Final Text of the CAR,s country narrative in the 
2009 TIP Report: 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
Central African Republic (TIER 2 Watch List) 
--------------------------------------------- - 
The Central African Republic (CAR) is a source, transit, and 
destination country for men, women, and children trafficked 
for the purposes of forced labor and sexual exploitation. 
The majority of victims are children trafficked within the 
country for sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, forced 
ambulant vending, and forced agricultural, mine, market, and 
restaurant labor.  To a lesser extent, children are 
trafficked from the CAR to Cameroon, Nigeria, and the 
 
STATE 00060544  002 OF 005 
 
 
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), for the same purposes 
listed above.  Children may also be trafficked from Rwanda to 
the CAR.  In addition, rebels conscript children into armed 
forces in the northwestern and northeastern regions of the 
country. Unable to survive as hunters and gatherers because 
of depleted forests, Pygmies are subjected to forced 
agricultural labor by Central African villagers.  Authorities 
in the CAR have a limited awareness of trafficking, and none 
of the nation,s young, but developing, civil society 
organizations has an anti-trafficking focus.  No 
comprehensive trafficking analysis has been conducted and 
little concrete data exists.  A study released in 2008 by 
UNICEF and the Government of the CAR on violence linked to 
child labor, however, reveals that forced child labor is 
widespread.  In addition, a 2005 UNICEF study on child sexual 
exploitation found over 40 sex trafficking cases in Bangui 
and four of the country,s provinces.  UN reports in the last 
year indicate that self-defense militias, some of which are 
supported by the government, recruited child soldiers. 
 
The Government of the Central African Republic does not fully 
comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of 
trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do 
so, despite extremely limited resources, internal conflict, 
and instability caused by unrest in neighboring Sudan, Chad, 
and the DRC. The government demonstrated its nascent 
commitment to combating trafficking through law enforcement 
means by securing the convictions of three men for 
trafficking a three-year-old girl.  In collaboration with 
UNICEF, the government collected data on violence linked to 
child labor and released a study in 2008 indicating a 
significant incidence of forced child labor in the country. 
Despite these overall significant efforts, the government did 
not show evidence of progress in enacting its 2006 draft law 
against trafficking ) which has yet to be presented to the 
National Assembly ) or in protecting victims of trafficking; 
therefore, the CAR is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
Recommendations for the CAR:  Pass and enact the 2006 
anti-trafficking law; develop procedures through which police 
and social workers may identify trafficking victims among 
vulnerable populations -- such as females in prostitution, 
abandoned and street children, and Pygmies -- and train 
police and social workers to implement these procedures; end 
the practice of jailing  children who are victims of sex 
trafficking; provide care to children in commercial sexual 
exploitation and forced labor, in collaboration with NGOs and 
the international community as appropriate; and increase 
overall efforts to educate the public about the dangers of 
trafficking. 
 
Prosecution 
----------- 
The Government of the CAR demonstrated some increased law 
enforcement efforts to combat trafficking during the last 
year.  Central African law does not prohibit all forms of 
trafficking in persons.   A 2006 draft comprehensive 
anti-trafficking law awaits Cabinet approval before being 
sent to the National Assembly for vote.  In January 2009, the 
government enacted Labor Code Articles seven and eight which 
prohibit forced labor and bonded labor, prescribing a 
sufficiently stringent penalty of five to 10 years, 
imprisonment.  The Central African Penal Code criminalizes 
the procurement of individuals less than 15 years old for 
prostitution, prescribing penalties of one to five years, 
imprisonment and/or a fine.  These penalties are sufficiently 
stringent and commensurate with those prescribed for rape, 
although a fine alone would not be.  In 2008, using 
kidnapping laws, the government convicted a Nigerian man to 
two years, imprisonment for attempting to sell a three-year 
old Guinean girl in 2007.  The perpetrator,s two accomplices 
were sentenced to one year and six months, imprisonment 
respectively.  Due to budget limitations, the government does 
not provide specialized anti-trafficking training to 
government officials on how to investigate and prosecute 
trafficking cases.  Labor inspectors and other law 
enforcement officials report that they lack the resources to 
address trafficking crimes. 
Protection 
----------- 
The Central African government continued weak efforts to 
protect trafficking victims over the last year.  Government 
officials continued to travel with UNICEF into the interior 
of the country to identify, rescue, and demobilize child 
soldiers conscripted by rebels.  Due to a paucity of 
resources, the government does not operate a trafficking 
victim shelter.  The government refers destitute children 
older than four to local NGOs for care; some of these 
children could be trafficking victims.  Otherwise, the 
government did not report referring any trafficking victims 
to NGOs for care.  Two NGOs reported that the Ministry of 
Social Affairs sometimes provided training on general youth 
issues, but could not confirm that this included trafficking. 
 
STATE 00060544  003 OF 005 
 
 
 In December 2008, the Minister of Defense assisted UNICEF,s 
efforts to release children from a self-defense militia 
conscripting child soldiers.  The Ministry put UNICEF in 
contact with the militia leader, who agreed to cooperate with 
UNICEF to release children. The Central African government 
did not provide legal alternatives to the removal of foreign 
victims to countries where they face hardship or retribution. 
The government does not implement formal procedures to 
identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations 
such as abandoned children, street children, or females in 
prostitution.  In some cases, police jail children found in 
prostitution for up to a month and then released them, rather 
than providing them with rehabilitation and reintegration 
care.   The government does not encourage victims to assist 
in trafficking investigations or prosecutions. 
 
Prevention 
---------- 
The Government of the CAR continued modest efforts to prevent 
trafficking during the reporting period.  The government 
released the results of a joint government-UNICEF study on 
violence associated with child labor in the CAR.  The 
Ministry of Statistics assisted in analyzing the data 
collected. The government established an Inter-Ministerial 
Committee to Combat Child Exploitation during the last year. 
 In June 2008, as part of its African Children,s Day 
celebration, the government conducted awareness-raising 
activities about trafficking through television and radio 
broadcasts.  In October 2008, the CAR government participated 
in a three-day seminar hosted by with the Central African 
Human Rights Observatory and a foreign donor entitled 
&Raising Awareness of the New Forms of Slavery in the CAR.8 
 The event produced the &Bangui Declaration8 of 
recommendations to the government and other stakeholders for 
the eradicating of trafficking in the country.  The 
government lacked funding to implement a national action plan 
to prevent child sexual abuse, including trafficking, that it 
had adopted in 2006.  A second anti-trafficking action plan 
adopted in 2007 also remains unimplemented. The government 
did not take any measures to reduce the demand for commercial 
sex acts. 
 
 
¶9. Post may wish to deliver the following points, which offer 
technical and legal background on the TIP Report process, to 
the host government as a non-paper with the above TIP Report 
country narrative: 
 
(begin non-paper) 
 
-- The U.S. Congress, through its passage of the 2000 
Trafficking Victims Protection Act, as amended (TVPA), 
requires the Secretary of State to submit an annual Report to 
Congress.  The goal of this Report is to stimulate action and 
create partnerships around the world in the fight against 
modern-day slavery.  The USG approach to combating human 
trafficking follows the TVPA and the standards set forth in 
the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in 
Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 
United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized 
Crime (commonly known as the "Palermo Protocol").  The TVPA 
and the Palermo Protocol recognize that this is a crime in 
which the victims, labor or services (including in the "sex 
industry") are obtained or maintained through force, fraud, 
or coercion, whether overt or through psychological 
manipulation.  While much attention has focused on 
international flows, both the TVPA and the Palermo Protocol 
focus on the exploitation of the victim, and do not require a 
showing that the victim was moved. 
 
-- Recent amendments to the TVPA removed the requirement that 
only countries with a "significant number" of trafficking 
victims be included in the Report. Beginning with the 2009 
TIP Report, countries determined to be a country of origin, 
transit, or destination for victims of severe forms of 
trafficking are included in the Report and assigned to one of 
three tiers.  Countries assessed as meeting the "minimum 
standards for the elimination of severe forms of trafficking" 
set forth in the TVPA are classified as Tier 1.  Countries 
assessed as not fully complying with the minimum standards, 
but making significant efforts to meet those minimum 
standards are classified as Tier 2.  Countries assessed as 
neither complying with the minimum standards nor making 
significant efforts to do so are classified as Tier 3. 
 
-- The TVPA also requires the Secretary of State to provide a 
"Special Watch List" to Congress later in the year. 
Anti-trafficking efforts of the countries on this list are to 
be evaluated again in an Interim Assessment that the 
Secretary of State must provide to Congress by February 1 of 
each year.  Countries are included on the "Special Watch 
List" if they move up in "tier" rankings in the annual TIP 
Report -- from 3 to 2 or from 2 to 1 ) or if they have been 
 
STATE 00060544  004 OF 005 
 
 
placed on the Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
-- Tier 2 Watch List consists of Tier 2 countries determined: 
(1) not to have made "increasing efforts" to combat human 
trafficking over the past year; (2) to be making significant 
efforts based on commitments of anti-trafficking reforms over 
the next year, or (3) to have a very significant number of 
trafficking victims or a significantly increasing victim 
population.  As indicated in reftel B, the TVPRA of 2008 
contains a provision requiring that a country that has been 
included on Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years after 
the date of enactment of the TVPRA of 2008 be ranked as Tier 
¶3.  Thus, any automatic downgrade to Tier 3 pursuant to this 
provision would take place, at the earliest, in the 2011 TIP 
Report (i.e., a country would have to be ranked Tier 2 Watch 
List in the 2009 and 2010 Reports before being subject to 
Tier 3 in the 2011 Report).  The new law allows for a waiver 
of this provision for up to two additional years upon a 
determination by the President that the country has developed 
and devoted sufficient resources to a written plan to make 
significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with the 
minimum standards. 
 
-- Countries classified as Tier 3 may be subject to statutory 
restrictions for the subsequent fiscal year on 
non-humanitarian and non-trade-related foreign assistance 
and, in some circumstances, withholding of funding for 
participation by government officials or employees in 
educational and cultural exchange programs.   In addition, 
the President could instruct the U.S. executive directors to 
international financial institutions to oppose loans or other 
utilization of funds (other than for humanitarian, 
trade-related or certain types of development assistance) 
with respect to countries on Tier 3.  Countries classified as 
Tier 3 that take strong action within 90 days of the Report's 
release to show significant efforts against trafficking in 
persons, and thereby warrant a reassessment of their Tier 
classification, would avoid such sanctions.  Guidelines for 
such actions are in the DOS-crafted action plans to be shared 
by Posts with host governments. 
 
-- The 2009 TIP Report, issuing as it does in the midst of 
the global financial crisis, highlights high levels of 
trafficking for forced labor in many parts of the world and 
systemic contributing factors to this phenomenon:  fraudulent 
recruitment practices and excessive recruiting fees in 
workers, home countries; the lack of adequate labor 
protections in both sending and receiving countries; and the 
flawed design of some destination countries, "sponsorship 
systems" that do not give foreign workers adequate legal 
recourse when faced with conditions of forced labor.  As the 
May 2009 ILO Global Report on Forced Labor concluded, forced 
labor victims suffer approximately $20 billion in losses, and 
traffickers, profits are estimated at $31 billion.  The 
current global financial crisis threatens to increase the 
number of victims of forced labor and increase the associated 
"cost of coercion." 
 
-- The text of the TVPA and amendments can be found on 
website www.state.gov/g/tip. 
 
-- On June 16, 2009, the Secretary of State will release the 
ninth annual TIP Report in a public event at the State 
Department.  We are providing you an advance copy of your 
country's narrative in that report.  Please keep this 
information embargoed until 10:00 am Washington DC time June 
¶16.  The State Department will also hold a general briefing 
for officials of foreign embassies in Washington DC on June 
17 at 3:30 pm EDT. 
 
(end non-paper) 
 
¶10. Posts should make sure that the relevant country 
narrative is readily available on or though the Mission's web 
page in English and appropriate local language(s) as soon as 
possible after the TIP Report is released.  Funding for 
translation costs will be handled as it was for the Human 
Rights Report.  Posts needing financial assistance for 
translation costs should contact their regional bureau,s EX 
office. 
 
¶11. The following is press guidance provided for Post to use 
with local media. 
 
Q1:  Why does the Central African Republic remain on the Tier 
2 Watch List? 
 
A:  The Government of the CAR does not fully comply with the 
minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; 
however, it is making significant efforts to do so, despite 
extremely limited resources, internal conflict, and 
instability caused by unrest in neighboring Sudan, Chad, and 
the DRC. The government demonstrated its nascent commitment 
 
STATE 00060544  005 OF 005 
 
 
to combating trafficking through law enforcement means by 
securing the convictions of three men for trafficking a 
three-year-old girl.  In collaboration with UNICEF, the 
government collected data on violence linked to child labor 
and released a study in 2008 indicating a significant 
incidence of forced child labor in the country.  Despite 
these overall significant efforts, the government did not 
show evidence of progress in enacting its 2006 draft law 
against trafficking ) which has yet to be presented to the 
National Assembly ) or in protecting victims of trafficking; 
therefore, the CAR is placed on Tier 2 Watch List. 
 
Q2:  What progress has the Central African Republic made in 
the last year? 
A:  In 2008, using kidnapping laws, the government convicted 
a Nigerian man to two years, imprisonment for attempting to 
sell a three-year old Guinean girl in 2007.  The 
perpetrator,s two accomplices were sentenced to one year and 
six months, imprisonment respectively.  In January 2009, the 
government enacted Labor Code Articles seven and eight which 
prohibit forced labor and bonded labor, prescribing a 
sufficiently stringent penalty of five to ten years, 
imprisonment.  Government officials continued to travel with 
UNICEF into the interior of the country to identify, rescue, 
and demobilize child soldiers conscripted by rebels. In 
December 2008, the Minister of Defense assisted UNICEF,s 
efforts to release children from a self-defense militia 
conscripting child soldiers. The government released the 
results of a joint government-UNICEF study on violence 
associated with child labor in the CAR.  The government also 
established an Inter-Ministerial Committee to Combat Child 
Exploitation during the last year. 
 
Q3:  What can the Central African Republic do to further the 
fight against trafficking in persons? 
 
A:  Pass and enact the 2006 anti-trafficking law; develop 
procedures through which police and social workers may 
identify trafficking victims among vulnerable populations -- 
such as females in prostitution, abandoned and street 
children, and Pygmies -- and train police and social workers 
to implement these procedures; end the practice of jailing 
children who are victims of sex trafficking; provide care to 
children in commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor, 
in collaboration with NGOs and the international community as 
appropriate; and increase overall efforts to educate the 
public about the dangers of trafficking. 
CLINTON