P R 010850Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1455
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C O N F I D E N T I A L BRAZZAVILLE 000198 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  7/1/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR CF
SUBJECT: (C)  CONGO-B/EU: PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION  "NOT A PRIORITY FOR 
BRUSSELS" 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Alan Eastham, Ambassador, EXO, USDOS. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
1.(c) EU Ambassador Miguel Amado (Portuguese) told TDY poloff 
that although the EU had sent observers to monitor 
Congo-Brazzaville's 2002 elections, Brussels has decided not to 
do so for the July 12 presidential election. Several factors 
influenced the EU Commission's decision, starting with the 
reality that the EU has limited resources and cannot monitor 
every election. Second, the official story is that the EU 
normally only monitors elections when it is formally invited and 
the Brazzaville authorities did not invite the EU this time. In 
reality, Amado said, if the EU really wanted to send a 
monitoring team it probably could arrange the equivalent of an 
invitation. 
 
2.(c) Most important, he said, Brussels does not believe 
conditions in Congo-Brazzaville are conducive for conducting 
free and fair elections-the National Commission for the 
Organization of Elections (CONEL) is clearly not independent of 
the government and the electoral rolls are flawed. There has 
been "no real positive evolution of the electoral process since 
2002" and as a result, the Congolese elections are "not a 
priority for Brussels." 
 
3.(SBU) Though the EU would not be sending observers, Amado 
noted that others would be taking up some of the slack. The 
African Union would be sending a ten-person team while a group 
from an African civil society NGO called the Observatoire de la 
Societe Civile Africaine pour la Democratie et l'Assistance 
Electorale (OSCADAE) would be sending a group of 25. The largest 
contingent of observers is coming from an NGO affiliated with 
the Francophonie organization. In addition, the UNDP is 
providing two technical experts, one expert who is working at 
CONEL and the other who is working at the Direction General des 
Affaires Electorales (DGAE). The government, however, refused to 
provide visas to a small group from the Federation 
Internationale des Droits de l'Homme (FIDH) until after the 
elections. 
 
4.(c) Amado said the French Embassy has a more accommodating 
point of view vis-`-vis the Congolese than the EU and that EU 
engagement with Brazzaville is separate from France's bilateral 
relations with Congo, but that on occasion they overlap. He 
noted that as part of Article 8 of the Contonou agreement 
between the EU and the African-Carribean-Pacific (ACP), the EU 
engages in a regular dialogue with the Congolese government on 
matters of mutual interest, including human rights, corruption 
and other governance issues. The French ambassador is part of 
the EU delegation in these meetings, but has made a conscious 
decision  to "keep quiet."  (COMMENT:  More likely this is 
instructed from Paris. One of our other EU colleagues tells us 
that in EU meetings, when meeting with the Congolese opposition 
is mentioned, the French Ambassador "runs for the door."  END 
COMMENT.) 
 
5.(c) In addition to his observations on the election monitoring 
situation, Amado made a number of other comments on the 
Congolese situation during the election season. 
 
--He thought the elections process would pass off relatively 
peacefully. Whatever their problems with President Sassou, the 
Congolese people are afraid of a return to civil war. Moreover, 
neither does the government, which had deployed a very strong 
police presence. 
 
--The major opposition figures are not very different from 
Sassou himself. They are of the same generation, they were 
active in the Parti Congolais du Travail (PCT) when Congo was a 
one-party state, and they are all Masons. He thought none of 
them had a vision of Congo's future that was different from 
Sassou's. 
 
--The top levels of the government is filled with people who 
have little technical competence and who are more interested in 
accompanying the president on his travels-and collecting per 
diem-than in running their ministries. 
 
--He mused that perhaps EU assistance to Congo, which has been 
based heavily on support for health and transport 
infrastructure, might be more productively directed toward 
"human capital" and "capacity building," i.e. education to 
change this mindset. 
 
--The economy is characterized by extensive corruption with all 
major business in the hands of the president and his family, the 
gap between rich and poor is growing, and all Congolese are 
penalized by an "inflation tax"-nine percent inflation has been 
eating away at their purchasing power. On the plus side, the 
government makes sure that civil servants and, especially, the 
security forces are well paid and paid on time. 
--Congo's election, the outcome of which is not in much doubt, 
probably will not have much effect on stability and security. 
Much more problematic with be the maneuvering amongst the 
"sharks" around Sassou when he eventually passes from the scene. 
 
6.(SBU) Amado looks forward to working with the US embassy 
during the elections process and hopes we could coordinate our 
observations and, perhaps, our statements. 
 
7.(C) Comment:  Without a strong EU monitoring presence and the 
FIDH human rights observers excluded, monitoring of the 
Congolese elections is left to African and Francophonie 
observers who are likely to devote little effort and have little 
influence on the conduct of the polls.  With respect to the EU 
presence here, only France, Belgium, and Italy are present with 
bilateral missions (Germany and the UK, among others, cover 
Brazzaville from Kinshasa).   There is a striking gap between 
the Commission's representative here and the bilateral missions; 
Ambassador Amado is a human rights advocate frustrated by the 
continual braking from Brussels and the hands-off attitude of 
the country missions here. 
 
8.(U)Drafted by POL: FEhrenreich. 
 
 
EASTHAM