VZCZCXRO9012
PP RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMA RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHBZ #0285/01 2741256
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 011256Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1559
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 0051
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0487
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0079
RUEHBZ/AMEMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE 1958

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRAZZAVILLE 000285 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/C, AF/RSA, OES 
PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIN PGOV PHUM PREL CF
SUBJECT: BRAZZAVILLE IN BRIEF - OCTOBER 1, 2009 
 
REF: BRAZZAVILLE 101 
 
BRAZZAVILL 00000285  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Index 
 
----- 
 
 
 
-- President Sassou in the U.S. 
 
--"Gorilla-cide" Report Discredited 
 
-- Efforts to Track Lumber Exports 
 
-- Government Restricts Movement of Opposition Politicians 
 
-- Highway Project Between Congo and Cameroon 
 
-- Developments in the Mining Industry 
 
-- Smear Campaign Against President Paul Biya of Cameroon 
 
 
 
President Sassou in the U.S. 
 
---------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶1. (U) President Denis Sassou Nguesso and a large delegation of 
sixty arrived in New York on September 17. Sassou, First Lady 
Antoinette, the Foreign Minister, the Minster of Forestry, the 
Minister of the Environment and 25 others travelled on a 
chartered plane via Cape Verde. 
 
 
 
¶2. (U) In his role as Climate Change Spokesman for the African 
Union, Sassou has been pushing hard for Africa and the ROC in 
particular to get their slice of the carbon pie in Copenhagen. 
Sassou's DC lobbying firm Chlopak, Leonard, Schlecter & 
Associates have helped Sassou make a full-court press on 
American audiences with the launch a snazzy new English website 
(congo-brazzaville.org, on which President Sassou recently 
posted an open letter to President Obama on the subject of the 
environment) and a well-placed editorial with a Sassou byline in 
the Boston Globe just days before Sassou's speech to the General 
Assembly on September 25. The leitmotif of the website, 
editorial, and UNGA address has been that Africa and the Congo 
will not just be the victims of climate change, they can also be 
"part of the solution" given the Congo Basin's importance as the 
world's "second lung" for absorbing carbon (along with the 
"first lung", the Amazon rainforest). 
 
 
 
¶3. (SBU) Sassou did not waste any time in moving forward on 
other issues on the margins of this year's General Assembly, 
reportedly meeting with South African President Jacob Zuma to 
work out the details of a pending farm deal to lease large 
tracts of Congo farmland to South African farmers. The deal had 
been stalled due to the Presidential election in Congo and some 
counterproductive statements by the leader of Agri SA, the South 
African consortium in charge of the deal. The final details of 
the deal have yet to emerge, but now that the Presidents have 
met, the agreement is reportedly back on track and could be 
sealed before the end of the year. On October 5, Sassou will be 
joining his favorite son, Denis Christel, in Houston for 
meetings between Congo's National Oil Company, SNPC, and several 
U.S. energy companies. According to Denis Christel, he and his 
father will meet with Mercuria Trading (a subsidiary of 
Conoco-Phillips), Marathon, and Sun Energy while in Houston. 
 
 
 
"Gorilla-cide" Report Discredited 
 
----------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) As reported by several international media outlets, a 
recent study by San Francisco-based Endangered Species 
International (ESI) reported that two gorillas are killed each 
week and sold as bush meat in Pointe Noire. Local wildlife NGOs 
agree that the illicit trade in bush meat, including gorilla, is 
a major problem in the Pt. Noire area, but dispute the 
 
BRAZZAVILL 00000285  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
scientific basis of the findings. According to the Wildlife 
Conservation Society (WCS) Country Director, the ESI 
representative spent less than two weeks in the ROC and ESI has 
no staff or offices in the ROC. The President of ESI is also 
quoted by the BBC as saying that "enforcement does not exist." 
Recent local media reports confirmed by the WCS, however, 
highlight successful enforcement operations against poachers and 
bush meat vendors in the Sangha province, as well successful 
prosecutions (supported by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 
Funding) against protected species vendors in Brazzaville. 
 
 
 
Efforts to Track Lumber Exports 
 
------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶5. (U) The Republic of Congo signed a service contract with 
Sociiti Ginirale de Surviellance (SGS) on September 2 to promote 
sustainable management of forests by creating a verification 
system to track lumber exported to EU and other destinations. 
Under this system, timber would be marked with a code at the 
point of origin, similar to systems currently in place in other 
countries. (Note: SGS is a Swiss company, which according to its 
website offers inspection, testing and verification services 
across a variety of sectors including agricultural, industrial, 
minerals and oil, gas and chemicals, among others. End note.) 
Henri Djombo, Minister of Forest Economy, signed the agreement 
with Alain Verney, the director of SGS.  The project reportedly 
will be financed with a 2 million Euro contribution from the EU 
as well as 1.8 million Euros from the Republic of Congo.  This 
new system will be implemented over the next three years and 
should provide a method for greater accountability in logging 
markets.  Post will provide additional reporting on the 
implementation of this agreement septel. 
 
 
 
Government Restricts Movement of Opposition Politicians 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
 
 
¶6. (SBU) The government has recently restricted the movement of 
several opposition politicians, and police have been questioning 
opposition leaders to gather information about an "illegal" 
opposition press conference on July 15, just after the July 12 
elections. The details of the incident, which involved police 
firing, remain sketchy, but according to some observers a 
policeman shot into the crowd of opposition protestors, narrowly 
missing opposition leader Mathias Dzon. However, the police 
claim that the shot was fired by one of Dzon's bodyguards, 
themselves government agents provided for candidate security. 
Two bystanders were injured in the shooting incident. Congolese 
human rights organization OCDH points out that the government 
wants to shift blame for the shooting incident to the 
opposition, and is now using the incident to suppress the 
opposition and restrict their travel. Several notable 
politicians have been prevented from traveling in recent weeks, 
including former Prime Minister Ange Edourd Poungui and 
Secretary General of the opposition party UPADS Pascal Tsaty 
Mabiala, who were attempting to travel from Brazzaville to 
Dolisie on September 4. The opposition sent an open letter to 
President Sassou on September 18 protesting the restrictions on 
their movements. The letter was published in several local 
newspapers. 
 
 
 
Highway Project Between Congo and Cameroon 
 
------------------------------------------- 
 
 
 
¶7. (U) On September 26, 2009 the Board of the African 
Development Bank (AFDB) approved a financial package worth USD 
190 million for the creation of a road to link Congo and 
Cameroon. When completed, the 500-kilometer Ketta-Djoum Road 
will substantially improve the 1,612-kilometer highway 
connecting the two capital cities of Brazzaville and Yaounde. 
AFDB funding includes a grant of $97 million USD and a loan of 
$93 million USD. In addition to aiding the movement of people 
and goods between Congo and Cameroon, the project will improve 
 
BRAZZAVILL 00000285  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
access to areas with significant economic potential in 
agriculture, ore, and timber in northern Congo. 
 
 
 
Developments in the Mining Industry 
 
------------------------------------ 
 
 
 
 ¶8. (U) MagMinerals Potasse Congo, a subsidiary of MagIndustries 
Corp, is building a pipeline to bring natural gas to a potash 
production site near Djeno, a suburb of Pointe-Noire (the large 
coastal port city). The company plans to produce 600,000 tons of 
potash per year once the site is fully functional. This site 
will reportedly make Congo the leading African producer of 
potash and the fourth producer worldwide after Canada, Russia, 
Byelorussia and Brazil.  Also in the potash sector, 
Australian-owned Element Minerals (ELM) received a boost in 
share price after its acquisition of the Sintoukoula potash 
project, located 50 km from Pointe Noire. In other mining news, 
the Canadian company DMC mining recently acquired a large iron 
ore project located near an existing railway line that would be 
used to haul the ore to the coast. 
 
 
 
Smear Campaign Against President Biya of Cameroon 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
 
 
 ¶9. (SBU) In September 2009, a local bi-weekly known as "Le 
Choc" published its first "Special Edition" devoted among other 
things to a public smear campaign against President Biya of 
Cameroon. According to Cameroonian Ambassador Komidor, this 
campaign stems from a negative story written about President 
Sassou-Nguesso in September's edition of AfriqEducation. 
AfriqEducation is published by Paul Tdega, a Cameroonian 
national residing in France. Apparently, Tdega was under 
contract to publish positive stories on Sassou in his magazine. 
With the recent ministerial reshuffle in Congo, however, Tdega 
lost his contract and in retaliation, published a story 
denouncing corruption within the ROC's leadership. Komidor 
maintains that Cameroon played no role in the AfriqEducation 
article criticizing Sassou Nguesso. The Ambassador claims, 
however, that the recent smear campaign in Le Choc was directly 
organized by the Special Advisor to President Sassou Nguesso, 
Jean Dominique Okemba. As proof, the Ambassador demonstrated how 
Le Choc had doctored photos to invent a relationship between 
Tdega and Presdient Biya. The Ambassador also pointed out that 
this was the first Special Edition of Le Choc and implied that 
the only source of money that could convert a black and white 
bi-weekly into a glossy magazine edition would have had to have 
come from the Presidency. 
 
 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment: This latest spat comes in the wake of another 
dispute between Cameroon and the ROC over the arrest and 
supposedly unlawful detention of a Cameroonian diplomat working 
at the Central African Regional Development Bank (BDEAC). 
Ambassador Komidor was visibly agitated when describing the "Le 
Choc" article and said he would take his complaint to the 
highest levels of the ROC leadership. Together, these events may 
point to a brewing struggle between Presidents Biya and 
Sassou-Nguesso for leadership in the Central African Region. End 
comment. 
PRATT