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RUEHBZ/AMEMBASSY BRAZZAVILLE 2029

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRAZZAVILLE 000331 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL CF EFIN EAGR EINV ETRD
SUBJECT: BRAZZAVILLE IN BRIEF:  NOVEMBER 18, 2009 
 
1.(U) SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED 
2.(u) This is the latest in our occasional series of cables 
conveying developments in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville). 
Today's edition addresses the IMF/World Bank in the last stages 
of HIPC completion point discussions, a successful 
privatization, the state of the opposition, and the death of 
longtime political leader Bernard Kolelas. 
IMF/WORLD BANK MISSION POSTPONED 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------ 
3.(SBU) A joint mission of the IMF/World Bank had been expected 
to visit Brazzaville this week to put the final touches on 
Congo(B)'s HIPC "completion point" eligibility, but according to 
the local IMF representative, the mission has been postponed, 
probably until early next month.  The sticking point, roughly 
summarized, is whether Congo's crude oil marketing system meets 
international standards with respect to commercial practices, 
governance, and transparency.  This will push Bank/Fund board 
consideration of "completion point" to January, at the earliest. 
MINOCO PRIVATIZATION COMPLETED -SEABOARD OWNS IT 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
---------------------------- 
4.(U) On November 13, 2009, the Congolese flour mill MINOCO, 
located at the port of Pointe-Noire, completed the privatization 
process begun in 2000 with the final payment of 363,780,000 CFA 
(roughly USD895,000) to the GROC, representing the last annual 
installment of the purchase price of around USD 8 million (six 
billion CFA).  MINOCO is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of 
Kansas-based Seaboard Corporation, whose president, Steve 
Bresky, attended the final payment ceremony along with the 
Ambassador and Rodolphe Adada, Minister of State for Industrial 
Development and Promotion of the Private Sector. 
5.(U) COMMENT:  MINOCO represents the only/only 
non-petroleum-sector U.S. investment in the Republic of Congo. 
The travails of MINOCO in doing business in the Congo have been 
the subject of frequent reporting.  MINOCO has perennial 
difficulty accessing rail transport for its flour from the mill 
in Pointe-Noire to Brazzaville, faces stiff competition from 
importers of milled flour from Europe, endures a tight retail 
price control regime in the market here in which world wheat 
price increases do not constitute a basis for downstream price 
increases, and has recently learned that it apparently will have 
to move the mill (comprising four substantial concrete silos) 
away from its present very convenient location next to the dock, 
according to the plans drawn up to implement the port 
restructuring associated with the 27-year concession granted 
last December to the French company Bollore Group.  MINOCO was 
hoping to receive a title deed for the mill property during the 
signing ceremony (for leverage in the discussion with the 
port/Bollore), but management was disappointed to learn at the 
last minute that the only thing transferred would be the shares 
of the previous government-owned feed mill which was the 
privatized state entity. 
THE OPPOSITION: TRAVEL BAN LIFTED, CHARGES AGAINST DZON REMAIN 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
6.(U) The travel ban on opposition party leaders overseas travel 
was lifted by Minister of State for Justice Aime Emmanuel Yoka 
on November 3rd.  This decision was reached following an Oct 
31st meeting with opposition leaders, including Ange Edouard 
Poungui, Mathias Dzon, General Ngolonduele and Guy Kinfouissa. 
This travel ban surprised opposition leaders attempting to 
travel since July; they learned of it when a couple of leaders 
presented themselves at the airport for the Paris flight, and it 
was compounded when two others found themselves barred from 
boarding a domestic flight to Dolisie, where they planned to 
organize a protest rally and meet with supporters. It was put in 
place following a July 15 disturbance resulting from a public 
meeting organized by the opposition to protest the announced 
results of the July 12 presidential election. 
7.(SBU) In addition, formal charges were filed against 
opposition leader Mathias Dzon, including weapons charges, after 
the incident. According to State Prosecution lawyer Essamy 
Gatse, the charges against Dzon are still active,  but he is 
free to leave the country.  Mr. Gatse stated that charges will 
be dropped by the end of the year if there is no more 
substantive evidence is discovered that would implicate him in 
the case. 
DZON DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN PARIS BEAC SCANDAL 
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---------------------- 
8.(U) Congolese opposition party member Mathias Dzon, who was 
Congo's National Director at the Bank of Central African States 
(BEAC) until his retirement at the end of December, 2008, was 
 
BRAZZAVILL 00000331  002 OF 003 
 
 
reported by the magazine Jeune Afrique to be implicated in an 
Audit Committee Investigation Report of the Bank of Central 
African States (BEAC).  Jeune Afrique reported that Mathias Dzon 
benefitted from 58 million CFA (roughly $128,889) traceable to 
fraudulent activity in BEAC's Paris Office.  Two other previous 
Congolese ministers were included in the report, Pacifique 
Issoibeka and Rigobert Andily, both prior Ministers of Finance. 
Mathias Dzon has denied any involvement in the scandal, on his 
part or that of a daughter also mentioned in the article, and 
has threatened to sue BEAC for false claims. 
BERNARD KOLELAS DIES IN PARIS (A not-so-brief item) 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
9.(U) Veteran Congolese politicial Bernard Kolelas died November 
13 in Paris.  He was 76.  We offer the following by way of 
obituary: 
10.(U) Bernard Kolelas was a player in the Congolese political 
arena since the 1960s, holding various positions including Prime 
Minister, Mayor of Brazzaville, and Secretary of Foreign 
Affairs, but throughout his political career his ambition to 
ascend to the highest office in the land has always fallen 
short.   In the early years after independence, Kolelas was a 
protege of Fulbert Youlou.  After Youlou's fall, Kolelas went 
into opposition, speaking out against Massamba-Debat's plan to 
put in place a socialist regime in Congo.  This earned him 
criminal charges and exile in Kinshasa, where he helped 
Prisident Youlou depart for Spain in 1965. 
11.(U) Kolelas returned to Brazzaville during the presidency of 
Marien Ngouabi  and opposed Ngouabi's proclamation of the 
Popular Republic of Congo as a Communist regime.  He was accused 
of plotting against the regime and was arrested several times 
during Ngouabi's presidency. 
12.(U) Kolelas experienced similar treatment by successors of 
Marien Ngouabi , including presidents Jacques Joachim 
Yhombi-Opango and Denis Sassou Nguesso.  President Sassou 
granted Kolelas relative freedom during his first 12 years in 
power. 
13.(U) At the beginning of the 1990's, with the convening of the 
National Conference, Kolelas founded the MCDDI, one of the first 
political parties.  Kolelas was not shy in crediting himself 
with bringing democracy in the Republic of Congo, claiming that 
the National Conference of 1991 was his personal achievement. 
The era of the early 1990s was the symbolic dawn of the 
democratic process in the Congo and heralded a shift in the 
political process.   Kolelas was at the forefront with the 
establishment of Le Movement Congolaise pour le Democracie et 
Developpment Integral (MCDDI).  One of the outcomes of the 
National Conference was an agreement to hold national elections. 
During the run-up to those first (and arguably only) democratic 
elections in Congo in 1992, Kolelas enjoyed huge support and was 
regarded as a front-runner among the three main candidates.  In 
the event, he came in second, behind Lissouba and ahead of 
Sassou-Nguesso.  A behind-the-scenes power sharing agreement 
between Lissouba's UPADS and Sassou's PCT parties saw Kolelas' 
ambitions for high office once again dashed when Lissouba took 
office as President.  The democratic honeymoon was short-lived 
as Lissouba turned his back on whatever purported agreement was 
made with Sassou (who came in third in the election), with a 
public renunciation of the alleged agreement as notes on a 
"sheet of paper."   That episode created a political divide that 
would soon thrust the country into civil war. 
THE BIRTH OF THE NINJAS 
14.(U) Kolelas became the Mayor of Brazzaville, a consolation of 
sorts after his disappointment in the election.  The mayoral 
honeymoon was short-lived, as in 1993 the contending parties 
went to war.  Kolelas retreated to his main base of support in 
the Pool, Kinkala and Goma Tse Tse (which he represented in the 
National Assembly at the time of his death), prompted by an 
incident in which the Lissouba-controlled Army killed several 
protestors in a peaceful march of opposition supporters. 
Adding further insult, Lissouba's base of civilian supporters 
quickly moved to benefit from the shift in administration and 
took the streets in Brazzaville, physically and forcibly 
displacing Kolelas faithful from certain neighborhoods of 
Brazzaville.  The new Lissouba administration failed to take any 
action.  Retaliatory action by Kolelas supporters led to an 
escalation of intra-party ethnic atrocities and a more 
widespread civil conflict separated along tribal lines in the 
south, pitting predominantly Kongo and Lari tribes, behind 
Kolelas, and supporters of the so-called "Nibolek," (groups from 
Niyari, Bouenza, and Lekoumou departments in the south), as well 
as the Vili and Mbembe tribes, behind Lissouba. 
15.(U) Towards the end of the civil war, Kolelas' newly formed 
militia, the Ninjas, were alleged to have received aid from 
 
BRAZZAVILL 00000331  003 OF 003 
 
 
Sassou's own militia, the Cobras, joining forces against a 
common enemy, Lissouba.    Even after the civil was brought to 
an end,  both entities employed covert efforts geared toward 
destabilizing the Lissouba government.  Not to be outdone, 
Lissouba formed a protective circle of his own tribe with the 
Cocoyes.  Though the present-day "Ninjas," who are responsible 
for increasing insecurity in the Pool region in recent weeks, 
bear the same name as Kolelas' militia, they are neither 
associated with, nor loyal to, what remains of his political 
party. 
REVERSED ALLIANCES 
16.(U) Fast-forward to the spring of 1997 at the height of 
campaigns for the second post-national conference presidential 
election.   Sassou had returned from Paris to spearhead a return 
to the Presidency.  A controversial killing of an army official 
in Makoua by Sassou's bodyguards, while on the campaign trail in 
the north, led to an eventual showdown in Brazzaville when 
Lissouba gave orders to arrest Sassou for obstruction of justice 
as he return to the capital to continue his campaign run. 
Sassou's protective cadre of Cobras proved to be formidable and 
thus ensued a prolonged conflict between the Cobras and 
government forces with Brazzaville at the centre, and thus the 
second civil war in the Congo.   As the war dragged on from June 
into the summer, with significant casualties on both sides, and 
the government forces reeling, Lissouba made a play for Kolelas' 
support.  In what many observers viewed as an alliance of the 
North vs. the South, Kolelas lent the support of his Ninjas, to 
his previously sworn enemy Lissouba, in exchange for an 
appointment to a specially created post of the Prime Minister. 
This was viewed as a most surprising development at the time as 
Kolelas had remained on the sidelines during the face-off 
between Sassou and Lissouba, offering to serve in the capacity 
of mediator between the warring entities.  The alliance proved 
ill-fated as Sassou gained the support of Angolan forces and 
assumed power in October 1997. Kolelas went into exile shortly 
thereafter and was eventually tried in absentia on war crimes 
charges under the new Sassou administration. 
ENCORE UNE FOIS 
17.(U) Kolelas was granted amnesty by President Sassou in 2005. 
Upon his return, Kolelas engaged his political party, MCDDI, to 
a peace and reconciliation process with the Sassou government. 
In 2009, Kolelas signed an agreement to support Sassou during 
this summer's presidential elections. Out of this agreement, two 
ministerial appointments have been accorded to Guy Parfait 
Kolelas (the biological son of Bernard Kolelas) , Minister of 
Civil Service and State Reform and to Hello Mantson Mampouya 
(Kolelas' son-in-law), Minister of Fishing and Aquaculture.  Guy 
Parfait was one of the co-managers of Sassou's re-election 
campaign earlier this year. 
18.(U) Kolelas' remains will be repatriated to Brazzaville at 
the end of the week, and we expect a tumultuous reception and 
public funeral to follow.  Sassou-Nguesso issued a statement of 
condolences, saying that Kolelas "had the worthiness and the 
merit to have made the choice of reason, to put himself 
sincerely and irreversibly on the side of peace, unity, and 
reconciliation in our shared house, the Congo. 
EASTHAM