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RR RUEHBC RUEHBZ RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHKUK RUEHMA
RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHNJ #0615/01 3561647
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 221647Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY NDJAMENA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7528
INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
RUEHEE/ARAB LEAGUE COLLECTIVE
RUCNFUR/DARFUR COLLECTIVE
RHMFISS/HQ USAFRICOM STUTTGART GE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NDJAMENA 000615 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR AF/C 
STATE FOR AF/EPS 
STATE FOR AF/RSA 
STATE FOR S/USSES 
LONDON FOR POL - LORD 
PARIS FOR POL - BAIN AND KANEDA 
ADDIS ABABA FOR AU 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL ECON ETRD PGOV SU CD
 
SUBJECT: CHAD AND ITS FRANCOPHONE REGIONAL AFFILIATIONS:  TENDING TO 
BUSINESS, AND AIMING FOR ELECTORAL AND GEOPOLITICAL GAINS 
 
------------------- 
SUMMARY AND COMMENT 
------------------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) President Deby took over the annual rotating chairmanship 
of the Economic Community of Central African States (often referred 
to by its French acronym CEEAC) in October 2009.  He will assume 
rotating leadership of the Economic and Monetary Community of 
Central Africa (CEMAC) in January 2010.  Chad will host Summits of 
participating states in these two organizations in October 2010 (for 
CEEAC) and December 2010 (for CEMAC).  Meanwhile, Deby hosted the 
first summit of the Organization for the Harmonization of Commercial 
Law in Africa (French acronym OHADA) earlier this month. 
 
¶2.  Deby's leadership of CEEAC and CEMAC and his interest in OHADA 
during an election year will give him opportunities to display the 
GoC's "competence," put his own statesmanship to the fore, raise 
Chad's regional profile, and enhance his credibility among 
colleagues.  Deby's opportunities via these organizations could also 
reinforce his position vis-a-vis Sudan in particular, and Arab 
League states in a more general way, as none are members of the 
francophone central African groups he is now cultivating.  The GoC 
remembers CEEAC's refusal to condemn Sudan for sponsoring attacks by 
Chadian rebels in the 2008-9 timeframe; Deby seeks to reverse the 
tendency of his neighbors to the west and south to calibrate 
relations with Chad based on relations with Sudan. 
 
END SUMMARY AND COMMENT. 
 
---------------------- 
CHAD'S GOALS FOR CEEAC 
---------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The membership of CEEAC, headquartered in Libreville, 
includes Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic (CAR), 
Chad, Congo/Brazzaville, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Rwanda, and 
Sao Tome and Principe.  Organizational goals consist of developing 
joint capacities to maintain peace, security and stability; 
encouraging economic integration; encouraging a culture of human 
integration; and establishing financing mechanisms for member 
states.  The organization has also adopted several treaties and 
protocols, among them a mutual assistance pact, a protocol on 
non-tariff trade barriers and a regional accord to counter 
trafficking in persons. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Deby's stated objectives for his ongoing CEEAC 
chairmanship inclue harmonized customs procedures among member 
staes; harmonized border controls; reduction in multile taxes 
charged to business and other travelers;encouragement of freer 
movement of goods and peole; parallel improvements in law 
enforcement infrmation-sharing so as not to facilitate impropermovement of goods/people; development of common road infrastructure 
and joint policing near borders; development of new economic 
investment zones in the CEEAC region; and harmonization of energy, 
environmental and health policies among member states.  Deby has 
traveled extensively in connection with his CEEAC chairmanship, and 
seems to be investing considerable effort into building regional 
linkages through the organization. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Deby's chairmanship of CEEAC will coincide with the 
organization's May-June 2010 certification of the Central African 
stand-by brigade for African Union peacekeeping.  A joint military 
exercise, Operation Kwanza, is scheduled for May-June 2010 in 
Angola.  Deby has made public statements expressing commitment to 
establishing the brigade and carrying out the planned exercise on 
schedule.  He is likely to be asked by other member states to 
solicit external military assistance for Operation Kwanza. 
 
 
---------------------- 
CHAD'S GOALS FOR CEMAC 
---------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) The membership of CEMAC, headquartered in Bangui, consists 
of the six Central African nations that share the CFA currency 
(communaute financiere africaine):  Cameroon, Central African 
 
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Republic, Chad, Congo, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea.  The 
organization has a central bank (BEAC) located in Yaounde, which has 
recently been rocked by a major ($38 million) corruption scandal. 
The scandal has resulted in the postponement of the 2009 CEMAC 
Summit, set for December in Bangui, to January 2010. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Deby's plans for the CEMAC chairmanship include 
development of anti-corruption standards and agreement on a 
mechanism for rotating the BEAC governorship among member states, as 
the long-serving Gabonese head has resigned in connection with the 
corruption scandal.  Deby is also interested in the possibility 
during his presidency of inaugurating Air CEMAC, a proposed regional 
airline that has been under discussion for several years (and that 
has South African interest), and of CEMAC members' reaching a 
decision on the location of the airline's eventual headquarters -- 
N'Djamena and Brazzaville are the only two bidders thus far. 
 
---------------------- 
CHAD'S GOALS FOR OHADA 
---------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU)  Deby hosted the first-ever Summit of OHADA, involving 
visits by Heads of State/Government from Senegal, Benin, Togo, CAR, 
Congo/Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Mali and Gabon, on December 
¶20.  (Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Comoros, DRC, Cote d'Ivoire, 
Guinea-Bissau, and Niger also belong to the organization and sent 
lower-ranking reps to N'Djamena.  The organization has a secretariat 
in Yaounde, a training facility for magistrates in Cotonou, and a 
court of justice and arbitration in Abidjan.) 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  The goal of the OHADA Summit was to urge member states to 
take action by January 2010 to adopt a revised supra-national set of 
streamlined commercial laws granting legal and judicial guarantees 
and ensuring that arbitration becomes the recourse of choice for 
settlement of contractual disputes, recovery of debts, bankruptcy 
law, receivership, and accounting.  (Chad adopted the package of 
laws in 2008.)  The broad aim of the process is to attract foreign 
investment to member states.  Chad hosted an OHADA event in 1995 
that laid out a common commercial charter for member states.  The 
new set of commercial laws revises the charter. 
 
------- 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Deby's leadership of CEEAC and CEMAC and his interest in 
OHADA during an election year will give him opportunities to put his 
own statesmanship on public display, to raise Chad's regional 
profile, and to enhance his credibility among regional colleagues. 
Deby's organizational opportunities could also reinforce his 
position vis-a-vis Sudan in particular, and Arab League states in a 
more general way, as none are members of the francophone central 
African organizations he is now cultivating. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Whether Deby's counterparts will be receptive to his 
assertions of interest in regional integration remains to be seen: 
CEEAC refused to condemn Sudan during the 2008 Chadian rebel attacks 
on N'Djamena, leading to tensions between Chad and neighbors to the 
west and south.  Deby seeks to reverse the tendency of Central and 
West African states to calibrate relations with Chad based on their 
own relations with Sudan. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Deby may come under pressure to merge CEEAC and CEMAC, a 
proposal that had currency several years ago.  Alternatively, he may 
resist pressure in this direction on grounds that holding two 
concurrent chairmanships will offer him more optics.  Of the two 
organizations, Deby has been more active on CEEAC business, in part 
because the BEAC scandal has yet to be resolved during the current 
CEMAC presidency of CAR and has prevented the organization from 
looking ahead.  Also, Deby may find that he has to share the 
spotlight in CEMAC with Cameroonian President Paul Biya, long active 
in the organization through Cameroon's hosting of BEAC.  END 
COMMENT. 
 
¶13.  (SBU)  Embassies Libreville, Yaounde and Bangui have seen and 
contributed to this message.