INDEPENDENT NEWS

Cablegate: Obasanjo Advisor Briefs Goma-Based Diplomats

Published: Fri 22 Jan 2010 11:11 AM
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SUBJECT: Obasanjo Advisor Briefs Goma-Based Diplomats
1. (U) General Lazaro Sumbeiywo, Special Advisor to UNSYG Special
Envoy for the Great Lakes Olesegun Obasanjo, met with Goma-based
diplomats on January 21, accompanied by former Tanzanian President
Mkapa's adviser Daniel Kapya and UN political officer Luc Ngowet.
The meeting took place on the eve of a January 22 meeting of the
National Monitoring Committee (CNS) and prior to a January 23
meeting of Co-facilitators and Special Envoys to be held in
Nairobi, which itself would result in recommendations to the AU
summit in Addis Ababa.
2. (SBU) Describing his team as the eyes and ears of Obasanjo,
Sumbeiywo said that the agreements reached between the GDRC and the
CNDP on March 23, 2009, and reaffirmed on December 23, 2009, were
"too good to be true." Although he had made it clear to the
parties that he would be returning in January to review progress,
Sumbeiywo had been disappointed, but not surprised, that the
agreements had not been implemented. It was only through the
insistence of his team, he said, that the CNS would take place.
His team had met with traditional leaders, former armed groups, the
CNDP, and others interested in the Congo. GDRC officials, he said,
had arrived with "headaches" and GDRC lead negotiator Father Malu
Malu was not expected to arrive until January 22.
3. (SBU) Sumbeiywo's assessment of the CNDP, was that they are
frustrated, desperate, and engaging in reverse gear. He said that
he had dined with President Kabila and the Deputy Foreign Minister
the previous evening but, referring to his prior work in Somalia
and Sudan, Sumbeiywo said "I don't understand the Congolese!"
4. (SBU) After soliciting the views of Goma-based diplomats,
Sumbeiywo stated that GDRC calls for MONUC to "thin out" were
premature and that following the Nairobi meeting of co-facilitators
and envoys, there might be a recommendation to the AU's Peace and
Security Council to issue a statement to that effect.
5. (SBU) Comment: The Obasanjo team is clearly frustrated by the
slow pace of implementing the March 23 agreements. While
implementation is stagnant, it does not necessarily portend
slippage back into armed conflict. Rather, the various armed
groups are maneuvering to try to obtain certain government
positions and ranks. It is a complex shuffle, over which the GDRC
is pondering carefully in an attempt to maintain some ethnic and
regional balancing; hence the "headaches" on the GDRC side.
Continued engagement by the co-facilitators and envoys remains
welcome, both to prod the various sides along, but also as "an
insurance policy," should the situation deteriorate. End comment.
BROCK
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