US embassy cable - 01ABUJA1048

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Identifier:	01ABUJA1048
Wikileaks:	View 01ABUJA1048 at Wikileaks.org
Origin:	Embassy Abuja
Created:	2001-05-09 15:19:00
Classification:	CONFIDENTIAL
Tags:	PREL PBTS MASS SL GV NI
Redacted:	This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABUJA 001048 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/08/2011 
TAGS: PREL, PBTS, MASS, SL, GV, NI 
SUBJECT: OBASANJO ON LIBERIA SANCTIONS, CONTE AND THE RUF 
 
 
REF:  ABUJA 959 
CLASSIFIED BY CDA ANDREWS.  REASON: 1.5 (B) AND (D) 
 
 
1. (C)  President Obasanjo told Ambassador Jeter May 5 that 
he was increasingly optimistic that the GOSL and the RUF 
could reach an accommodation.  At the conclusion of their 
visit to Abuja (reftel), the two sides had decided to 
return to Sierra Leone on the same aircraft.  Obasanjo 
opined that the RUF had made a shrewd choice in bringing 
Omrie Golley forward as their leader.  He had not been 
impressed with Issa Sesay. 
 
 
2. (C)  Obasanjo said he planned to tell Charles Taylor 
that ECOWAS would support UN sanctions and that these would 
be "nothing" by comparison to what would come if Taylor did 
not change his behavior. 
 
 
3. (C)  Nigeria  President sought U.S. assistance to 
encourage Lansana Conte toward greater flexibility. 
Obasanjo believed that, at this point, Guinea  President 
(who did not send a representative from Conakry or even 
from the Guinean Mission in Abuja), was exhibiting 
"unreasonable intransigence." 
 
 
Andrews