US embassy cable - 05PARIS8280

UNCLAS PARIS 008280 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FROM USMISSION TO UNESCO PARIS 
FOR NAIROBI FOR KAREN LEVINE 
 
E.O.: 12958: N/A 
TAGS: XA, UNESCO 
SUBJECT:  USUNESCO-UNESCO TO PARTICIPATE IN AFRICAN 
UNION SUMMIT IN KHARTOUM, PREPARATORY MINISTERIALS TO 
BE HELD IN NAIROBI AND DAKAR 
 
Ref:  Paris 7715 
 
1.  (SBU) UNESCO Director General Matsuura, accompanied 
by the Assistant Directors General for Culture and 
Education will attend an African Union summit in 
Khartoum on culture and education in January 23-24. 
The total UNESCO delegation will number 12-15.  In 
anticipation of the Khartoum meeting, a preparatory 
ministerial on culture will be held in Nairobi December 
8-14.  Another meeting on education will be held in 
Dakar January 10-13.  When asked by the DCM why the DG 
and ADGs are traveling to Khartoum at this time, the 
ADG for Culture said that this was a decision of the 
African Union that they could not go against. 
 
2.  (SBU) In a subsequent conversation, a member of the 
Kenyan delegation told the DCM that he had raised with 
his capital concerns about a summit being held in 
Khartoum because of potential security problems.  He 
also said that Khartoum had been chosen by the AU as 
the venue to help the peace process, as well as to 
counter attempts to move the capital to other locations 
in the north or the south.  He mentioned, too, that 
Kenya has been providing a lot of aid in southern 
Sudan, especially helping to train teacher trainers. 
 
3.  (U) The Nairobi meeting will begin with a gathering 
of inter-governmental experts followed by a meeting of 
culture ministers December 13-14.  The provisional 
agenda includes a discussion of common African 
positions on global issues including the cultural 
diversity convention, the African Cultural Charter of 
1976, a review of the Dakar cultural action plan of 
1992, the African world heritage fund and a segment on 
culture and education and the use of information 
technology.  (Note:  we looked for these items on the 
AU website but the site is seriously out of date.) 
Mounir Bouchenaki, the ADG for culture and Katerina 
Stenou the head of the cultural policy office in the 
UNESCO cultural sector will be attending the Nairobi 
meeting.  The Kenyan diplomat also invited the US 
government to send an observer to attend the meetings. 
 
4.  (SBU) When the DCM asked Katerina Stenou on 
December 2 if there would be a lot of pushing to get 
states to ratify the cultural diversity convention, she 
felt that there will probably be more discussion about 
getting the European countries to deliver on the 
promises they made to get African support for the 
convention.  (Comment:  we have long wondered what 
kinds of promises were made to get the complete support 
of African countries for a document that primarily 
helps countries from the "north.")  Stenou did share a 
copy of a speech she gave at a recent culture ministers 
meeting in Dakar that portrayed the CD convention in 
glowing terms. 
 
5.  (U) Comment:  The US made clear its displeasure 
with the portion of the UNESCO budget devoted to 
supporting the cultural diversity convention by taking 
the unprecedented step (at UNESCO) of calling for a 
vote on the budget and voting against it.  What we now 
voted against is coming to pass.  We will continue to 
make the point that we do not want to see the 
secretariat involved in advocacy for the convention. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
OLIVER