US embassy cable - 03ACCRA468

C O N F I D E N T I A L ACCRA 000468 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/18/2013 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, GH, ECOWAS 
SUBJECT: ACCRA TALKS CONTINUE ON COTE D'IVOIRE 
 
 
Classified By: Polchief Richard Kaminski, reason 1.5(B/D). 
 
1.  (C)   Summary.  Talks between signatories to the 
Marcoussis Accords broke up at 4 a.m. March 7 without 
reaching final agreement on the composition of the new 
government.  Allocation of ministerial portfolios continued 
to be the sticking point, with mechanisms to attribute the 
Defense and Interior portfolios unresolved.  Talks will 
resume midday in the absence of President Kufuor, who left 
today for Burkina Faso, and President Gbagbo, who returned to 
Cote d'Ivoire yesterday.  End summary. 
 
2.  (C) Talks hosted by the GOG with the signatories to the 
Marcoussis Accords began at 12:30 p.m. in Accra at a local 
beachside hotel.  President Gbagbo, invited by the GOG to 
attend Ghana's 46th independence day celebrations, waited at 
the Castle (the presidential compound) as President Kufuor 
welcomed the delegations and asked them to work 
conscientiously for peace in Cote d'Ivoire.  Prime Minister 
Diarra, ECOWAS General Secretary Chambas, UN Representative 
Tevoedjre, various military representatives and others also 
attended. 
 
3.  (C)  Initial rather stale presentations of official 
position papers by the ten delegations were accompanied by 
some "hard feelings," according to GOG Foreign Ministry 
sources emboffs spoke with.  After departure of President 
Kufuor, the delegations commenced discussions on constructing 
a government.  As in the past, a primary sticking point 
remained allocation of the defense and interior portfolios. 
An initial proposal put forward for consideration had Prime 
Minister Diarra assuming direct responsibility for the 
Defense Ministry, with Interior divided in separate 
functions.  Gbagbo's representatives apparently did not 
accept this. A subsequent configuration, under which a 
National Security Council, under Diarra's direction, with 
representatives of all signatories to the Marcoussis Accords, 
would jointly administer Defense and Interior, was also 
rejected by Gbagbo's representatives.  According to our GOG 
sources, Gbagbo insisted on exercising direct control of the 
Council. 
 
4.  (C) The talks, originally scheduled to conclude at 6 p.m. 
continued far into the night and the early morning hours. 
President Kufuor returned to the beachside hotel, to help 
guide discussions (which had proved unwieldy with ten 
delegations present).  He left at approximately 3 a.m., and 
the talks broke up at shortly after 4 a.m.  In an early 
morning radio interview by Ghanaian Foreign Minister 
Owusu-Agyeman, conducted as he saw off President Kufuor on 
his trip to Burkina Faso, the Minister gave the delegations a 
bare "fifty-fifty chance" of resolving the impasse.  Speaking 
rather somberly, he offered this brief assessment of where 
the fundamental problem lay: "Gbagbo has to move."  In a 
later brief conversation with Polchief, ECOWAS Executive 
Secretary Chambas said, "its not quite so hopeless as some 
 
SIPDIS 
are saying," and "we will give it one more shot."  Originally 
scheduled to depart today, Chambas has decided to remain and 
continue to work with the delegations. 
 
5.  (C) Comment.   We have the sense from our GOG sources 
that while the "rebels" are willing to make some compromises 
(they agreed to accept the Communications and Territorial 
Administration Ministries), they will not accept Gbagbo 
exercising control over the Defense and Interior Ministries. 
Other parties appear ready to accept some mechanism whereby 
the two ministries are put in "neutral" hands, but so far not 
the Gabgbo government.  When talks resume at midday, they 
will do so without Gbagbo or Kufuor in Accra to either 
authorize agreement (for the former) or cajole results (for 
the latter).  Fifty-fifty may be optimistic.  End comment. 
 
Abidjan minimize considered. 
YATES