Unpacking the Mystery of Mediation in African Peace ... - Swisspeace

Central African Republic, Inclusive Political Dialog (Pre-talks only)
ditionally, the Mediation Support Project 52 / swisspeace
and the UN Mediation Support Unit were
called in early 2008 to support the work of the
CPDPI with a workshop. The Swiss Federal Government
and BONUCA sponsored this engagement.
The situation in the CAR is characterized by
changes in the facilitation and coordination roles.
Until 2006, BONUCA was exclusively in charge
of the dialog between the government and the
political opposition. HD took over the lead facilitation
in 2007 and handed it back to BONUCA
in 2008. However, neither BONUCA nor HD
has been able to meet all of the prerequisites for
an effective facilitation of the talks on its own.
While HD staff certainly benefited from their extensive
experience in facilitation, BONUCA was
able to provide the necessary international legitimacy,
which was needed to engage in talks with
the APRD without Bozizé’s explicit consent.
Mediation Style and Strategy
Prof. Abebe’s status as a respected elder was coupled
with an outstanding cultural and linguistic
knowledge. His language and speeches were characterized
by great respect for the commissioners
and awareness of his own limitations. This status
enabled him to act as a moral authority, which
partly became clear in the relationship between
him and the commissioners and the respect
shown by the commissioners during plenary
meetings. 53 The facilitator’s task was mainly to
repeat (not rephrase) each intervention in order
to ensure the correct wording in the final report.
He also had to make decisions pertaining to procedural
matters if there was no consensus.
From the beginning, HD enjoyed little room for
maneuver, due to its lack of power and clout.
Consequently, the mediation by HD during the
preparation talks was exclusively low-power mediation,
i.e., facilitative. There were at least two
important limits to the facilitation:
Firstly, HD had to stick rigorously to the provisions
of the presidential decree establishing the
52 The Mediation Support Project is a joint venture between swisspeace
and the Center for Security Studies, Swiss Federal Institute
of Technology (ETH) Zurich.
53 Observations based on a plenary meeting assisted by the author
as well as several discussions with the facilitator.
preparatory committee and mandating facilitation
by HD. 54 For instance, any engagement in informal
dialog with additional conflict parties that
had been excluded from the pre-talks would have
immediately led to HD’s expulsion from the
CAR. Secondly, HD had few opportunities to influence
the pace and content of the discussions.
The aim of the preparatory work of the CPDPI
was to establish an agenda for the actual dialog
that contained all issues at stake as well as a rough
timeframe. The facilitation could not prevent the
commissioners from designing an agenda with a
myriad of issues to be discussed in only 17 days –
despite the explicit concerns of the facilitation
team with regard to an ‘overloaded agenda’. 55
Negotiation Setup and Process
The negotiations took place in a small compound
in Bangui, which was built specifically for the
CPDPI. It comprised a plenary room and two
additional rooms for the facilitation office. The
meetings took place from January to March and
lasted 90 working days, as stipulated by the presidential
decree. Besides the plenary sessions (which
took up less than half of the discussion time), the
CPDPI met in three working groups, each of
which was presided by one of the CPDPI members.
Each group had to define the agenda for the
three issues of concern, namely security and
armed groups, the socio-economic situation, and
politics and governance. The results of the working
groups were reported to the plenary.
Perceptions by the Conflict Parties
The perception of the inclusive political dialog
varied. Generally speaking, the dialog is seen as a
presidential initiative. Bozizé highlighted his
ownership over the process on several occasions.
The indisputability of the 2004 constitution and
the 2005 elections was a conditio sine qua non for
the dialog. Furthermore, to highlight the state’s
sovereignty, Bozizé issued presidential decrees
mandating the work of the preparatory committee
and designating the members of the committee.
Since the names in this decree had been
agreed beforehand, this procedure only served to
54 Presidential decree no. 07.356 (30 November 2007).
55 Author’s conversation with HD representative in Bangui (February
2008).
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