WikiLeaks Yamuumbua Kikwete: Alikuwa Akipewa Rushwa na Mlibya wa Kempinski

Kwa sasa nitaiwasilisha kama ilivyo lakini naahidi kuifanyia tafsiri ya Kiswahili baadaye leo.

Viewing cable 06DARESSALAAM277, KIKWETE CORRUPTION TIDBIT

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06DARESSALAAM277	2006-02-14 03:38	2011-08-30 01:44	CONFIDENTIAL	Embassy Dar Es Salaam

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAR ES SALAAM 000277 SIPDIS DEPT FOR INR, R.EHRENREICH E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/13/2016 TAGS:

PGOVPRELTZSUBJECT: KIKWETE CORRUPTION TIDBIT Classified By: Ambassador Michael Retzer, Reason 1.5 (d) ¶1. (C) President Kikwete has accepted gifts (bribes) from the owner of the Kempinski Hotel chain,s Tanzanian properties, a citizen of the United Arab Emirates. ¶2.

(C) In a conversation with the manager and the publicity director of Dar Es Salaam,s Kilimanjaro-Kempinski Hotel hours after accompanying A/S Frazer to her October 18, 2005 meeting with then-Foreign Minister Kikwete, I commented on Kikwete's flashy attire, asking "Who dresses him?" "We do," they responded. Initially thinking this meant Kikwete frequented a men,s shop in the hotel, I learned later in the evening from hotel publicity director Lisa Pile (protect) that the hotel owner*UAE citizen Ali Albwardy*had recently flown Kikwete to London for a subsidized shopping expedition.Among other things, on that trip Ali Albwardy bought Kikwete five Saville Row suits. He had also recently made a $1 million cash contribution to the CCM (which is a legal contribution under current Tanzanian law). ¶3.

(C) Pile told me the Kempinski Hotel chain is greatly expanding its presence in Tanzania. She said that in December it would open "the best hotel in Zanzibar." Her prediction was a little off; the new Kempinski hotel, located on the beach on Zanzibar,s east coast, opened January 5. I attended the opening ceremony along with Zanzibari President Karume, who was asked publicly by Ali Albwardy for a site in Stone Town to build a new hotel. Later that day, Pile revealed that the Zanzibar government had already earmarked for Ali Albwardy a hotel site in Stone Town. ¶4.

(C) Pile also said in the October 18 conversation that Ali Abwardy was about to receive the rights to construct two new hotels on the mainland: one on the edge of Ngorongoro Crater and another on the Serengeti plain overlooking the main animal migration routes. Stringent conservation rules currently ban the construction of permanent structures inside national parks*including in the crater and on the Serengeti plain*but Pile said that in November legislation would be introduced to parliament to authorize the new hotels.

(Comment: We have received no reports on new legislation, but the Dar Es Salaam Daily News on January 15 reported that the Tanzania National Parks Authority had approved construction of a five star hotel on the Serengeti plain.) ¶4.

(C) Later on October 18, over dinner, an Indian/South Asian man described as a business associate of Ali Albwardy briefly took Pile from the table for a conversation in Kiswahili. I am not sure what was said, but Kikwete's name came up several times and he passed her an envelope. Pile told me the envelope was stuffed with 1 million shillings ( $1,000) and was to pay for a Kikwete meeting at the Kilmanjaro-Kempinski later that month. Apparently Kikwete is a regular customer, but no name ever appears on the hotel registry when a government bigshot has an "event" in one of the guest rooms. ¶5.

(C) Bio Note: Lisa Pile, an Australian citizen, has lived in Dar working for Kempinski Hotels since early 2004. Before that she had served in a similar capacity with the Kempinski chain in China. Her family in Australia is prominent in Australia's Liberal Party (the center-right party of Prime Minister John Howard). ¶6.

(C) Comment: What does it all mean? I don,t know, but my guess is that the investor Ali Albwardy has access to oil money out of the UAE. I suspect giving free clothes and the campaign donation is just the way these people do business. ¶7.

(C) For his part, Kikwete probably thinks having all these five star hotels around is a good idea for the country,and I agree with him. His new minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Anthony Diallo, says he wants to double tourism,s contribution to the national economy in ten year,s time. Kikwete probably believes there is no harm in taking these "little gifts" to do what he would have been inclined to do anyway. That said, they are what they are: bribes.

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WikiLeaks: US Embassy Cables Unveil Ecosystem of Ufisadi in Tanzania.

Summary Boeing executives, at times, are pressed by foreign government officials and airline executives to hire “agents” or other intermediaries to help deliver a sale. Typically, these agents ask for some kind of a commission to make introductions to officials running the competition. Boeing faced such a request in Tanzania in 2007, as it was bidding on a relatively small contract to modernize the Air Tanzania fleet. It was already concerned, as the bidding began, that AirBus had an inside track. Boeing officials refused to hire the agent and reported the request to the State Department. Air Tanzania was shut down by aviation safety authorities about a year after this exchange.

Date 2007-09-13 11:25:00


Source Embassy Dar Es Salaam

Classification CONFIDENTIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAR ES SALAAM 001249

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR AF/E RMEYERS, SHAMILTON

AF/EPS FOR THASTINGS, AF/EB

PASS TO DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE FOR ITA ALSO PASS TO MCC FOR MKAVANAGH, GBREVNOV NAIROBI FOR FCS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/13/2017

TAGS: ETRD, ECON, PGOV, BEXP, TZ


SUBJECT: BOEING AND AIR TANZANIA: THE STRUGGLE TO ENSURE TRANSPARENCY AND A LEVEL PLAYING FIELD

REF: DAR ES SALAAM 1074

Classified By: Deputy Chief of Mission D. Purnell Delly for reasons 1.4 b and d.


SUMMARY

--------

1. (C) As Air Tanzania shops for new airplanes for its aging fleet, we remain troubled by separate press reports, quoting Air Tanzania leadership and most recently the Minister of Infrastructure, that a decision has been made in favor of Airbus. This decision would have been made without any serious negotiations with Boeing. We have actively engaged at the highest reaches of this government, and for the moment halted the rush to Airbus and opened a window that Boeing intends to exploit. Air Tanzania now seems to be seriously evaluating the leasing and sale options offered by Boeing.

But we do not believe we are out of the woods, in view of early efforts to pressure Boeing to hire an "agent," and subsequent rumors that China is tying aid to purchase of

Airbuses in order to give business to the joint manufacturing facility being built in China. Ambassador Green raised MCC, the importance of transparency to the investment climate, and a level playing field for Boeing in his presentation of credentials to President Kikwete on September 12. Earlier the DCM had called on the Infrastructure Minister and spoken with a close advisor to the President underscoring the same points. We will continue to press hard not only on behalf of Boeing, but the importance of transparency and a level playing field to the positive investment climate Kikwete is working to create.

END SUMMARY.

2. (SBU) Air Tanzania plans to replace its aging fleet with newer, more efficient aircraft, and has solicited proposals from Boeing and Airbus. In June 2007, Boeing submitted a request for advocacy through the Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration, and Ambassador Retzer, the DCM, and EconCouns met with Rob Faye, Regional Director of Sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, on several occasions.

Boeing's early dealings with top officials of the airline beginning in June suggested to Post that the company's fear of outside influence or corruption might be legitimate (reftel).

3. (C) Subsequent to meetings with Faye, the DCM raised the issue of Air Tanzania's dealings with Boeing and Airbus in conversations with a close advisor to President Jakaya Kikwete. The DCM specifically noted Air Tanzania Managing Director and CEO, David Mattaka's unusual "suggestion" that Faye should contact a wealthy South Asian hotelier, who subsequently suggested to Faye that he would need his services to open the right doors in government. Faye flatly refused, responding that Boeing does not use "agents" in Tanzania or elsewhere. (Comment: "Agents" and steep "commissions" have been at the heart of several corruption scandals here, including a BAE radar deal in which the GOT paid a 31 percent commission to a Tanzanian agent, much of which ended up in Swiss bank accounts, according to a UK Parliamentary investigation. Despite the fact that the UK shared this evidence with Tanzania's corruption board, no evident action has been taken. End Comment.) The presidential advisor later got back to the DCM, telling him that President Kikwete was "incensed" upon learning that senior Air Tanzania officials might be intending to profit personally from the deal.

4. (SBU) On August 9, Boeing's Faye met with Maua Daftari, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure, and Dr. Bartholomew Rufunjo, Director of Transport and Communications in the Ministry of Infrastructure (the Ministry that makes all financial decisions regarding Air Tanzania). Faye reported his meetings with both Daftari and Rufunjo were promising.

Both officials mentioned more than once the importance of a fair and level acquisition process for Air Tanzania's development. David Mattaka, CEO of Air Tanzania, went out of his way to tell Faye on August 10 that Air Tanzania did not use agents. Mattaka repeated this statement during a meeting between Faye and the Air Tanzania board of directors. Faye reported that it was apparent that there had been some communication with the Ministry, presumably from State House, to ensure there would be no "go-betweens" in Air Tanzania's dealings with Boeing. On the sidelines, Mattaka mentioned to Faye that he thought the pressure was originating with the U.S. Embassy.

DAR ES SAL 00001249 002 OF 002

5. (U) Ambassador Retzer forcefully raised the issue of combating corruption in his last public speech beforebdeparting Post on August 31. On September 2, forty-eight hours after Retzer departed country, the Tanzanian press reported for the second time that Air Tanzania was in the process of procuring eight Airbus planes, and extensively quoted Tanzanian Minister of Infrastructure, Andrew Chenge.

We did not view the timing of the second announcement -- on the heels of Retzer's departure and before Ambassador Green had arrived and been credentialed -- as a coincidence.

6. (C) On September 7, the DCM and EconOff met with Minister Chenge. The DCM began by raising President Kikwete's upcoming trip to the United States and his plan to take a large business delegation. Kikwete would be marketing Tanzania as a prime location to trade and invest. It was important, therefore, that a major U.S. corporation like Boeing compete on a level playing field with Airbus, so its message to the U.S. business community would echo Kikwete's message. The DCM said Boeing and the Embassy had been confused by recent press reports regarding Air Tanzania's acquisition of new aircraft, and asked Chenge to clarify the status of negotiations.

7. (C) Chenge said contrary to his purported statements to the Tanzanian press, no final decision had been made on whether Air Tanzania would acquire Airbus or Boeing airplanes. The first decision was what type of airplanes to buy, and Boeing was the obvious choice since Air Tanzania already owned and maintained several Boeing airplanes.

However, the issue of financing was also a primary concern due to a lack of government funding for the new aircraft. He stated that he could say "with certainty" that no decision has been made, but his Ministry was "very cautious on how to proceed because (they) don,t have the money." He said he understood Boeing could help open doors to financing possibilities, but "certain deadlines" needed to be met. The

DCM stressed that regardless of the outcome, the Embassy wants to see that Air Tanzania is engaged in fair and transparent negotiations. He pointed out that Tanzania would benefit from giving Boeing the chance to underbid Airbus.

8. (C) The DCM ended the meeting by mentioning the upcoming vote on the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact for Tanzania, and the importance of transparency to sustaining any Compact that eventually would be signed. On the way out, Chenge,s staffer told the DCM that he was aware that Chenge had "misspoken" and been "misquoted" in the press, and that his office had already received several calls for clarification. (Comment: We think one of the calls to Chenge's office may have come from State House. End Comment)

-------

9. (C) Although Air Tanzania is a small airline, looking to expand its fleet of two Boeing 737's to a fleet of about 10 planes, this deal has the potential to result in USD 537 million in sales for Boeing. Boeing is ready to offer Air Tanzania a number of capacity-building services to enable the airline to better serve the Tanzanian public. More broadly, if done right, the deal can reinforce the impression that Tanzania is a promising place to invest. Done wrongly, it can reinforce impressions that have been building here for

the past 18 months that this is a government without the political will to tackle senior-level corruption. To us, reinforcing the view that Tanzania is a positive place to invest is almost as important as ensuring one of America's premier private sector "champions" is accorded the transparency and level playing field it is due. We remain concerned, however, in part due to rumors that the Chinese have tied aid to buying Airbus. We will continue to monitor this case closely, intervening decisively with the government when necessary.

Destination

VZCZCXRO6390

PP RUEHDBU RUEHDT RUEHKN RUEHLMC RUEHMJ RUEHMR RUEHPB

DE RUEHDR #1249/01 2561125

ZNY CCCCC ZZH

P 131125Z SEP 07

FM AMEMBASSY DAR ES SALAAM

TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6752

INFO RUCNCLM/MCC CANDIDATE COUNTRY COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI PRIORITY 0780



RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC PRIORITY
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SOURCE: New York Times

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The Guardian: Live Q&A with the Founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange

The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, answers The Guardian readers' questions about the release of more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables

Fwoggie

I'll start the ball rolling with a question. You're an Australian passport holder - would you want return to your own country or is this now out of the question due to potentially being arrested on arrival for releasing cables relating to Australian diplomats and polices?

Julian Assange:

I am an Australian citizen and I miss my country a great deal. However, during the last weeks the Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, and the attorney general, Robert McClelland, have made it clear that not only is my return is impossible but that they are actively working to assist the United States government in its attacks on myself and our people. This brings into question what does it mean to be an Australian citizen - does that mean anything at all? Or are we all to be treated like David Hicks at the first possible opportunity merely so that Australian politicians and diplomats can be invited to the best US embassy cocktail parties.

girish89

How do you think you have changed world affairs?

And if you call all the attention you've been given-credit ... shouldn't the mole or source receive a word of praise from you?

Julian Assange:

For the past four years one of our goals has been to lionise the source who take the real risks in nearly every journalistic disclosure and without whose efforts, journalists would be nothing. If indeed it is the case, as alleged by the Pentagon, that the young soldier - Bradley Manning - is behind some of our recent disclosures, then he is without doubt an unparalleled hero.

Daithi

Have you released, or will you release, cables (either in the last few days or with the Afghan and Iraq war logs) with the names of Afghan informants or anything else like so?

Are you willing to censor (sorry for using the term) any names that you feel might land people in danger from reprisals??

By the way, I think history will absolve you. Well done!!!

Julian Assange:

WikiLeaks has a four-year publishing history. During that time there has been no credible allegation, even by organisations like the Pentagon that even a single person has come to harm as a result of our activities. This is despite much-attempted manipulation and spin trying to lead people to a counter-factual conclusion. We do not expect any change in this regard.

distrot

The State Dept is mulling over the issue of whether you are a journalist or not. Are you a journalist? As far as delivering information that someone [anyone] does not want seen is concerned, does it matter if you are a 'journalist' or not?

Julian Assange:

I coauthored my first nonfiction book by the time I was 25. I have been involved in nonfiction documentaries, newspapers, TV and internet since that time. However, it is not necessary to debate whether I am a journalist, or how our people mysteriously are alleged to cease to be journalists when they start writing for our organisaiton. Although I still write, research and investigate my role is primarily that of a publisher and editor-in-chief who organises and directs other journalists.

achanth

Mr Assange,

have there ever been documents forwarded to you which deal with the topic of UFOs or extraterrestrials?

Julian Assange:

Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the anti-christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot-plant. However, as yet they have not satisfied two of our publishing rules.

1) that the documents not be self-authored;

2) that they be original.

However, it is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs.

gnosticheresy

What happened to all the other documents that were on Wikileaks prior to these series of "megaleaks"? Will you put them back online at some stage ("technical difficulties" permitting)?

Julian Assange:

Many of these are still available at mirror.wikileaks.info and the rest will be returning as soon as we can find a moment to do address the engineering complexities. Since April of this year our timetable has not been our own, rather it has been one that has centred on the moves of abusive elements of the United States government against us. But rest assured I am deeply unhappy that the three-and-a-half years of my work and others is not easily available or searchable by the general public.

CrisShutlar

Have you expected this level of impact all over the world? Do you fear for your security?

Julian Assange:

I always believed that WikiLeaks as a concept would perform a global role and to some degree it was clear that is was doing that as far back as 2007 when it changed the result of the Kenyan general election. I thought it would take two years instead of four to be recognised by others as having this important role, so we are still a little behind schedule and have much more work to do. The threats against our lives are a matter of public record, however, we are taking the appropriate precautions to the degree that we are able when dealing with a super power.

JAnthony

Julian.

I am a former British diplomat. In the course of my former duties I helped to coordinate multilateral action against a brutal regime in the Balkans, impose sanctions on a renegade state threatening ethnic cleansing, and negotiate a debt relief programme for an impoverished nation. None of this would have been possible without the security and secrecy of diplomatic correspondence, and the protection of that correspondence from publication under the laws of the UK and many other liberal and democratic states. An embassy which cannot securely offer advice or pass messages back to London is an embassy which cannot operate. Diplomacy cannot operate without discretion and the

protection of sources. This applies to the UK and the UN as much as the US.

In publishing this massive volume of correspondence, Wikileaks is not highlighting specific cases of wrongdoing but undermining the entire process of diplomacy. If you can publish US cables then you can publish UK telegrams and UN emails.

My question to you is: why should we not hold you personally responsible when next an international crisis goes unresolved because diplomats cannot function.

Julian Assange:

If you trim the vast editorial letter to the singular question actually asked, I would be happy to give it my attention.

cargun

Mr Assange,

Can you explain the censorship of identities as XXXXX's in the revealed cables? Some critical identities are left as is, whereas some are XXXXX'd. Some cables are partially revealed. Who can make such critical decisons, but the US gov't? As far as we know your request for such help was rejected by the State department. Also is there an order in the release of cable or are they randomly selected?

Thank you.

Julian Assange:

The cables we have release correspond to stories released by our main stream media partners and ourselves. They have been redacted by the journalists working on the stories, as these people must know the material well in order to write about it. The redactions are then reviewed by at least one other journalist or editor, and we review samples supplied by the other organisations to make sure the process is working.

rszopa

Annoying as it may be, the DDoS seems to be good publicity (if anything, it adds to your credibility). So is getting kicked out of AWS. Do you agree with this statement? Were you planning for it?

Thank you for doing what you are doing.

Julian Assange:

Since 2007 we have been deliberately placing some of our servers in jurisdictions that we suspected suffered a free speech deficit inorder to separate rhetoric from reality. Amazon was one of these cases.

abbeherrera

You started something that nobody can stop. The Beginning of a New World. Remember, that community is behind you and support you (from Slovakia).

Do you have leaks on ACTA?

Julian Assange:

Yes, we have leaks on the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, a trojan horse trade agreement designed from the very beginning to satisfy big players in the US copyright and patent industries. In fact, it was WikiLeaks that first drew ACTA to the public's attention - with a leak.

people1st

Tom Flanagan, a [former] senior adviser to Canadian Prime Minister recently stated "I think Assange should be assassinated ... I think Obama should put out a contract ... I wouldn't feel unhappy if Assange does disappear."

How do you feel about this?

Julian Assange:

It is correct that Mr. Flanagan and the others seriously making these statements should be charged with incitement to commit murder.

Isopod

Julian, why do you think it was necessary to "give Wikileaks a face"? Don't you think it would be better if the organization was anonymous?

This whole debate has become very personal and reduced on you - "Julian Assange leaked documents", "Julian Assange is a terrorist", "Julian Assange alledgedly raped a woman", "Julian Assange should be assassinated", "Live Q&A with Julian Assange" etc. Nobody talks about Wikileaks as an organization anymore. Many people don't even realize that there are other people behind Wikileaks, too.

And this, in my opinion, makes Wikileaks vulnerable because this enables your opponents to argue ad hominem. If they convince the public that you're an evil, woman-raping terrorist, then Wikileaks' credibility will be gone. Also, with due respect for all that you've done, I think it's unfair to all the other brave, hard working people behind Wikileaks, that you get so much credit.

Julian Assange:

This is an interesting question. I originally tried hard for the organisation to have no face, because I wanted egos to play no part in our activities. This followed the tradition of the French anonymous pure mathematians, who wrote under the collective allonym, "The Bourbaki". However this quickly led to tremendous distracting curiosity about who and random individuals claiming to represent us. In the end, someone must be responsible to the public and only a leadership that is willing to be publicly courageous can genuinely suggest that sources take risks for the greater good. In that process, I have become the lightening rod. I get undue attacks on every aspect of my life, but then I also get undue credit as some kind of balancing force.

tburgi

Western governments lay claim to moral authority in part from having legal guarantees for a free press.

Threats of legal sanction against Wikileaks and yourself seem to weaken this claim.

(What press needs to be protected except that which is unpopular to the State? If being state-sanctioned is the test for being a media organization, and therefore able to claim rights to press freedom, the situation appears to be the same in authoritarian regimes and the west.)

Do you agree that western governments risk losing moral authority by

attacking Wikileaks?

Do you believe western goverments have any moral authority to begin with?

Thanks,

Tim Burgi

Vancouver, Canada

Julian Assange:

The west has fiscalised its basic power relationships through a web of contracts, loans, shareholdings, bank holdings and so on. In such an environment it is easy for speech to be "free" because a change in political will rarely leads to any change in these basic instruments. Western speech, as something that rarely has any effect on power, is, like badgers and birds, free. In states like China, there is pervasive censorship, because speech still has power and power is scared of it. We should always look at censorship as an economic signal that reveals the potential power of speech in that jurisdiction. The attacks against us by the US point to a great hope, speech powerful enough to break the fiscal blockade.

rajiv1857

Hi,

Is the game that you are caught up in winnable? Technically, can you keep playing hide and seek with the powers that be when services and service providers are directly or indirectly under government control or vulnerable to pressure - like Amazon?

Also, if you get "taken out" - and that could be technical, not necessarily physical - what are the alternatives for your cache of material?

Is there a 'second line' of activists in place that would continue the campaign?

Is your material 'dispersed' so that taking out one cache would not necessarily mean the end of the game?

Julian Assange:

The Cable Gate archive has been spread, along with significant material from the US and other countries to over 100,000 people in encrypted form. If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically. Further, the Cable Gate archives is in the hands of multiple news organisations. History will win. The world will be elevated to a better place. Will we survive? That depends on you.

That's it every one, thanks for all your questions and comments. Julian Assange is sorry that he can't answer every question but he has tried to cover as much territory as possible. Thanks for your patience with our earlier technical difficulties

SOURCE: The Guardian

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