Word: africans
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President Nicolas Sarkozy may have promised on the campaign trail to clean up the less than savory relationship France maintains with various strongman leaders in its former African colonies, but that's proved to be easier said than done. So, France's judiciary is looking to step in where diplomats have been leery to tread, by filing corruption charges against three African heads of state...
...This week, France's senior investigating magistrate, Françoise Desset, ruled that a case brought by the anticorruption organization Transparency International against three African leaders had sufficient merit to warrant a full judicial investigation. The complaint accuses the trio - Gabon's President Omar Bongo, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of Congo, and Equatorial Guinea leader Teodoro Obiang Nguema - of pillaging their impoverished nations and treating state money as their personal wealth to finance acquisitions in France. The ruling means Desset can use her judicial authority to examine banking and other records to determine the origins of funds...
...three leaders fit the stereotype of the African "Big Man," having seized and maintained power by force. Each one, Transparency International alleges, has also used his position to enrich himself. That, French foreign-policy specialists say, has been done with the complicity and connivance of successive French governments maintaining the traditional Françafrique policy of retaining influence among former colonies. French lawyers for each of the leaders have flatly refuted the allegations. In Gabon - where Bongo is in temporary seclusion to mourn the death of his wife - government spokesman Alain Akouala Atipault assured that "there's nothing concrete...
...Françafrique is a Gaullist creation that integrated leaders from France's African sphere as virtual members of the French political and strategic élite," explains Antoine Glaser, a specialist on Franco-African relations, and author of the recent book Sarko in Africa. "That relationship has been based on French recognition of services rendered, and meant the interests of African leaders and their families that make up the first circle of power have come before the actual populations they're supposed to represent...
...Still, the African leaders under investigation in France aren't quaking just yet. Aware that the Paris prosecutor's office twice previously rejected Transparency's request as legally unfounded, they were among the many expecting that Desset's decision to investigate would be appealed. Many observers note that the prosecutor's office is filled by officials appointed by politicians that may be reluctant to see Paris' relations with African leaders aired. Some of France's less-than-savory clients in Africa have previously threatened to bring down political heavyweights in Paris who also benefited from Françafrique...