Archive for the ‘Liberia’ tag
Sarkozy and Chirac met for the funeral of Bongo
The presence Tuesday in Libreville, the french president and his predecessor, said the special relationship between Paris and its former colony.
The arrival will be a symbol. In Libreville, the arrival on Tuesday morning, Nicolas Sarkozy, accompanied by Jacques Chirac, for the funeral of President Omar Bongo of Gabon, to highlight the interests that bind France to its former colony.
Since Monday, the boulevard along the sea, the heart of the capital, was placed under surveillance, the military has been stationed at the presidential palace, but also along adjacent buildings: the French Embassy, the local headquarters Total and the barracks of the 6th Brigade of Marine Infantry (Bima), where 800 soldiers are stationed french. An area that embodies the Françafrique.
“The Gabon not France is a car without a driver. France without Gabon, is a car without gas, “repeated in a smile, the late President Omar Bongo, who reigned for forty-one years on this small central African country bursting with oil. “There is something special, which is born of decolonization,” said Jean-François Obiang, an academic specialist in Franco-Gabonese relations. Léon M’ba, the first head of state of Gabon, dreamed aloud to transform Gabon in one department french. His successor, Omar Bongo will only make a friend as faithful as dangerous.
Because, in four decades of reign, Omar Bongo has sharpened his political acumen and rarely showed he had not forgotten the lessons learned as a french information. He slowly built up the files, information on the networks of influence of the former Métrople, buying also the silences and the friendships policies of the extreme right to extreme left.
The breakthrough Chinese
This dangerous game ultimately tarnish the love. In Libreville, we complained increasingly of French ingratitude. The government indicated in opening its markets to competition. In recent years, China, but also Malaysia, as elsewhere on the African continent, have been invited in this former hunting preserve French raids timber and rich iron mines. “We saw the number of french blend into the entourage of the president. There were a handful, five of whom kept a small influence, ensures a good knowledge of the intricacies of the presidential palace.
In the neighborhoods of Libreville, the anger against the French no longer hides. At Come-See, poor suburb of the city where oil money has not softened the conditions of life, Paris is a dream long past. Before his small hairdresser, Martha ronchon without restraint. “The French, they come here and take the job. And we, if we request a visa to Paris, we need many documents, and after they refuse, “says she. It is certain that the departure of the French Gabon it would “finally earn some money.”
In Paris, the ubiquitous president of Gabon was also eventually irritating. Nicolas Sarkozy, less “African” than Jacques Chirac, had indeed, before his election, the honored tradition of a visit to Omar Bongo to “take his advice.” But when he entered the Elysée, the head of the french state has sought to distance, at least publicly. To avoid Omar Bongo is Africa’s first host, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia was invited disaster. And during his tour in Africa in July 2006, Nicolas Sarkozy will flash a passage in Gabon.
The choice of Paris
Not until a president had come to french Libreville without spending a single night. The break has its limits. When Jean-Marie Bockel, Minister for Cooperation, gave a speech in the “death of French Africa”, he quickly pushed to resign. Omar Bongo, who was aware that the text had been duly read at the Élysée, received his eviction.
More than anything, but it is the business, Elf trial investigations on the property acquired by the wealthy clan Bongo France, which has undermined the entente cordiale.
Gabon remains that no leader today wants to deprive the support of Paris. “France has lost its influence, it’s true, but here everyone is convinced, rightly or wrongly, that if France chooses a candidate, this one has a good chance of being elected,” says a former journalist Gabon
