Libreville
(Gabon), June 8, 2011
Letter from Civil
Society of Gabon to BARACK OBAMA
To
the President of the United States of America, BARACK OBAMA
Prelude
to his meeting with Ali Bongo, President of Gabon
Excellency
Mr. President,
It
is in the name of the cardinal democratic values that underpin the United
States of America that the Gabonese civil society comes to you, when you are
preparing to receive Mr. Ali Bongo, President of the Republic of Gabon, who
presides over the destiny of the Security Council of the United Nations, and
expose to you the catastrophic situation of governance and democracy in Gabon.
Independent
since 1960, Gabon has two main pathologies that affect all segments of society:
bad governance and corruption.
Bad
governance
The
main characteristic of this disease lies in the refusal of any democratic
change through the confiscation of power by fraudulent means, rigged elections,
the results of elections are known in advance, the list of electors domiciled
at the Ministry of Interior undergoes systematic manipulation and trafficking
of all kinds in order to maintain a corrupt system and hated by the population.
The ballot box results are reversed for the benefit of the Gabonese Democratic
(sic) Party (Parti Democratique Gabonais, PDG), the party-state, in power for
44 years, one of the last remnants of the monolithic political system in
Africa, also responsible of the widespread bankruptcy and ruin the country.
Yes,
Mr. President, Gabon is in ruined, its democracy is devastated.
Institutions
in general have no credibility because they are ideologically and politically
loyal to the Gabonese Democratic Party. Their sole aim is regime survival. The
last constitutional amendment decided unilaterally by the PDG, the sole aim to
empower and create an unlimited lifetime presidency for Mr. Ali Bongo, is the
perfect illustration of democratic stagnation in Gabon. Similarly, the
Constitutional Court is one of the bolts of a real walk from Gabon to the rule
of law and democracy. That institution led by the beautiful mother of Ali Bongo
and includes former chiefs of the ruling party firmly blocked democracy. She
stubbornly refuses the establishment of legal mechanisms to organize credible
elections, transparent and democratic in the country, with the direct
involvement of civil society organizations in all phases of Gabon election
(pre-election, during election and post-election). The Constitution Court has
consistently opposed the introduction of BIOMERTRY in the electoral system when
all political actors and civil society have unanimously chosen angelically the
biometry system.
We
have come to a bitter realization that the actions, methods and practices of
the actual gabonese government are contrary to the international standards of
democracy
Journalists
are imprisoned and threatened with death simply because they expose corruption,
and wrong and anti-democratic actions of people belonging to the government or
the presidential family. The journalist Désiré ENAME, Managing Editor of the
weekly ECHOS DU NORD, was abducted and kidnapped by the police, exploited by a
relative of President, Frederik BONGO. Thanks to the rapid mobilization of
civil society, ENAME Desiré was released.
Every
day, freedom of association are threatened. Trade unionists defending their
rights have been imprisoned. Some unionists, members of the CONASYCED, have
seen their salaries for several months suspended for demanding respect for
commitments made by the government.
Newspapers
very critical of those in power are suspended or destroyed by special agents
working for people in power.
The
two public television channels routinely conduct a shameless manipulation of
public opinion.
Democratic
expressions such as peaceful marches or gatherings are banned or brutally
suppressed by security forces which behave with civilians as forces of
occupation and repression.
The
opposition parties are marginalized, their activities are subjected to
considerable harassment. Several members and supporters of a dissolved
opposition party were removed from the public service staff or prosecuted.
As
you can be see, Gabon is not a democratic country, its political power is
dictatorial because based on fraud and repression of democratic forces as
mechanisms for sustaining political power at odds with the democratic values
on which United States are based. This is indeed the same family who
confiscates the power and dividends and divert public funds for the sole
benefit of their small caste of barony.
The
corruption of the ruling elite enriched indefinitely and growing extreme
poverty in the population
Since
Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba took over the business of the country, many decisions to
improve the management of the state have been announced, but the implementation
of these initiatives is still pending. Informed observers refer to this as
"the effects of ads or pure publicity" ...
Meanwhile,
corruption linked in particular to public market procurement and management of
revenues from extractive industries affects all segments of the Gabonese
administration. The most significant example in 2011 is the business that
brings the organization of the African Cup of Nations (CAN) 2012: SOCOBA and
ENTRACO, two corporations owned by the president's family, have the largest
number of contracts. It is the same with the Gabonese oil revenues that are in
the hands of the president's family or relatives living within his galaxy.
In
the same vein of spoliation of Gabon's financial resources, rotating holidays,
a real money pit that has swallowed more than 500 billion CFA francs, allowed
different political barons and deans to serve themselves without shame in the
country coffers, with impunity. Most recently, the President has even offered
at Gabon's taxpayers expense, a sumptuous estate valued at 100 million Euros,
in Paris, while the Gabonese children suffer from poor education and social
inequality in constant progression.
In
addition, audits measures undertaken by the Court of Accounts (Cour des
Comptes) show the extent of the abuses and economic crimes committed in that
program called "fêtes tournantes du Gabon" (sort of revolving festivities regarding Gabon's Independence Day). At the institutional level, the National Commission of Fight
Against Illicit Enrichment lacks effectiveness, independence and means of
action to match its ambitions, because of the lack of political will. While the
barons of the regime empty country's coffers, poverty is growing by leaps and bounds.
The country lacks everything.
Initiative
EITI Extractive Industries Transparency suffers a setback and the government no
longer seems to give importance to this noble initiative which last
conciliation report was published in 2006.
Mr.
President, as you can see, Gabon is in ruin, Gabon is victim and strongly
affected by the two conditions, ie a bad democratic governance based on a
fraudulent electoral system and a corrupt regime. Gabon was ranked among
countries with Africa's highest corruption index.
Faced
with this situation, Civil society denounces in the strongest terms this desire
to organize the next legislative in current fraudulent and anti-democratic
conditions. We recommend for one hand, the return of the election in two rounds
for all elections, and secondly, the limitation of the length of mandates or
terms for the president, legislative and constituent bodies of the state.
The
above being said, considering your historic speech in Accra for Africa where
you said:
"Governments
that respect the will of their people, who govern by consent and not coercion,
are more prosperous, more stable and more successful than those who do not.
"
"It's
not just holding elections, we must see what happens between elections.
Punishment takes many forms and too many countries, even those that hold
elections, are plagued with problems that condemn their people to poverty.
"
"Nobody
wants to live in a society where the rule of law gives way to the law of the
strongest and corruption.This is not democracy, that is tyranny, even if
occasionally you sprinkle an election here and there, and it is time that this
style of government disappears.
"
In addition you added that "a strong democratic country is that the
stability of its democratic institutions and not politicians."
Your
speech of ACCRA reasoned in our ears and met with a favorable response from
Gabonese who aspire to live in a country freed from tyranny and corruption. A
country where citizens can express their opinion freely, a country where we
will see the advent of reliable and democratic institutions. Gabonese today are
trapped in a predatory and corrupt system that steals at the climax all the
resources of the country, in billions of dollars. Mr. President, such a system
should no longer thrive. You must, on behalf of democracy and freedom, say this
to Mr Ali Bongo Ondimba, while expressing your opposition to the militarization
of Gabon, to installation of the reign of terror where the armed forces of the
second and third categories are deployed each day in the streets, as a country
under siege!
In
this regard, please kindly send a clear message to Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimba on
democracy and freedom and he must commit to:
-
Organizing democratic elections impartially, with the involvement of Civil
society and under the supervision of the international community to ensure a
peaceful transition to democracy desired by the whole population of Gabon;
-
To adopt the institutional reforms proposed by Civil society to strengthen
democracy base on international standards of (good) governance, specific to all
democratic systems.
Civil Society for
Gabon:
-
Marc Ona Essangui, President Brainforest, GOLDMAN ENVIRONMENTAL Price 2009:
(241) 07294140: ona_essangui@yahoo.com
-
George MPAG, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Network of Organizations
of Free Civil Society for Good Governance in Gabon (ROLBG): (00 241) 07519932:
gmpaga@yahoo.fr
-
Alain MOUPOPA, President of African NGO Horizons of Human Rights: (00241)
07751503
-
Dieudonné Minlam MINTOGO, President of the National Observatory of Democracy:
(00241) 07948719: minlamadd@yahoo.fr
-
Joel Celestin MAMBOUNDOU: President of the NGO Governance Democracy and
Environmental Health (DILDOS) and Network Coordinator TAI: (00 241) 07943034
(Translation
from french, by CLG)
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