E Guinea warning after bank probe

[seemslikeadream]

By Stephane Mayoux
BBC Africa analyst



President Obiang has ruled his country since 1979
Equatorial Guinea's ministry of information has cautioned local companies offering subscriptions to foreign satellite channels.
It urged them to abstain from broadcasting programmes that could jeopardise national security.

The move comes after the screening of a programme by Spanish television.

It covered an investigation by the US Senate into money the Equatorial Guinean government has allegedly placed in the US-based Riggs bank.
more
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3911855.stm

[Snazzy]

1. "amazement"

Local observers say that Friday's report by the US Senate has sparked amazement in the streets of the capital Malabo: offices, bars and shops are full of talk about the millions of dollars uncovered by the US Senate from accounts held at Riggs bank by Equatorial Guinea's government and ruling family.

...

On Monday, the ministry of information urged suppliers of foreign satellite television channels to more careful about the types of programmes they expose Guineans to and abstain from broadcasting programmes that could spark violence among the population.

Friend of Ari's?

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Interesting that they are affraid that exposure of this might spark a popular coup (but the wrong coup, no doubt, to somebody).

[denverbill]

2. Interesting. First all the coup talk, now this.

For months it seems I've been hearing reports about South African mercenaries being hired for a coup in E Guinea. Now, lo these many months later, this report of the illegal money transfers.

Perhaps someone has long been aware of tehe money transfers, and was planning how to use the news to their own best advantage. After all, we musn't have left wing govts anywhere in the world.

[Snazzy]

3. The Dictator's Achilles' Heel

EQUATORIAL GUINEA:
The Dictator's Achilles' Heel

Tito Drago

Legal action in Spain and the United States taking aim at secret bank accounts of President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea could become a weapon to help put an end to his 25-year dictatorship, say opposition leaders and activists from the West African nation.

MADRID, Jul 21 (IPS) - Legal action in Spain and the United States taking aim at secret bank accounts of President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea could become a weapon to help put an end to his 25-year dictatorship, say opposition leaders and activists from the West African nation.

The trials could mark the beginning of the end for a dictatorship ”which has turned the country into one enormous prison,” Celestino Okenve, head of the Madrid-based non-governmental group Equatorial Guinea Solidarity Forum (FSGE), which will be lodging a lawsuit in the Spanish courts, told IPS.

Prisons in Equatorial Guinea hold between 50 and 100 political prisoners to a cell, ”and the entire national territory has been converted into a prison for the rest of the population” of around half a million people, he said.

....

http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=24731

[Snazzy]

4. And did this one make the file?

EG: Spain knew about coup
21/07/2004 21:16 - (SA)

Paris - Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema charged Wednesday that Spanish intelligence knew an alleged coup d'etat against his impoverished west African state was being hatched by mercenaries who were later arrested in the capital Malabo and in Zimbabwe.

"I cannot say that there is any implication at a state level," he said in comments to the press after brief talks with President Jacques Chirac.

"But I believe the fact that the attempt was organised in Spain by an opponent, I think Spanish intelligence was aware of what was happening," he said.

Equatorial Guinea authorities have charged that exiled opposition figure Severo Moto, who heads a so-called government in exile and lives in Madrid, of orchestrating the alleged coup against long-time leader Obiang.

....

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,,2-11-1447_1561284,00.html

(Sorry, been doing work, I'm behind on BFEE oil grab / octopus watch)

[Snazzy]

5. Pretty good: Mercenary gang goes on trial for plotting revolution

Mercenary gang goes on trial for plotting revolution
By Peta Thornycroft in Harare and David Blair, Africa Correspondent
(Filed: 22/07/2004)

Africa's largest mercenary trial in recent history began yesterday at a Zimbabwean maximum security prison as hundreds of soldiers patrolled the forbidding walls and razor wire outside.

The 70 accused men struggled into a makeshift courtroom inside Chikurubi jail in leg irons and handcuffs. Their alleged leader, Simon Mann, an old Etonian and former SAS officer, was chained to another prisoner.

All wore thin, tattered shorts and shirts - the regulation uniform of prison khaki that provides scant protection from the winter cold. Mann's hair has grown to his shoulders behind bars.

...

Prosecutors say the aircraft stopped in Harare to collect weapons from Zimbabwe's state-owned defence industry. But instead of receiving their arms, the men were arrested.

Ronnie Kasrils, South Africa's intelligence minister, has confirmed that his agents tipped off their Zimbabwean counterparts before the plane touched down.

....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/22/wmerc22.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/07/22/ixportal.html

Not sure I was clear on the SA rat-out before. Worth keeping in mind while we try to figure out who is fighting who over EG's oil.

[Snazzy]

6. BBC now

(AFP Photo)

Nothing much new ('cept trial delays continue). But the BBC also has a video segment, which I recommend for US DU'rs who are following this (I suppose this actually makes the news in the rest of the world).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3912051.stm

They also have this:

Profile: Simon Mann

Bespectacled, bearded and bound in chains, Simon Mann looks more like a jailed intellectual than a freelance commando leading a team of coup conspirators.

Simon Mann is a colourful character

But prosecutors in Zimbabwe see this grizzled Englishman and his colleagues as mercenaries, intercepted on their way to allegedly overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.

If proven, the charges against them could lead to deportation, decades in detention or a possible death sentence.

Mr Mann, a veteran of several wars, is understandably unnerved.

In a letter smuggled out of his prison cell and quoted by British newspapers, the former British soldier says only "major clout" can save him.

He says they would be doomed if they got "into a real trial scenario".

...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3916465.stm

[seemslikeadream]

7. Good to see you

A Senate staff member shuffles posters involving Riggs Bank accounts held by Equatorial Guinea


now I can get back "work"!

[Snazzy]

8. top of the morning!

B-)

Latest: Now EG is going to sue the world's media:

EG recalls ambassador to Spain

Madrid - Equatorial Guinea is to recall its ambassador to Spain for consultations over Madrid's refusal to withdraw the status of political refugee for exiled opposition leader Severo Moto, whom Malabo accuses of a coup plot, the daily El Pais reported on Thursday.

Alfonso Nsye Mokuy, spokesperson for the tiny oil-rich central African country, made the announcement on national television.

Mokuy also said the government would sue any foreign media spreading information about a recent investigation by the US Senate, which indicated that President Teodoro Obiang, his family members and officials had placed hundreds of millions of dollars at the US-based Riggs bank.

The Obiang regime is believed to be angry over a Spanish television report about the investigation, which was watched by many residents in the former Spanish colony.

....

http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/News/0,6119,2-11-1447_1561681,00.html