Moderadores: Mod. 2, Mod. 5, Mod. 1, Mod. 4, Mod. 3
He went farther, saying that he also suspected — but could not prove — that the British, American and Spanish governments were also involved in the attempted coup.
All three nations had powerful intelligence services, he said, but none gave his administration even a hint of what was being planned.
Derribar a Obiang, reconocer internacionalmente a Moto y Guardia Civil para controlar las calles.Mr Calil and Mr Moto repeatedly assured him that José Maria Aznar’s conservative Government in Spain was “100 per cent behind the coup”, would immediately recognise Mr Moto’s administration, and send Civil Guards to help to keep order. Spain denied this last night.
Who is Simon Mann?
Be he founder, cohort or accomplice, Simon Mann now sits for 34 years in one of the world's worst prisons as one of the first private military personnel caught in the turmoil of a failed coup, Jody Bennett writes for ISN Security Watch.
By Jody Ray Bennett for ISN Security Watch
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It was in Angola in 1993 and a man by the name of Tony Buckingham had a problem. Buckingham had recently been subcontracted by a Calgary-based oil exploitation company (Ranger Oil West Africa Ltd, or ROWAL) to set up a platform infrastructure that would award Buckingham with 10 percent of the generated profit from the new venture. However, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) forces had since taken control of key oil ports, including offshore equipment needed by ROWAL to carry out its contract with the government of Angola. It would cost Buckingham thousands each day that ROWAL could not operate. He needed to do something fast.
In his book, Licensed to Kill: Hired Guns in the War on Terror, Robert Young Pelton reported that Buckingham unsuccessfully attempted several tactics to get the ROWAL operation back up and running. He tried to renegotiate with UNITA forces, but they refused to comply with any stipulation that would have further empowered the dos Santos government of Angola. Buckingham then tried to have a third party - a private security company called DSL - sabotage the seized oil equipment in order to reap insurance benefits; DSL refused. Finally, Buckingham turned to the Angolan army to liberate the port and equipment, but having been undertrained and overstretched for years in one of the world's most notorious Cold War proxy conflicts, the Angolan forces were simply unable to carry out an operation to regain control of the area.
A desperate Buckingham then turned to a friend, a man by the name of Simon Mann, a former British SAS officer who had originally helped him secure the contract with ROWAL in Angola. Mann introduced him to Eeben Barlow who had since established a company called Executive Outcomes (EO), a private military outfit often cited when illustrating the genesis of the private military industry. With funding from the Angolan state oil company, Mann spearheaded a very dangerous operation with EO using only a few MiG helicopters and a few dozen black African expat mercenaries, which would be transported by ship. Mann and EO eventually defeated the UNITA forces and recaptured the port and equipment needed for Buckingham to resume operations.
Soon after, Mann and EO were given another contract by the dos Santos government to deal directly with UNITA forces. EO again assembled a small force of African manpower eager to earn a wage to support their families, and by 1994 the company "dramatically tilted the balance of the conflict." By November 2004, the two warring sides signed the Lusaka Protocol, temporarily ending the conflict in Angola. By 1996, Executive Outcomes would pull out of Angola completely.
Pelton notes: "It took the Clinton Administration's threatening to block UN aid to Angola for dos Santos to tactually break off the relationship [with EO]…Clinton […] wanted Angola to replace EO with the politically correct version of a private military company: Military Professional Resources, Inc (MPRI), a collection of American generals and contractors who train foreign armies with the blessing of US policy."
With a newly replenished bank account, EO beefed up its air, tank and manpower capabilities and secured another contract with the military leadership of Sierra Leone. Surrounded by the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) in Freetown, Executive Outcomes was able to push RUF forces back into the jungle after only nine days, with a mere 125 mercenaries and some heavy military equipment. As with Angola, EO only temporarily ended the fighting. Just a few months after the company pulled out, RUF forces had regained a significant amount of power in the region.
The Sandline incident
Executive Outcomes would eventually be forced to dissolve in 1999 after South Africa passed the Regulation of Foreign Military Assistance Act. This prompted Mann to contact his long-time friend, a former Scots Guard, Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer, to form a new, more corporatized (and less visible) private military company that was to be dubbed Sandline International - a project that had been in the works roughly three years before EO would have to officially close its doors forever.
By winter 1996, Sandline had received approximately US$250,000 from Papua New Guinea to survey the possibilities of regaining control and securing the Panguna copper mine from the Bougainville Revolutionary Army (BRA) rebels. After some speedy number crunching, Spicer and Mann approached Julius Chan, then-Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, and told him that Sandline could liberate Panguna for US$36 million.
By February, Sandline began military and security training with South African mercenaries, many of whom were the same individuals used in previous EO missions. The government of Papua New Guinea later explained to Australia that it had "paid for a training program from what was essentially Executive Outcomes." After the Australian government pressured Chan to remove Sandline, the news leaked to the public and the Papua New Guinea defense forces (PNGDF) became outraged that the Chan government had chosen to hire private mercenaries for such a high price without first consulting national forces.
The scene quickly turned ugly. Spicer would eventually be jailed and the rest of Sandline's contractors would be deported by the PNGDF, which, led by Jerry Singarok, demanded Chan step down as prime minister. When Singarok was forced to resign in the face of a firing, hundreds of soldiers flooded the streets to demonstrate on his behalf. Interestingly, Pelton notes, "The Sandline operation had accidentally pushed the country to the brink of a military coup." Spicer was eventually released and flown out of the country, and Sandline demanded payment for its services. After a court settlement, Papua New Guinea was forced to pay an amount in increments to Sandline over a period of several years.
The Equatorial Guinea project
Equatorial Guinea, the very small but very oil rich nation and former Spanish colony, fell into Mann's crosshairs for a new project just a few years later. By 2002 several large investors had come together and rough plans were drawn up to overthrow the Obiang government and reap the benefits of the oil rich nation. The investors ranged from big businessmen to British politicians, including Mark Thatcher, son of Margaret Thatcher.
But to successfully and quietly overthrow a government, the investors required a secret army. It would be no surprise that Mann, known for his previous African operations, would be contacted to assist. Mann would soon turn to Niek du Toit, a former colleague who worked for EO during the Sierra Leone and Angolan missions, to begin operations on the ground. Since then, it has been confirmed that du Toit, as reported by Pelton, "relocated to Equatorial Guinea with the purpose of setting up a front company that would arrange logistical support in the advance of the coup."
By February 2004, Mann had organized the plan with all parties involved to overthrow the Obiang government. The plan seemed simple: One cargo plane of mercenaries and military equipment would fly from South Africa to pick up Mann and a large cache of arms in Harare, Zimbabwe. From there, the plane would fly into Malobo while Obiang would be distracted as he dined with one of du Toit's colleagues.
Once the plane arrived in Harare, military officials grew suspicious and searched the aircraft, finding the armed men hired by Mann. Despite the pilot's initial story that the plane was on its way to Burundi and the Congo for mining operations, the men aboard were arrested. Mann was placed in solitary confinement. Fourteen mercenaries were arrested alongside Mann and du Toit, all of which were sent to Black Beach prison, one of the world's worst containment centers.
In Zimbabwe, Mann was sentenced to serve four years for the shady arms purchase made in Harare. Thatcher was also arrested and heavily fined under South Africa's anti-mercenary rulings. Du Toit was given 34 years in Equatorial Guinea's Black Beach jail, where he currently serves and maintains that he had no knowledge of an alleged coup attempt.
Mann comes clean…or does he?
As Mann awaited a chance to appeal in Zimbabwe, he was secretly transported (he claims brutally kidnapped) to Black Beach prison where he is now serving up to 34 years for his involvement in the overthrow of the Obiang government. The 60-plus mercenaries on the cargo ship have since been released.
In March 2008, Mann was interviewed by a British media outlet where he not only openly admitted for the first time that he and his team were planning to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea, but also de-emphasized his role, stating he was merely a "manager - not the architect" of the plot. He implicated several people behind the project, including Thatcher and other high officials in the Spanish government.
"Well, I was involved. And I was, if you like, the manager. Below me were quite a number of people. Including those who were arrested with me in Zimbabwe, including those who are still, who have been sentenced, they are doing prison sentences [in Black Beach]. And of course, above me in the machine, were other people […]. So I was, if you like, The Manager. Not the architect. And not the main man."
At the highest level, Mann states that Eli Khalil, a British businessman of Lebanese and Nigerian descent, bankrolled the majority of the project. Khalil has adamantly denied all allegations of his involvement with Mann or the Equatorial Guinea Project.
Mann is clearly hoping that by "coming clean" he may have had a chance to shorten his stay in Black Beach. Bound from wrists to ankles, Mann analogizes the entire situation, "You know, you go tiger shooting and you sort of don't expect the tiger to win." He later adds, "I've been saying how sorry I am to everybody for four years now actually. I'm going to write it on my forehead. 'Sorry!'"
"Based on my conversations with President Obiang, I believe that Mann (and the other plotters led by Niek du Toit) will be pardoned and returned to their respective homelands once Obiang has made his point," Pelton told ISN Security Watch.
Pelton further notes on mainstream media coverage of Mann and coup attempt: "The [popular] media misses the main point […] that [Equatorial Guinea] is not a cartoonish back-water African nation (as Simon Mann was led to believe) but rather a rapidly growing success story. It has been Obiang's point all along that the era of African leadership being decided by wealthy privateers and violence is at an end," he said.
"The world community will simply not allow a small group of desperate men the ability to overthrow a recognized government by violence and deception. We hold a double standard by demanding first world social structures from rapidly developing nations and encourage the stereotype of Africans not being able to determine their own destiny."
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Jody Ray Bennett is an ISN Security Watch correspondent based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=80768IRIN News escribió:MALABO, 6 October 2008 (IRIN) - Equatorial Guinea is one of the world’s top 30 oil producers, according to its Ministry of Mines, but corruption watchdog group Global Witness says most in the country still live in poverty.
Global Witness US-based policy advisor, Sasha Lezhnev, told IRIN: “Equatorial Guinea is the dictatorship that no one talks about. The government earns billions in oil every year, yet 60 percent of its population lives on less than US$1 a day.”
Lezhnev said the government has not disclosed the locations of where it keeps more than $2 billion in national revenue in private banks abroad. “This raises serious questions as to the government’s commitment to transparency,” said Lezhnev.
According to the Bank of Central African States, Guinea sold its 1.8 billion barrels of oil in 2007 for US$4.3 billion, which formed about 90 percent of the country’s economy.
Exxon Mobil Corporation made one of the first major oil discoveries off the coast of Bioko island, home to the capital Malabo, in 1992, and it now accounts for some 75 percent of the country’s oil production.
Equatorial Guinea had one of the 60 highest per capita incomes worldwide in 2007, about US$20,000, according to the World Bank.
But per capita income estimates vary widely based on the population count, which international agencies accused the government of manipulating in 2001 for election purposes. The count swings from 600,000 residents to over one million. Either way, this country’s income is still at least 10 times that of its sub-Saharan neighbours.
Access to jobs restricted
But many residents say it takes ruling party loyalty in Africa’s “Kuwait”, as some locals refer to the oil-rich islands, in order to benefit from oil production. “To be able to work with the oil companies,” said Ramon Riloha, “you have to present a membership card with the [presidential ruling] Democratic Party of Guinea. I haven’t been working since the party discovered in 2003 that I was not a member.”Antonio Otogo told IRIN he has not found work in 18 years. “I used to work as a civil servant. With multiparty elections in 1991, I joined the Party of Progress [opposition party legalised in 1997]. Since then, I have not been able to find a job, even in the private sector. I am treated as an enemy of the country.”
No photos in slums
The UN Children’s Fund estimates less than half the population has access to clean drinking water, and 20 percent of children die before reaching five. The average cost of a medical consultation is about US$60, while the monthly government minimum wage is US$186.
“Oil has only made us poorer,” said Antonio Buecheku, a farmer on Bioko island. “Look where we live, in shacks with no water or electricity,” said neighbour Juan Mba, a civil servant, who lives in the Malabo slum of New Building. “Before oil came along, we were doing fine without the ‘nouveaux riches’ taunting us with their new-found wealth.”
International journalists are forbidden from taking pictures in the hundreds of slum areas in and around the capital without special government-issued accreditation. Shantytown residents have attacked local journalists trying to take pictures, destroying their equipment. “People living in misery do not want their photographs taken,” said one local journalist.
UN country director Liman Kiari Tinguiri told IRIN in July 2008 “massive,16 percent economic growth in the last 15 years” had done little to ease island poverty: “The country is still classified among the least advanced countries… with one of the world’s highest child mortality rates [206 out of 1,000]. In terms of human development, there is still a lot of progress to be made.”
Corruption
A government economist who requested anonymity told IRIN the country suffers from the economic phenomenon of Dutch disease, in which increased oil revenue is linked with a rise in corruption and a decline in the manufacturing sector.
In the 2008 Transparency International corruption index, Equatorial Guinea had the eighth most corrupt image worldwide.
“The country shows symptoms of the syndrome. The management and distribution of the oil income is the main problem,” said the economist, who went on to predict “a system of plundering and monopolising of resources, the spread of corruption… the phenomenon of unnecessary public improvements, and, eventually, conditions that can lead to political stability and even armed conflict.”
But the Ministry of Environment’s vice minister, Carlos Nsue, dismissed doomsday predictions of oil wealth gone awry: “As with all countries around the world, fighting corruption is not easy. For years, we have worked with the World Bank to adhere to the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative to improve our country’s credibility with bilateral and multilateral donors.”
Equatorial Guinea
Politics | Society
Rumours say Equatoguinean President is dead
afrol News, 13 October - According to opposition sources, the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, died this evening. Sources in the Equatoguinean presidency are quoted.
The opposition group "Democrats for Change" claims to be in contact with high officials within the Malabo presidency, alerting about the "possible death or at least irreversible coma" of President Obiang.
The source was said to be in contact with the family of the reportedly deseased Dictator, which had wanted state sources to remain silent on the situation, to enable the family to mourn its leader.
However, in accordance with typical Equatoguinean conspiracy theories, the opposition group claims that the delayed publication of the President's alleged death was tied to the family's hope that Mr Obiang's first-borne son "Teodorin" would be given time to take over power. "Democrats for Change" claim that their source in the presidency had urged them to publish President Obiang's death to avoid "an anti-democratic solution" in the country.
The 66-year-old President of Equatorial Guinea came to power in a coup in 1979, enthroning and killing his own uncle Francisco Macias. He has ruled the Spanish ex-colony as his personal belonging ever since.
Rumours about his ill health have been common during the last decade. It has been commonly accepted that the Equatoguinean President is suffering from terminal prostate cancer, amongst other illnesses. He is reported to visit European and Moroccan hospitals on a regular basis.
However, rumours of his death have so far not been spread at many occasions.
By staff writers
© afrol News
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsN ... 5720081031UPDATE 5-Gunmen threaten to kill French hostages in Cameroon
Fri Oct 31, 2008 9:44am EDT
(Adds previous demands of militia groups, paragraphs 7-9)
By Tansa Musa
YAOUNDE, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Gunmen in speedboats seized 10 mostly French crew members in an attack on an oil vessel off Cameroon on Friday and threatened to kill them "one by one" if the Cameroonian government did not meet their demands.
A spokeswoman for oil services firm Bourbon (GPBN.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) said the 10 kidnapped workers were among 15 employees on board the vessel "Bourbon Sagitta," contracted by French oil major Total (TOTF.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), when it was attacked early on Friday.
Two allied militia groups from Cameroon's Bakassi peninsula claimed responsibility and threatened to start killing the hostages if the Cameroonian government did not meet their demands within three days.
Bakassi was handed over to Cameroon by Nigeria earlier this year after a decades-long border dispute. Many Nigerian residents opposed the handover and militia groups similar to the well-armed gangs of Nigeria's nearby Niger Delta have sprung up.
"I personally led the attack during which we seized 10 men whom we are holding as I am talking to you now," Colonel Ebi Dari, a Niger Delta Defence and Security Council (NDDSC) commander, told Reuters in Cameroon by phone.
"If the Cameroon government does not respond to our requests in three days' time, we will start killing them one by one," Dari said. He said the attack was carried out jointly with another group called the Bakassi Freedom Fighters (BFF).
DEMANDS
Dari did not detail his demands, but said Cameroon's government should contact the groups, which began a string of attacks on Cameroonian military forces in the run-up to Bakassi's handover on Aug. 14.
Before that, the NDDSC had demanded Cameroon and Nigeria renegotiate the terms of a World Court ruling that recognised Cameroon's ownership of Bakassi, which the group said ignored the views of local people.
Since the handover, the NDDSC has also demanded compensation for Nigerians from Bakassi who chose to leave and settle in Nigeria, along with the release of two militia members seized by Cameroon during one of the attacks.
Dari said those kidnapped comprised seven French, two Cameroonians and a Senegalese, though Bourbon said there were only six French citizens along with one Tunisian worker.
The company said no one was hurt in the attacks.
Gunmen in three speedboats attacked the ship while it was helping an oil tanker loading crude oil at an offshore oilfield in the Gulf of Guinea, the company spokeswoman said.
She said the company was working closely with the French Foreign Ministry for the quick release of the hostages.
Heavily armed gunmen in fast launches have in the last year preyed on oil installations, oil and fishing boats and even coastal towns in a region that contains the main African source of crude oil exported to the West and China.
The nearly 2,000 miles of coast are largely uncontrolled and vulnerable to attack.
Other Gulf of Guinea states that have seen similar attacks this year include Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Benin. (Additional reporting by Nick Tattersall in Lagos and Estelle Shirbon in Paris; writing by Randy Fabi and Alistair Thomson; editing by Richard Balmforth)
Equatorial Guinea calls for boosting energy ties with Iran Service: Foreign Policy
1387/08/10
10-31-2008
10:03:17
News Code :8708-05153
ISNA - Tehran
Service: Foreign Policy
TEHRAN, Oct. 31 (ISNA)-Equatorial Guinea's Foreign Minister called for boosting energy, agricultural and sanitary cooperation with Iran during a visit with the country's Deputy Foreign Ministry for International Affairs, Mohammad Ali Husseini, in capital Malabo.
The Foreign Minister also suggested holding a joint cooperation commission and added he will visit Iran soon.
He emphasized keeping on bilateral consultations on different domains.
Husseini for his part underscored employing bilateral potentials for working on fishery, building roads, dams and power plants.
Expanding ties with African countries is on top of the agenda for Iran's foreign policy, Husseini said.
Equatorial Guinea has recently started oil exports.
End Item
