On Monday 3 March 2008, the French state television channel France 2, relayed by the other French state channels France 3 and TV5, broadcast a documentary presenting apartment complexes supposedly the property of President Omar Bongo Ondimba.
In this documentary, passers-by and people from the neighbourhood were interviewed to testify that these properties belonged to the Gabonese Chief of State.
This French television documentary follows the eviction of 3 Gabonese students from French territory.
The evictions took place in humiliating circumstances, and the Gabonese authorities in Paris, that is to say, the Embassy and the Consulate General, were not informed, which is a condition stipulated in the Franco Gabonese convention on the movement of persons currently in force.
In 2007, the government had already expressed indignation at the opening of a preliminary enquiry by the Public prosecutor following complaints lodged against President Omar Bongo Ondimba by certain associations, regarding the possession of property in France.
As this case was dismissed by a court judgement, the Gabonese government finds it strange that the French media are reviving the affair.
This flagrant violation of the principle of the respect of the authority of a judgement by the Public prosecutor leads the government to wonder about the real motivation of the authors of what is coming to look increasingly like a plot or a conspiracy against Gabon and its President.
By authorising the broadcast on state channels of a programme that reveals the private address of the President of the Gabonese Republic in France, thereby putting at risk his physical integrity and that of his family, the French authorities have failed in their obligation to protect a Chief of State in office.
The Gabonese government respects the secular relations that unite France and Gabon, and wishes to express its total disapproval and to firmly condemn this unjustifiable treatment.
International relations oblige States to respect the conventions that bind them.
Concerning the movement of French citizens in Gabon, the government respects the Franco-Gabonese convention signed in 2002, updated by the relevant provisions of the convention signed in 2007. In this spirit, going beyond the written clauses of the convention, the Gabonese authorities have often allowed French citizens to establish entry visas at Libreville airport. On the other hand, the issue of visas to Gabonese citizens by the French consulate remain subject to much more demanding conditions.
Given the attitude of the French authorities with respect to Gabonese citizens residing in France, the government of Gabon now intends to apply the principle of reciprocity with respect to French citizens residing in or with the intention of residing in Gabon.
The government takes cognizance of all the facts posed today in France and which are of a nature to harm the image of Gabon, the dignity of its citizens and of the Chief of State, as well as Franco-Gabonese relations. It now intends to respond with firmness and responsibility to what looks increasingly like harassment, or a desire to humiliate and, in the end, to destabilise.
We point out the gravity of the possible consequences of the irresponsible behaviour of the media and of certain French politicians seeking publicity, as denounced above.
We invite the men and women of Gabon to continue to act responsibly and with deliberation to avoid falling into the trap that such a situation creates.”
Libreville, 5 March 2008
