DJIBOUTI ACCUSES FRENCH OF TRYING TO DESTABILIZE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DJIBOUTI 000585

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PREL PROP PINS DJ
SUBJECT: DJIBOUTI ACCUSES FRENCH OF TRYING TO DESTABILIZE
THE COUNTRY



1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In reaction to an April 16 French
program broadcast on TF1 and Radio France International
regarding new developments in the Borrel case, the
Djiboutian government issued a statement 17 April
accusing France of attempting to destabilize the
government of Djibouti. The statement also cited
"the American presence" as explaining France's
"obstinate will to harm the image of Djibouti and its
President." Recent declassification of French foreign
intelligence agency documents relating to the 1995
death of Judge Bernard Borrel in Djibouti have brought
back to the surface controversy over whether President
Ismail Omar Guelleh, then Head of National Security,
was involved in the judge's death. END SUMMARY.

GOVERNMENT OF DJIBOUTI'S STATEMENT
--------------

2. (SBU) The office of the Presidency of the Government
of Djibouti (GODJ) issued April 17 an official press
release via the Agence Djiboutienne d'Information
(ADI - Djiboutian Information Agency) accusing France
of "pursuing a single and unique objective: the
destabilization of a country." The statement expressed
the Presidency's extreme dissatisfaction at the
treatment of the Borrel affair in the French media and
considered the piece an attack on the image of the
Djiboutian government and its President. The statement
called the American presence in Djibouti an explanation
for the French government's "obstinate will to harm the
image of Djibouti and its President." The statement's
conclusion asserted the Djiboutian government's intent
to forge its own destiny.


3. (U) Following is a translation of the statement issued
by the Djiboutian Government:
"Yesterday, observers experienced some difficulty
understanding the underlying motives and political meaning
behind the media attack on the Borrel affair and
accusations directed at the Republic of Djibouti and its
President. It appears today that the French state pursues
a single and unique objective: the destabilization of a
country.

In fact, how else can one explain that from one note
written by an agent of the DGSE immediately following
the decision to declassify documents relating to the
death of Judge Bernard Borrel, one hastily concludes
that it was a political assassination.

Convinced that it would be useful for all parties to put
a definitive end to the controversy, Djibouti took the
initiative 27 August 2003 to request that French
authorities lift the secrecy from this affair. A
favorable response came on 10 March 2004. But it was
without planning on the manipulation and the will of
the French government to cause harm. This last,
specialist in late recoveries, and little inclined to
research the truth, engages once more in a media campaign,
putting to work its agents of propaganda, RFI and TF1,
who repeat hypnotically a single message: the
assassination of Judge Borrel is no longer a doubt; It
was President Guelleh and his entourage who were
responsible for this. It is in this manner that a
poorly advised series, incoherent enough and which
carries indelible traces of State manipulation, refers
to the attacks at the Cafe de Paris in 1990. One must
remember that on the date Judge Borrel was assigned to
Djibouti, the Cafe de Paris affair had already been
tried, the perpetrators convicted and the case closed.

It is permissible to suppose that if President Ismail
Omar Guelleh bothers France, it is because he always
poses himself as a leader who defends the promotion of
the national interest. He is the one who knew how to
foil the strategy to divide the country, conceived and
developed by France. A strategy which unfortunately
saw relative success in other areas of Africa, leading
to a fate of inexpressible suffering and
unconscionable misery.

To those who know how to decipher the French political
speech, the American presence in Djibouti explains the
obstinate will to harm the image of Djibouti and its
President.

But it is in the exercise of its legitimate right to
sovereignty that Djibouti establishes friendships and
cooperation with the countries with whom it shares
common values!

Djibouti is determined to forge its own destiny. The
Djiboutian people, conscious of the stakes, support
the President and his government in the pursuit of
development objectives."

End Translated Text.

BACKGROUND ON THE BORREL CASE
--------------

4. (SBU) The French judge Bernard Borrel, assigned to
Djibouti in the early 1990's, was found burned at the
bottom of a ravine on October 19, 1995. The Djiboutian
investigation of Borrel's death led to a conclusion of
suicide, though no autopsy was done in Djibouti and the
X-rays taken were not made available to French
investigators. Borrel's body was repatriated and
buried in France, November 1995. At that time,
Borrel's wife initiated a request for an autopsy and
investigation in the Court of Toulouse on the cause of
Borrel's death. The autopsy was done in February 1996,
but results were not released for a full year. The
autopsy revealed Borrel had no soot in his lungs and
therefore, did not die from burning.


5. (SBU) After the autopsy, Elisabeth Borrel found
documents among her husbands effects, relating to the
Cafe de Paris attack in Djibouti in 1990. The
documents mentioned a request for audits of the case.
Borrel had acted as the coordinator between the
Djiboutian judge and the French judge in charge of the
case, where Ismail Omar Guelleh is believed to be
involved. November 1997, French judges Roger le Loire
and Marie-Paule Morrachini were nominated to look into
the case. In January 2000, their investigation turned
up testimony from a witness who affirmed that judge
Borrel was assassinated. Mohamed Saleh Alhoumekani, a
former officer in the Presidential Guard, accused
Guelleh of ordering the killing of judge Borrel. He
claimed to have overheard a conversation on October 19,
1995 between Guelleh and five men, one of whom said
"mission accomplished! The nosy judge is dead!"


6. (SBU) After no new results for several years, Mrs.
Borrel pushed the case to be transferred to a new judge,
Jean-Baptist Parlos. Parlos ordered an exhumation and
new autopsy of Borrel's body after a trip to Djibouti
with three forensic experts in February 2002. This
autopsy revealed the cause to be a "violent death due
to external causes." Cranial trauma, a fracture of the
left forearm and an alternation of burned areas of the
body led experts to believe that Borrel was killed by a
blow to the head before being burned. Based on the
evidence from the new autopsy the prosecutor supports
the medical experts' theory that it was a murder. In
November 2003, the newest judge on the case requested
declassification of ten documents held by the DGSE
(French foreign intelligence agency) relating to the
Borrel case. The ten documents were released March 27,
2004 causing a renewed media interest in the case.


7. (SBU) Comment: The Government's reaction to the
French broadcast is strong and included ordering the
French to stop work on disaster assistance in the
aftermath of flooding in Djibouti. The government
also launched a media campaign of its own in an
attempt to cast doubt on the veracity of the French
broadcast. Embassy will comment septel on
implications for Djibouti-French relations and
evaluate government of Djibouti accusation that
France's actions at this time are linked to jealousy
over U.S.-Djibouti relations. End Comment.
RAGSDALE