Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09LIBREVILLE76
2009-02-27 10:39:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Libreville
Cable title:  

GABON: GOVERNMENT AT A NEAR-STANDSTILL

Tags:  PGOV PREL ECON SOCI GB 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4714
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHMR RUEHPA RUEHRN RUEHTRO
DE RUEHLC #0076/01 0581039
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 271039Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY LIBREVILLE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0935
INFO RUEHZO/AFRICAN UNION COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LIBREVILLE 000076 

SIPDIS

AF/C PLEASE ALSO PASS BANGUI, BRAZZAVILLE AND MALABO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON SOCI GB
SUBJECT: GABON: GOVERNMENT AT A NEAR-STANDSTILL

REF: A. LIBREVILLE 0052

B. LIBREVILLE 0022

Classified By: DCM Nathan Holt for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).

-------
Summary
-------

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 LIBREVILLE 000076

SIPDIS

AF/C PLEASE ALSO PASS BANGUI, BRAZZAVILLE AND MALABO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL ECON SOCI GB
SUBJECT: GABON: GOVERNMENT AT A NEAR-STANDSTILL

REF: A. LIBREVILLE 0052

B. LIBREVILLE 0022

Classified By: DCM Nathan Holt for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d).

--------------
Summary
--------------


1. (C) Gabonese President El Hadjj Ombar Bongo Ondimba has
been in Morocco since February 5, attending to his ailing
45-year old wife Edith, who is said to be incapacitated and
possibly near death. A media blackout on the case continues
in Gabon, and all but the most critical government decisions
have been deferred until the president resurfaces.
Meanwhile, Bongo's domestic and international worries have
proliferated, with labor unrest in Gabon and a seizure of the
president's bank accounts in France. The result in Gabon is
a political atmosphere of uncertainty and mounting worry.
End Summary.

--------------
Absent President, Ailing First Lady
--------------


2. (C) Bongo's three week absence is unprecedented in his
41-year presidency, according to experienced Gabonese
observers. First Lady Edith Bongo, who is also the daughter
of Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) President Denis Sassou
Nguesso, is incapacitated at a Moroccan hospital and by some
accounts near death. Gabonese media have maintained a
near-total blackout on the First Lady's illness and the
reasons for the president's absence. Other than a television
report showing Prime Minister Jean Eyeghe Ndong and other
ministers at a prayer service for Edith Bongo, her illness
has not otherwise been publicly acknowledged.


3. (C) Several government ministers, ruling party officials
and AU Chairman Jean Ping (Bongo's former foreign minister
and long-time collaborator) have called on Bongo in Morocco.
Coverage of these meetings has been extremely limited. The
official press acknowledged a meeting with Parti Democratique
Gabonais (PDG) Secretary General Faustin Boukoubi, at which
Bongo approved the nomination of a new president of the
Senate, Rose Rogombe. (Note: Under Gabon's constitution,
the senate president becomes interim head of state in the
event of the president's death or incapacity, and has 30-45

days to organize and election. Rogombe is widely viewed as a
more compliant political figure than her predecessor. End
Note.)


4. (C) The only recent public images of Bongo came during
his February 19 meeting with AU Chairman Ping. The two
reportedly discussed a wide range of regional issues,
including Sudan and Zimbabwe. In still and video images,
Bongo appears frail, and as in other recent public
appearances is shown seated behind a table rather than
standing or walking.


5. (C) Senior officials tell us that because of the
president's absence, Gabon's highly centralized government is
at a near standstill. Ministers have also confided to
various other diplomats and representatives of international
agencies that they have put all major plans on hold until the
president resurfaces.

--------------
Some Problems Won't Wait
--------------


6. (C) Labor and budget problems nevertheless plague the
Gabonese government, and appear to be worsening, despite--or
in some cases because of--the president's absence. Bongo's
personal intervention ended a months-long teacher's strike on
January 14. The main teacher's union now accuses the
government of failing to keep the promises made in January,
and is again threatening to walk out. According to education
officials, even a brief suspension of classes would result in
an "annee blanche," forcing students scheduled to sit
required exams to repeat the entire academic year.


7. (C) Gabon's health sector is also in a serious crisis,
with public hospitals and clinics functioning at minimal
levels or not at all. Since January 12, health workers have
been on strike, seeking pay increases and other benefits
broadly similar to those achieved by the teachers.
Government negotiators say they will not budge, and accuse
the strikers of failing to live up to legal requirements to
provide a minimum level of health service. Independent
observers, including the local representative of the World
Health Organization, describe the current situation as

LIBREVILLE 00000076 002 OF 002


chaotic. Prime Minister Ndong has stated publicly, and
credibly, that many people have died for lack of access to
health facilities during the strike. Minister of Defense Ali
Bongo (the president's son and, some say, heir-apparent) has
dispatched military health workers to some hospitals and
clinics to keep them open.


8. (C) In recent interviews with labor union officials from
a wide range of sectors, Emboffs found common themes: Gabon
reaped enormous profits from the high oil prices of 2008,
they assert, and Government should share those benefits with
the workers. Instead, ordinary workers and other citizens
are left to cope with rising costs of housing and basic
foodstuffs and stagnant wages.


9. (C) Officials from the Ministry of Finance and the
International Monetary Fund, however, paint a different
picture. Gabon currently spends almost half its operating
budget on salaries, they claim. The generous settlement
offered the teachers has inspired workers in other sectors to
press hard for better wages, threatening to worsen Gabon's
budget deficit from about 9% of GDP to an unsustainable level
of 14-15%. Officials in and out of government also
acknowledge that many public sector employees draw salaries
but do not report to work. Newly-named Minister of Mining
and Petroleum Casimir Oye Mba recently told a confidant that
the ministry has 600 employees, of whom about 100 report to
work on any given day, and about 15 are both productive and
competent.

--------------
Freezing Bongo's Accounts in France
--------------


10. (U) French authorities executing the judgment of
Bordeaux court froze Bongo's accounts in two leading French
banks February 26, according to widespread press reports.
The court has required Bongo to pay 457,347 Euro, plus
interest, to reimburse a company whose president was thrown
into a Gabonese jail in 1996. After a business deal with
Bongo's associates went sour, the company was required to pay
the money into Bongo's personal account in France to secure
the businessman's release.


11. (C) There has been no official reaction so far in Gabon
to the French court's action. Before his wife's health
deteriorated, however, Bongo gave an interview to a
sympathetic journalist in which he claimed there is a plot,
organized in France, against him. "We are armed with
patience. Maybe we will end up knowing the truth," he said
in the interview, republished on his personal website. "Our
French interlocutors, are they firemen or pyromaniacs?" he
asked. Others close to the president are more blunt, and
claim that the "plot" against Bongo is backed by powerful
figures in the French government, if not President Nicolas
Sarkozy himself.

--------------
Comment
--------------


12. (C) Bongo's multiplying problems pose problems for
Gabon. Worries are growing within the political class, but
also among ordinary citizens, about the management of the
country during the president's prolonged absence. A steady
hand, and perhaps some good luck, will be needed to address
labor unrest and associated crises in Gabon's education and
health sectors. The deteriorating health of First Lady Edith
Bongo, worrisome lawsuits and corruption charges, and a chill
in relations with France add to the woes of the aging and
ailing president, and will make it more difficult for Bongo
to address the country's problems when he returns. End
Comment.
REDDICK