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Former French president accused of big cash harvest in Africa
African leaders gave immediate former French president Jacques Chirac (pictured) and his prime minister Dominique de Villepin briefcases full of cash, notably to finance election campaigns, a former aide alleged today.
Robert Bourgi, the aide, said he handed over suitcases filled with cash between 1995 and 2005, including US$10 million from the leaders of Senegal, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Republic of Congo for Chirac’s 2002 presidential campaign.
Mr Villepin, a potential candidate in next year’s presidential election, denied the allegations, which claim to shed new light on the French political establishment’s often shady relationship with former colonies in Africa.
The claims revived uncomfortable questions about France’s cozy relations with some autocratic regimes in its former African colonies.
Bourgi, a lawyer with a network of African contacts who advised Chirac and Villepin before changing camps in 2005 to aid now President Nicolas Sarkozy, made the allegations in France’s Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
Mr Bourgi said he “took part in handing over several briefcases to Jacques Chirac in person, at Paris city hall” when the future president was mayor in the 1980s and 1990s.
“There was never less than five million francs (more than 750,000 euros). It could go up to 15 million,” Mr Bourgi said, giving a detailed account of how Mr Chirac would offer him beer while allegedly putting away the bundles of cash.
Mr Bourgi said five African leaders came to Villepin’s office: Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade, Burkina Faso’s Blaise Compaore, Ivory Coast’s Laurent Gbagbo and Congo-Brazzaville’s Denis Sassou Nguesso and Gabon’s Omar Bongo. There, they handed over around US$10 million for the 2002 campaign, he alleged.
