NationStates Jolt Archive

In Gabon... (those of you who felt a sudden increase in voltage across your tinfoil hats may calm down now).

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/africa/12/03/gabon.reut/index.html

LIBREVILLE, Gabon (Reuters) -- Gabon's government banned demonstrations Saturday and said security forces would shoot without warning to break up any protests against President Omar Bongo's re-election.

Extra troops were deployed in the capital, Libreville, after rioting Thursday by supporters of two leading opposition candidates who say last Sunday's presidential election was rigged to give Bongo a new seven-year term.

"Marches are banned anywhere on national territory until further notice," Interior Minister Clotaire Ivala said in a statement.

Disgusting. Absolutly disgusting.

That is so wrong. I have a sick feeling in my gut right now. Why are they so mean to each other after the white man sold them as slaves for so long? I just don't get it. That place will always be a shithole.

And what does the world do?

That's right...ignore it. :rolleyes:

This is the same bullshit as the election in Azerbaijan (Oil there) and Uganda (West loooves Museveni - he's a free-marketeer).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omar_Bongo
El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba (formerly Albert-Bernard Bongo) (born December 30, 1935) has been the President of Gabon since 1967. He is Africa's longest serving ruler who is still in office, and the world's seventh longest serving ruler.
In the early 1990s, Bongo ended the one-party domination of the Gabonese Democratic Party and allowed multiparty elections in response to popular demand. These elections were held in 1993 and 1998; Bongo won both times, taking 51.2% and 66.88% of the vote respectively. Despite the reforms, it is generally thought that a non-independent judiciary and widespread corruption and patronage limit the ability of citizens to effectively change the government. Bongo thinks that it is better to have authoritarian government than democracy in Africa, because of tribal loyalties.
Bongo is one of the wealthiest heads of state in the world, and this is attributed mainly to oil revenue and corruption. In 2005, an investigation by the United States Senate Indian Affairs Committee into fundraising irregularities by lobbyist Jack Abramoff revealed that Abramoff had offered Bongo to arrange a meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush in exchange for 9 million dollars. Bongo met Bush 10 months later in the Oval Office.[3]