PRESS RELEASE NR.01/UNITA/
C.P.C.P/2001

MEMORANDUM ON NON-COMPLIANCE BY THE MPLA 1975-1998

CARTA ABERTA AOS POVOS DE EXPRESSÃO PORTUGUESA

Africa:, Confidential
8 December 2000

FRANCE/AFRICA

Presidential pranks
France is rocked by scandals involving some former key Africa policymakers.
ExMinister of Cooperation for Development, Michel Roussin, was let out after
five nights in gaol on 6 December on bail of 300,000 French francs
(US$40.000) while police recently searched the premises of JeanChristophe
Mitterrand, once head of the Elysée Palace's Africa 'cell', and Africa
veteran Charles Pasqua. Meanwhile, as oil giant TotalFina tries to clean up
the spillage to Africa left by its recent acquisition, ElfAquitaine, there
is diplomatic concern about the murder of a policeman investigating Elf in
Taiwan.

The French media say little about the Africa dimension. Few even mention
Roussin's role as a colonel in the Direction Générale de la Sécurité
Etrangère (DGSE). once ubiquitous in Francophone Africa. Interest focusses
on his role as key aide to Jacques Chirac (then Mayor of Paris. now
President) in the 1980s. Then, the Paris Maine was deeply involved in
Africa, including the planned TransAfrica Pipeline to bring oil across
Cameroon, Chad and Sudan.

Roussin is accused of organising illegal commissions in the 1980searly 1990s
on public works contracts to fund political parties, especially his (and
Chirac's) Rassemblement pour la République. Roussin now heads the Africa
Committee of the employers' federation, Medef. and is VicePresident of
Bolloré, a group with Africa interests.

Meanwhile, police investigating moneylaundering last month seized the
accounts of senior figures with African connections, including exInterior
Minister Pasqua and Jean-Charles Marchiani, ex-Prefect of the Var and
kingpin of Pasqua's Africa networks.

On 1 December. they searched the records of two official witnesses in the
money laundering affair, the late President François Mitterrand's son
leanChristophe (widely known as 'Papa in 'a dit') and Jacques Attali, a big
spending former President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development.

Pasqua. Marchiani and Mitterrand Junior had all sorts of links to Africa and
it's not clear which are now under investigation. But the rumourmill links
the present inquiries to a previous investigation of FrancoRussian
businessman Arkadi Gaydamak which didn't lead to any charges. If so, there
is a smell of Angolan oil in the air.

In July 1997. the Paris Africa newsletter La Lettre du Continent. followed
by Francois Xavier Verschaeve's book La Francafrique, alleged that Marchiani
and Pasqua were involved in delivering Russian weapons to Angola. The
authors also implicated Brazilianborn businessman Pierre Falcone. In 1999;
,the Britishbased nongovernmental organisation Global Witness claimed that
in that period French police had searched the premises of Gaydamak and
Falcone, in connection with the sale of Czech weapons by the Osos Praha
Company via Falcone's firm. GW said the Angolan contact was National
Security Advisor General Manuel Helder Vieira Dias 'Kopelipa'.

On 30 September 1999, the Lettre du Continent reported a meeting at the
Elysée of senior intelligence. officers, diplomats and soldiers about the
FrancoRussian deals. One difficulty was that the necessary payments would
have flowed through, amongst others, the Bank of New York, accused by the
United States Federal Bureau of Investigation of recycling $10 billion of
'disappearing' Russian funds. And the French bank Paribas had helped set up
Falcon Oil, which has a stake in Angola's offshore Block 31. This Parisian
mudslinging will continue to enliven preparations for the French
presidential election in 2002.


Agence France Presse
December 22, 2000

Mitterrand's son jailed, under investigation in arms dealing probe

A son of the late French president Francois Mitterrand was jailed and placed
under judicial investigation late Thursday by judges investigating illegal
weapons sales to Angola, his lawyer said.

Jean-Christophe Mitterrand, 54, who was his father's adviser on African
affairs from 1986 to 1992, was under investigation for the "misuse of
power,
complicity in the traffic of arms and the misuse of company money," one of
his lawyers, Jean-Pierre Versini-Campinchi, said.

A judicial investigation is the first step to formal charges, but
Versini-Campinchi said an appeal would be made early Friday for Mitterrand
to be freed on bail.  Mitterrand is being investigated over cash payments he
allegedly received from arms-dealer Pierre Falcone and subsequent
money-laundering.

Also detained and placed under investigation on suspicion of taking money
from Falcone was Paul-Loup Sulitzer, a well-known French author and former
businessman. His lawyer said early Friday he was free on bail.
According to the officials, investigators suspect Falcone paid Mitterrand
hundreds of thousands of francs for using his network of contacts in Africa
to facilitate sales of weapons to Angola's President Jose Eduardo dos Santos
in 1993 and 1994.

Falcone and his associate Arkady Gaydamak, a Russian billionaire, sold
Angola 47 million dollars worth of Russian equipment in 1993, and a year
later signed another deal worth 463 million dollars, this time for the sale
of helicopters and jet fighters, Le Monde newspaper said.

But Mitterrand's lawyer rejected the accusations. "If Jean-Christophe
Mitterrand did touch any money, I cannot imagine that it was for anything
illegal," Versini-Campinchi told AFP. "He does not understand what he
is
accused of in this affair."

Falcone, who heads a company called Brenco International, was placed under
formal investigation earlier this month and faces charges of illegal weapons
dealing, tax fraud and corruption.

Police investigating the case have also searched home and offices belonging
to Jacques Attali, who was then president Mitterrand's advisor in the 1980s,
and European deputy Jean-Charles Marchiani, as well as the headquarters of
the Rally for France party of former interior minister Charles Pasqua.

France earlier this month issued an international arrest warrant for
Gaydamak, who has French, Israeli, Angolan and Canadian citizenship.

Le Monde said investigators uncovered evidence linking Mitterrand and
Sulitzer to the case in computer disks hidden at the house of Falcone's
secretary.


United Press International
December 21, 2000

Última actualização/Last update 05-01-2001