1. Promises of reform ring hollow, says Global Witness
2. President Teodoro Obiang, in major speech before Cape Town Global
    Forum calls for 'turning the page'  
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1. Promises of reform ring hollow, says Global Witness

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/AZHU-86UQ35?OpenDocument

Today's announcement by the President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, of a comprehensive reform package comes across as a cynical piece of spin by a dictator more interested in lining his own pockets than tackling corruption and human rights abuses, said campaign group Global Witness today. In a speech to business and political leaders in Cape Town, Obiang announced a ten year programme, "turning the page" on transparency and human rights in Equatorial Guinea. However, this is at odds with the President's appalling record during his thirty years as dictator of the oil-rich country.

"Obiang is a brutal dictator who is desperately trying to launder his reputation", said Robert Palmer, a campaigner with Global Witness. "While Global Witness always welcomes countries that promise good governance and transparency, we are highly sceptical that Obiang's public relations drive will translate into real reform." According to the U.S. State Department, Obiang's regime is guilty of torture, rigging elections, and arbitrary detention as well as restrictions on freedom of speech and persecution of ethnic minorities. Since discovering lucrative oil deposits in the mid-1990s the quality of life for ordinary citizens has actually declined. Despite oil riches, more than one in ten children die before their fifth birthday.

Obiang's five-point reform programme includes improving human rights protection, greater transparency over oil revenues, and anti-poverty measures. "This will amount to little more than spin, as long as the President continues to disregard the rule of law and break his previous commitments," said Palmer. Obiang has promised to unilaterally comply with the requirements of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a multi-stakeholder attempt to bring more transparency to the flow of payments to governments from oil, gas and mining companies. However, Equatorial Guinea was kicked out of the scheme this April for failing to fulfil the initiative's most basic obligations.

Participation in the EITI would require respect for the participation of local civil society, in contrast to the current policy of brutal retaliation against opposition. The government should also publish asset declarations of their senior officials, launch independent corruption investigations and provide information on who owns companies involved in oil exploitation. Obiang and his family are currently under investigation in a number of countries for pillaging millions of dollars from state coffers. Global Witness has exposed how Obiang's son was able to bring $75 million into the U.S. to fund a luxury playboy lifestyle, despite only earning a salary of a few thousand dollars a month.

"President Obiang can rest assured that Global Witness will continue to criticise his regime as long as he continues to put enriching himself and his family above the interests of his people," said Palmer. "If Obiang is serious about reform he should waive the confidentiality clauses in the country's oil deals today; transparency doesn't take ten years." 
Ends

Contact:
Robert Palmer
on 0207 4925860 or
Amy Barry
on 0207 4925858;
07980 664397

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2. President Teodoro Obiang, in major speech before Cape Town Global
    Forum calls for 'turning the page'  

Equatorial Guinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, in a speech this afternoon before the three-day Fortune/Time/CNN Global Forum in Cape Town, South Africa, is announcing a five-point comprehensive reform and transparency program that he described as an historic "turning the page" in the history of his country.  

President Obiang committed himself personally and his government to implement this 10-year program in close cooperation with the world community, the African Union and non-governmental organizations ("NGOs"), inviting their technical assistance and cooperation.  He asked his audience of the world's business leaders to see this reform program as further reason to see Equatorial Guinea ("EG") as a destination for investment and just and reliable treatment under a reformed legal system.

President Obiang's five-point program includes:

1. Extractive Industries Transparency Reform – Continuing an effort to qualify for membership of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) and at the same time unilaterally instituting policies that would be in full compliance with the EITI criteria, doing more than necessary to ensure transparency and accountability.
2. Social Development Fund 
   Expand the current Social Development Fund by investing substantial resources from oil exploration revenues and other natural resources into "our children, our schools, our teachers, health care, tourism, housing, potable water supply, road infrastructure, telecommunications, development of natural sciences, job creation and development of democratic institutions.  In short, we are increasing investment in our most valuable resource: our people."
3. Continue Comprehensive Legal Reform/Civil and Human Rights Protections.  
   "Invite a delegation from the African Union to help review and continue the reforms we have already initiated of our legal institutions, and to prepare and adopt a new legal code that drives the country into the future and ensure judicial credibility." The Government will take measures to support EG's free press association, (ASOPGE) to allow it to act with independence and freedom.
4. International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).  
   "The Government will invite the International Red Cross to install its headquarters in Equatorial Guinea and assist in reviewing and assessing all allegations of human rights violations in the country.  We will also ask for [its] help in monitoring our Criminal Justice System and prisons to ensure the humane treatment and appropriate for those convicted of crimes."
5. Preserve Our Environment and Protect Endangered Species. The government asked the African Union to monitor and intervene in the activities of NGOs interested in the environment to ensure it has a program for preservation. "We will continue to enforce other protective measures already in place," President Obiang said, "such as our ban on the hunting of monkeys in our national parklands and forests."  

President Obiang, addressing an audience comprised of many of the world's leading companies and business leaders, also emphasized his desire to make EG a business-friendly destination for investment, tourism, and the development of health facilities and research projects. "In addition to oil, Equatorial Guinea has other largely unexploited human and natural resources," President Obiang said, "including a tropical climate, fertile soils, rich expanse of water, and deepwater ports."

"We hope to develop a variety of industries through these resources and we invite investors from across the globe to consider the exciting possibilities with us," he said.  The EG president pointed out that his country is a member of the Organization of the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa ("OHADA"), which facilitates and encourages both domestic and foreign investment in member states and which commits EG, by treaty, to a supranational court to ensure uniformity and consistent legal interpretations across the member countries.

President Obiang stated he was aware of "criticisms of my government and even of my family," many of which he believed to be untrue and published without full assessment of the facts.  But he added, "We have a long way to go to achieve this ambitious program of reform and transparency.  In many ways we have to fundamentally change the course of our history and parts of our culture.  It will not be easy.  We ask for your patience, especially that of the community of NGOs from around the world."  

"We will not ask the global advocacy groups that have criticized us to look the other way and stop their criticisms," he said, "but we ask the international community to help us to help ourselves and help us implement this reform program so that we become partners with the world's democracies."  He recognized that "this won't be easy – we are a country that is only 42 years old.  But we are determined to move forward and progress, and we ask the world community and all of you to help us move forward, so that individual acts of progress can produce dynamic effects to create a better and more prosperous Guinea over the next 10 years."

*This material is distributed by Lanny J. Davis & Associates, LLC on behalf of the
 Government of Equatorial Guinea.  

*More information is available from the U.S. Department of Justice.

SOURCE Republic of Equatorial Guinea

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