UK Royals' deep ties with Gabon's Bongos go way back

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Declassified UK
9 Sep 2023 15:54

Relations between the British royal family and Gabon's ruling Bongo family grew significantly in the past decades.

King Charles III after being crowned at Westminster Abbey in London, United Kingdom on May 6, 2023. (AFP)

The British Royal family met with Gabon’s autocratic rulers at least 14 times until the coup that hit the West African country earlier this month, Declassified UK reported on Saturday.

But after the death of Queen Elizabeth, the encounters became more frequent, as King Charles’ relationship with Gabon’s President Ali Bongo grew deeper.

Their shared “passion” for the environment seems to have taken precedence over any apprehension related to embezzlement or election fraud in oil-rich Gabon.

Omar Bongo, Ali Bongo’s father, ruled the country from 1967 before passing it on to his son.

In spite of its history as a former French colony, the opulent Bongos consistently pursued partnerships with influential figures from the United Kingdom. Among their circle of advisors was Dominic Sudnik, a seasoned professional from the controversial London public relations firm Bell Pottinger, who had been actively engaged in Gabon until earlier this year.

Praetorian guard’

However, endeavors to establish connections with the United Kingdom date back to as early as 1970 when Omar Bongo held an audience with Queen Elizabeth at Buckingham Palace, presenting her with a black beaded helmet as a token of goodwill.

Their paths crossed once more in 1980, mere months after Omar's “landslide victory” in his country’s presidential elections, where he secured an astonishing “100% of the vote.”

In 1983, Ali Bongo had an encounter with a retired British army major at London's Hilton Hotel. During this meeting, Bongo attempted to enlist 500 Gurkhas as a potential "praetorian guard," as discovered in a document unearthed by Declassified.

The British Foreign Office, however, swiftly rejected the proposal, as they were concerned it might undermine the British military's existing “supply of Nepalese mercenaries.”

But this incident did not undermine the Bongos' admiration for the United Kingdom and its elites. By the late 1980s, the ruling family proposed the idea of establishing their own monarchy, with Ali as the designated heir to the throne. This suggestion was "laughed off by French president Jacques Chirac," the report said.

‘Marred by irregularities’

In 1999, Prince Philip, the Queen's husband, made a trip to Gabon, during which he had a lunch meeting with Omar Bongo at the presidential palace in Libreville.

Omar Bongo gifted his British guest a sculpture of a woman's head and a gold necklace. Notably, this encounter took place just three months after another controversial election in which the president was accused of sending a kill squad to assassinate the opposition's main candidate.

The US State Department criticized this election, saying it was “marred by irregularities that generally favored the incumbent, including incomplete and inaccurate electoral lists and the use of false documents to cast votes.”

Omar Bongo held the throne for another two decades until his death in 2009, at which point his son Ali succeeded him. Subsequent elections were marked by protests, the use of violence against demonstrators, and allegations of ballot manipulation.

Despite this tumultuous political context, Prince Charles still met with Ali Bongo at Clarence House in 2011.

Greenwashing

Since then, the Windsor family and the Bongos have been meeting at a rate of nearly one encounter per year. Princes Andrew, William, and Harry were present at some of these meetings.

These interactions persisted even after another "sham poll" in 2016, during which opposition supporters were targeted by live ammo, and concerns regarding embezzlement grew.

In 2018, Prince William chose to meet with Ali Bongo at Buckingham Palace. On this occasion, he was accompanied by British professor Lee White, who was heading Gabon's national parks agency. This agency, resembling a quasi-military force, had received military training from the UK and the US in collaboration with the Prince Charles Trust.

Gabon's national parks agency wields significant influence in the country, given Gabon's possession of some of the world's largest forests and elephant populations, which are under threat from poaching and illegal logging.

In 2019, Bongo appointed Professor White to his cabinet as minister of environment. Together, they initiated substantial carbon credit schemes aimed at addressing climate change.

However, the two were accused by critics of greenwashing Bongo’s authoritarianism. The Rainforest Foundation UK says Gabon’s issue of 90 million carbon credits is “likely worthless” and does “not appear to represent any real reductions in carbon emissions or additional capture of carbon in its forests.”

Commonwealth membership

Charles appears to have embraced Gabon's environmental policies, evident when he hosted President Bongo for a visit to Kew Gardens in 2021.

Since that trip, there has been a noticeable increase in interactions between the two men. President Bongo was among the few African leaders to attend Queen Elizabeth's funeral in September of the same year.

A month later, he returned to Buckingham Palace, where King Charles extended congratulations to him for Gabon's inclusion in the Commonwealth.

Despite Ali's deteriorating health after suffering a stroke, he met with Charles again in May, during a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting at Marlborough House.

The following day, he was captured on film struggling to walk with a cane at Charles' coronation. Perhaps in light of his health issues, Ali was subsequently removed from power in a coup led by his cousin just a few months later, Declassified said in the report.

Now under house arrest, Ali has released a video calling on “all friends that we have all over the world…to make noise”.

Norman Baker, a former British minister who wrote the book "What The Royal Family Don’t Want You To Know" told Declassified that the British Royal family were “very much more at home with other royals and unelected leaders around the world…even where they have blood on their hands."

“It just underlines how out of step with modern British values our fossilized royal family is to be associating with dodgy characters like President Bongo. We really don’t want Charles banging the drum for Bongo.”