Business of diamonds
The business of diamonds is a political matter revealed by the Duck connected the October 10th 1979 which implied the president Valery Giscard d'Estaing when he was and Head Minister for Finance of State of the Central African Republic, Jean-Bedel Bokassa, in the Années 1970. From the contradictory points of view continue to express itself on this business.
Relations between Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Jean Bedel Bokassa
Valery Giscard d'Estaing knew Jean Bedel Bokassa since 1970. It had met it at the time of funerals of the Général de Gaulle.Until its election with the presidency of the French Republic, Giscard d'Estaing had gone 3 times in African Center republic, in December 1970, March 1971 and April 1973. They were private voyages organized in a concession of the north of the country to the invitation of Henry of the Tower of Auvergne, a cousin of his wife and a large amateur of African hunting. Each time, Giscard d'Estaing (which was member of the French government) had met president Bokassa with Bangui, before taking again the plane for Paris.
In April 1973, at the end of its stay, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, Minister for Finance of Georges Pompidou paid a visit of suitability to the Head of Central African State. After having visited the presidential palace in company of its host, this one gave to him of the fruits of ebony and a plate of African Diamant S (two stars of small fine stones), sample of the production of the school of stone size which it had created with Bangui. This gift was generally reserved for its hosts of mark. Henry Kissinger in particular had received a similar plate, which according to Valery Giscard d'Estaing had been estimated at the time of a value between 4 000 and 7 000 francs. According to the testimony of F.L. Copperman, former British honorary consul with Bangui in 1973 and national administrator of diamond (NDT), the value of diamonds that Bokassa exempted with its distinguished guests never did not exceed 10 000 US $. On his return to Paris, the Minister for Finance arranged the diamond " plate; in a tiroir" with the ministry without paying attention to it more.
Shortly after its election with the presidency of the French Republic, Valery Giscard d'Estaing again met Bokassa and of the members of its government in the castle of this last in the Sologne. After the talks between the two Heads of States and the lunch, the Central African president gave to the French president several gifts as friendships in particular a ornamental panel in Ivoire and diamond plates. The two men still met in Bangui in March 1975, at the time of an official trip, where gifts are exchanged, the Central African president offering three more squares of compositions in brilliances to the side of defenses of elephants.
In her memories, Valery Giscard d'Estaing states to be himself still returned to Central Africa for two private voyages in August 1976 and August 1978 in the concession of hunting and although having declined the invitation of Bokassa to visit him, it is the latter which moved to meet the French president on vacation.
The personal relations between the two men remained cordial. Bokassa was appreciated however little by the majority of its pars and itself reproached France the reduction in its financial aid. The relations between the two countries had not been arranged after its crowning as emperor with a Napoleonean ostentation and the refusal of Valery Giscard d'Estaing to assist to with it personally.
Context of the year 1979
In January and April 1979, of the violently repressed disorders take place with Bangui. Schoolboys are the main victims. In May, Bokassa is present at the opening of the Franco-African conference where it is ostracized by his colleagues Léopold Sedar Senghor and Felix Houphouët-Boigny. The conference requires that a commission under presidency sénégalaise investigation into the disorders and repression of Bangui. It is accepted by Bokassa whereas president Giscard d'Estaing states, at the time of the press conference who follows, that if the culpability of Bokassa in the made exactions with Bangui were shown, this one should then leave the capacity.
The August 16th 1979, the Commission Report of investigation denounces the nearly certain personal liabilities of Bokassa in the massacre of a hundred children. The August 17th, the ministry for the co-operation announces the suspension of the French assistance in the Africa Center. September 20th France launches the Opération Barracuda which leads to the installation of a new strong man, David Dacko, which had been driven out capacity in 1965. In her memories, Valery Giscard d'Estaing details the days which preceded the inversion by Jean Bedel Bokassa, the implication of the French Army and the Opération Barracuda who ends at the end of the Central African empire. Bokassa is thus taken along of force by the French parachutists to the Chad and from there, it leaves in Exil in Ivory Coast where it shows France to have betrayed it.
September 21st, in Le Monde, the former ambassador of France in Central Africa, Albert de Schonen states to remember to have seen many official personalities leaving Bangui with gold nuggets and the diamonds offered by the Head of the State.
The business
The October 10th 1979, one month after the African despot had been reversed, the Duck connected publishes the facsimile of an order of Bokassa in 1973 with the National Counter of Diamond for a diamond plate of thirty carats intended for Valery Giscard d'Estaing, then Minister for Finance. The satirical newspaper then evaluates to a million francs the value of these diamonds, estimate disputed by certain experts. Le Monde takes again information in the afternoon and a leading article entitled " The truth and the honneur" deplore the absence of comments of the Head of French State whereas the Agency France-Press publishes in the afternoon a dispatch of the Elysium indicating " that the exchanges of gifts of traditional nature, in particular at the time of the visits of members of the government in the foreign States, have, to in no case, neither the character nor the value which were mentioned by certain press agencies in connection with Centrafrique". According to Laurent Martin, this answer is perceived like ambiguous by the press of opposition and certain foreign newspapers " . In its memories, Giscard d'Estaing states to hesitate but finally refuses to make seize the newspaper to conform to a promise made in 1974 at the time of its election.
The October 15th 1979, a detailed counter-enquiry of the newspaper the Point , if it confirms the reality of the gifts of Bokassa to its foreign hosts and cannot cancel the authenticity of the signature of Bokassa, disputes the supposed value of the diamonds offered to Giscard d'Estaing such as they had been estimated by the Duck connected and Le Monde .
The business nevertheless is taken again like political argument by the opposition. Thus, the October 26th with the National Assembly, Georges Fillioud shows the government to have choked " the business of the diamants".
The November 27th, in an televised interview, Valery Giscard d'Estaing precise: " Before my mandate is not completed, all the gifts that I received, and whose list will be preserved, will have been used with one or the other of these functions, i.e. charitable organizations or museums " (...) " I do not hide you that it is désobligeant enough for me to answer questions of this nature. I can say to you that already, these last years, of many gifts were sent to charitable organizations, which know it and which, moreover, send testimony in writing of it to me, or with museums, where they are, at present, presented ". (...) " Lastly, with the question that you posed to me on the value of what I would have received as Minister for Finance, I oppose a categorical denial and, I add, scorning " .
In volume 2 of its memories published in 1991, Valery Giscard d'Estaing is declared surprised by these attacks which rest on elements according to him completely false and demented person to have received a plate of thirty carats. It is especially dismayed by the attitude of the Monde , whereas the day before its director, Jacques Fauvet, came to the Elysium for a dinner during which this one discussed the national and international businesses with the President. Jacques Fauvet sign the following day an accusing leading article entitled “the truth and the honor”. As from this day, Valery Giscard d'Estaing will not read any more Le Monde , wounded by the charges based on only information of the Canard connected , and by the calling into question of his/her father and his cousins in linked activities with the Africa but which had nothing to do with Bokassa and its gift. By deciding, according to its terms, to treat the business by the contempt and to make confidence with the other newspapers to carry out a scrupulous survey which would restore the truth, its attitude nevertheless is perceived like arrogance and a consent of culpability. Moreover, beyond the gift of diamonds, it is the whole of the lifestyle of the President and his family which is criticized.
Rene Journiac, the adviser with the African businesses of the French president, was the first to be updated what seemed to him to be a trickery. By simple graphological comparison , it seemed that the style of signature was not in conformity with that of Bokassa in 1973, pretense to suppose that the former Head of State centers African had affixed his signature on the documents that very recently, perhaps even at the time of his exile in Ivory Coast. But especially the title under which or Bokassa, mentioned in the documents published in connected Duck had signed would have, was a posterior title with that which it used in 1973.
A survey is then carried out by the DST. Paid in the memories of Valery Giscard d'Estaing, this one also concluded that the signed notes of the ex-emperor and on whom rested the charges were falsified documents, apparently written, according to it, by the journalist Roger Delpey, former adviser of Jean-Bedel Bokassa of which he wrote a biography. Delpey is thus stopped by the DST at the exit of the embassy of Libya and a bundle of layers in white covered with the signature of Bokassa is found at the time of the searching of its residence Roger Delpey which will contradict to have been the adviser of connected Duck, will be imprisoned during several months. According to connected Duck, the court concludes by nona place. In 1985, it is débouté by the Court of appeal of its request for allowance for arbitrary arrest.
Canard Enchaîné always maintained its version, while recognizing that the supposed value of diamonds was prone to dispute. According to the Weekly , the note of Bokassa of 1973 had been given to him by a senior official of the French Ministry of the Co-operation in station with Bangui after the fall of Bokassa and not by Roger Delpey as DST affirmed it. The satiric weekly published two interviews of the ex-dictator where this one attested authenticity of the documents and nature of the given gifts but it should be noted that the ex-emperor estimated that Giscard had betrayed it and wanted some in France for its dismissal. According to the version reported in the memories of Giscard d'Estaing, the ex-emperor could a posteriori signed such a note in Ivory Coast during his exile. According to the historian Laurent Martin, Jacques Foccart (which was not any more posts some in the Elysium since 1974), would confirm the version of Canard Enchaîné in its memories whereas the journalist Jean Bothorel would lean towards that of Giscard d'Estaing in his biography devoted to the former president.
Epilog
In 1980, the series of diamond plates given by the old Central African chief-state to Valery Giscard d'Estaing are photographed and appraised with other gifts that this last had received during its mandate on behalf of Heads of foreign States. In her memories, Valery Giscard d'Estaing publishes the attesting official document of the amount resulting from the expertise on diamonds by the president of the Company of the experts close to the Court of Appeal to Paris for an amount quite lower than that quoted in the article to connected Duck. The whole of diamonds are sold in 1981 for the sum of 111 547 francs of the time. Part of the amount of their sale is reassigned with the government of Bangui for the Croix-Rouge of Central Africa, whereas the remainder (67 025 francs) is versed with caritative works of the country. The expertise was called in question by Duck connected neither in 1981 nor at the time of the publication of the memories of Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 1991. Nobody thus showed to date that diamonds of 30 carats for a value of 1 franc million actually existed and given to Valery Giscard d'Estaing in 1973.This business, which was perhaps revealed with an aim of discrediting the president of the Republic, occurred two years before the presidential election of 1981.
Poor defense, tinted contempt, of Valery Giscard d'Estaing finally accredits with the eyes of the public the charge carried by the Duck connected .
In 1981, this business could be one of the causes of the defeat of Valery Giscard d'Estaing vis-a-vis the candidate of the socialist party François Mitterrand.