Yaounde: Biya in grave danger and fighting for his life

4, November 2021

Yaounde: Biya in grave danger and fighting for his life 0

A senior Cameroon government official has hinted Cameroon Intelligence Report that concerns surrounding the 88-year-old President Paul Biya’s health are credible.

The Francophone dictator is apparently battling for his life, an Etoudi source with direct knowledge told our Yaoundé city reporter late on Sunday. It should be noted that Biya has not been seen in any public or private family celebration both in the nation’s capital and in his native Mvomeka’a for some time now and it has raised rumours about the leader’s health condition.

On Monday, a Cameroon government official told Cameroon Intelligence Report that rumours regarding President Biya’s health condition were credible, but was still clueless about the severity of his illness.

As per a conversation we had with a top baron of the regime at the time of filing this report, Biya is indeed suffering from Covid-19 complications and this is the reason why he has been conspicuously absent from the political scene. We gathered that the Cameroonian leader is currently receiving treatment in his Mvomeka’a villa.

Are these reports credible?

“Over the last decade, there have been a number of false health rumours about President Biya. We’ll have to wait and see,” said Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, Cameroon Concord News Group senior political man who is also very experienced in intelligence gathering.

By Asu Vera Eyere

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Presbyterian Church in the US urges Biden to aid Amba asylum seekers

4, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Presbyterian Church in the US urges Biden to aid Amba asylum seekers 0

Is the United States a nation that cares for humanity or politics? That was the question from a group of Black migrants from Cameroon during a virtual conference with the media last week.

Cameroon is a country in deep turmoil as the government faces confrontation with citizens who claim the country has fallen victim to corruption and violence. According to the United Nations, the separatist war has forced more than half a million people to flee their homes over the past four years, many coming to the United States for a new start.

But those hopes have been dashed for thousands of Black migrants as they face detention and the threat of deportation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The group is seeking Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in the U.S. in hopes of avoiding those threats.

Last week, the Cameroon Advocacy Network (CAN) joined with other groups including representatives from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) for a webinar. The group heard from several Cameroonians who have fled the troubled nation in hopes of starting new lives in the U.S. Those who spoke would not identify themselves for fear it would result in their immediate arrest.

“I’ve been here almost two years and am still living in fear of deportation or even stepping out of the house because of ICE,” said one migrant who identifies himself as “Terry” to protect his identity. “We never believed that by crossing the border, we would be locked up for days and nights.”

Another man who called himself “Fabrisk” became emotional as he described efforts to come to the U.S. only to find himself and others treated as criminals and taken into custody.

“We come here and are transported with chains all over our bodies. We can’t eat, can’t feed ourselves or go to the bathroom,” he said. “We find ourselves in the arms of people who want to destroy us emotionally.”

The Cameroon Advocacy Network is a new coalition that has grown out of the ongoing organizing work of Black migrants and immigrants. Several of the coordinating members are part of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, an important partner for Presbyterians in southern California as well as with the Interfaith Immigration Coalition.

With the increase in Cameroonian asylum seekers arriving these past few years at the U.S.-Mexico border, CAN was created to organize efforts and inform advocacy campaigns. Many of the English-speaking Cameroonians have some connection to Presbyterian partners in Cameroon. They have attended either Presbyterian schools or Presbyterian churches.

PC(USA) representatives have met with CAN regularly to learn how to support their efforts and accompany Cameroonians in communities.

“In Cameroon, you don’t know what will happen from one minute to the next. You can leave home to fetch water or go to church and there is no promise that you will come back. The youth are most vulnerable,” said a woman identified as “Azoh.” “That’s why you see people embark on a journey to America. There is this thought that America is this giant where people feel most safe. That’s what’s causing this major influx of Cameroonians coming. People don’t mind taking the risk. To them, it’s a risk worth taking.”

Azoh said people come to America thinking they’ll be protected, adding that they can’t imagine that the same country where they seek protection would send them back to where they came from.

“I’ve been in the United States since 2003. I work hard, pay my taxes and contribute to this country,” she said. “My brother was released here two years ago from detention and lives every day in fear that he could be picked up, whether he goes to the doctor or something else. We are in a panic when he leaves because we don’t know if he will come back.”

Terry agreed, saying the stress is very high as they await a final outcome.

“The situation has not changed. I find myself still in chains because I am not free. I live in absolute fear of being arrested and it’s traumatizing,” he said. “When I go out just for a walk, I may see a police van. We try to adjust the way we walk so not to look suspicious. It makes me feel afraid because if you are arrested, deportation is the next thing.”

Daniel Tse is one of the founders of CAN and knows firsthand how difficult it is for migrants hoping to stay in the U.S.

“People can’t go to the mall or step out of their house for fear of deportation. They are locked up in their houses,” said Tse. “This is painful for those that have gone through this suffering. We stand with you and are not giving up this fight.”

Terry says those coming to the U.S. for a fresh start want to do their part as productive citizens.

“It’s frustrating. We are young, strong, ready to work and support this country in whatever way we can. We ask you to search in your hearts to help us,” he said. “If we go back to Cameroon, our fate is uncertain, our future is uncertain. Our wives and children’s futures are uncertain because their lives are in jeopardy. If they come for you, your whole family will suffer.”

Terry is calling on the Biden administration to find a solution that will allow them to stay without fear of deportation.

“Help us because we know that no matter how tough it might be, there is that humanitarian part of you that has love. You might turn things around for those who are crying and clamoring for your help,” Terry said. “We want to participate and support this great nation physically, emotionally, financially and morally.”

“The U.S. asylum system has been weakened by the past few administrations by policies that make it nearly impossible to ask for and claim asylum. Those who bear the harm of these policies are those who arrive in the United States by crossing the southern border. We witness systematic oppression against Black asylum seekers — they are held in detention longer; they are deported at higher rates; they must pay bail bonds at exorbitant rates; and their asylum cases are less likely to be approved,” said Amanda Craft, manager of Immigration Policy for the Office of the General Assembly. “As we urge policy changes, we must take into consideration how the immigration system continues to abuse communities of color, especially Black immigrants. A step in the right direction would be to grant TPS status for Cameroonians and halt deportation flights.”

Susan Krehbiel, associate for Refugees and Asylum with Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, says she feels anger and shame for her own government when she hears firsthand accounts from those held in immigration jails.

“It is antithetical to who we are as a nation and as people of God. We also heard of the lasting impact of these traumatic experiences, the lingering fears and distrust that they carry with them for years,” she said. “The situation faced by the people of Cameroon seeking asylum in the U.S. should be compelling to all of us. The stories shared help us see the real lives and families who suffer because we no longer have a valid asylum system. That is why Temporary Protected Status is an important first step in at least meeting our international obligation to not return people back to harm.”

CAN representatives said at the close of the webinar that they will continue to push for TPS.

People are asked to sign a petition to help at cameroonadvocacynetwork.org/take-action. The PC(USA) continues to support efforts to urge the president to designate TPS status for Cameroonians.

Source: PC USA

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 Cameroon gov’t army soldiers killed in Ekondo Titi

4, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: 2 Cameroon gov’t army soldiers killed in Ekondo Titi 0

There was more macabre violence in Southern Cameroons this week as two armed Cameroon government soldiers in Ekondo Titi were seized, beaten and finally shot to death.

Their bloody bodies were reportedly discovered a short while later in a garbage patch and were identified as Corporals Koum and Mohamed Mbouombouo.

The two were arrested by Ambazonia Revolutionary Guards trying to flee quickly when challenged by an Ekondo Titi Amba security watch, according to Cameroon Concord News sources.

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis hit the global stage some five years ago, some 10,000 Cameroonians have been killed, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been maimed and scarred for life in a conflict that could have been addressed through negotiations and genuine dialogue.

As of today, some one million Southern Cameroonians are either  internally displaced or are seeking refuge in a neighboring country due to a conflict many observers say was avoidable.

Thousands of army soldiers whose consciences could not allow them to kill innocent civilians have left the country to escape the harsh punishment the government inflicts on soldiers who do not want to implement the decisions of the top military brass.

By Rita Akana and Eyere Asu

US: Biden rejects blame for Democrats’ brutal election loss in Virginia

4, November 2021

US: Biden rejects blame for Democrats’ brutal election loss in Virginia 0

President Joe Biden returned from Europe Wednesday with a wake-up call for feuding Democrats holding up his sweeping domestic reforms in Congress — after a humiliating state election defeat that many blamed on inertia and infighting among the party’s lawmakers.

“I do know that people want us to get things done,” he told reporters asking for his takeaway on longtime favourite Terry McAuliffe’s loss to a Republican newcomer in Tuesday’s Virginia governor’s election.

“And that’s why I’m continuing to push very hard for the Democratic Party to move along and pass my infrastructure bill and my Build Back Better bill.”

Amid nosediving approval ratings and frustration over his stalled economic agenda, Biden came home to a Republican red wave that swept over the eastern United States Tuesday, from Virginia Beach to Long Island and beyond.

Republicans pulled off a decisive upset in the gubernatorial election in otherwise blue-trending Virginia, with untested multimillionaire Glenn Youngkin beating McAuliffe, while the Democratic governor of New Jersey won re-election but only barely.

There were also Republican gains across New York City and a conservative backlash to a liberal proposal in Minneapolis — the city where George Floyd was murdered by police — to dismantle the local force.

Hours before the polls closed, Biden had voiced confidence about the votes in Virginia and New Jersey, rejecting suggestions in any case that they were a verdict on his presidency.

Asked several times on Wednesday if he took responsibility for the bloodletting in local elections, he avoided giving a direct answer.

But he told reporters at the White House: “People are upset and uncertain about a lot of things — from Covid to school, to jobs to a whole range of things and the cost of a gallon of gasoline.

“And so if I’m able to sign into law my Build Back Better initiative, I’m in a position where you’re going to see a lot of those things ameliorated quickly and swiftly. So that has to be done.”  

‘Clear message’

Biden, who campaigned as a centrist but has governed to the left, is facing a thorny path to the November 2022 midterm elections as he plays peacemaker between the increasingly polarised Democratic factions he has failed to bring together.

The president offered bold action on the climate in Glasgow at the weekend, but the lack of tangible progress in Washington on his environmental goals reverberated through the COP26 summit, underscoring the damage being inflicted on his agenda by months of infighting.

Amid record-shattering turnout, Youngkin squashed McAuliffe’s comeback by leveraging parents’ fears over a public school curriculum they consider too liberal and growing frustration with Biden, who swept the state by 10 points only a year ago.

Democrats have privately been warning for weeks that a McAuliffe loss could spook moderates already skittish about the expansive scale of Biden’s two-pronged, $3 trillion plan to transform infrastructure and enlarge the social safety net.

While Biden’s news conference may spur rank-and-file lawmakers to deal more urgently with considering his priorities, it is far from clear they are united on the lessons they should be taking from Tuesday’s setbacks.

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a centrist holdout on much of Biden’s agenda, led calls Wednesday for a handbrake on spending negotiations so that lawmakers can “take time and do it right.”

But progressives reached the opposite conclusion, arguing that Virginia had been lost by middle-of-the-road Democrats blocking provisions for child care, prescription drug reform and paid family leave from Biden’s Build Back Better social welfare package.

“Terry McAuliffe has been saying for weeks that his fate was tied to the progress of negotiations here on Capitol Hill,” Senate majority whip Dick Durbin told reporters, echoing Biden.

“And there ought to be a clear message to my party and all those who support it to get the job done.”

In reality, Congress had nothing to do with perhaps the most damaging gaffe of McAuliffe’s campaign, when he said at a September 29 debate with Youngkin: “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.”

The remark became a rallying cry for conservatives bitter over mask mandates in schools and misled by the false Republican notion that “critical race theory” was being taught to their children.

Peter Loge, a public affairs professor at George Washington University, offered a crumb of consolation to those fearing the death of the party, pointing out that the Virginia governor’s election almost always serves as voters’ first opportunity to cudgel the party of the new president.

“What I do think the White House has to do now is go to Democrats in Congress and other Democrats around the country and say, look, here are the details of the votes,” Loge said.

“Here’s what voters were telling us… Let’s focus on what matters — and that’s families, that’s schools, that’s jobs, that’s inflation.”

Source: AFP

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Delegate of Communication in Ngoketunjia Division kidnapped

3, November 2021

Southern Cameroons Crisis: Delegate of Communication in Ngoketunjia Division kidnapped 0

Gunmen have kidnapped Manfred Likine Mbua, a government official in Cameroon’s Anglophone region of Northwest, officials said on Tuesday.

Manfred Likine Mbua, a trained journalist and government chief of communication in Ngoketunjia, a division of the region was kidnapped by gunmen in late October but news about his abduction was only announced to reporters early Tuesday.

His whereabouts is still unknown and the kidnappers are demanding a “huge” amount of money as ransom, according to police in Bamenda, chief town of the region.

The army and police have launched an operation to secure his safe release, the police said.

Abductions are common in the region where the army and armed separatists have been clashing since 2017.

The separatists want to create an independent nation they called “Ambazonia” in Cameroon’s two Anglophone regions of Northwest and Southwest.

Source: PMNEWS Nigeria

“The Toronto Retreat is that bright spot which is telling Cameroonians that a solution to this senseless war is in the offing” Dr. Joachim Arrey

3, November 2021

“The Toronto Retreat is that bright spot which is telling Cameroonians that a solution to this senseless war is in the offing” Dr. Joachim Arrey 0

As the dust from the Toronto Meeting settles, the Cameroon Concord News Group’s Editor-in-Chief, Soter Tarh Agbaw-Ebai, decided to interview a key observer of the Cameroon political landscape, Dr. Joachim Arrey, the Executive Director of the Global Think Thank for Africa, a not-for-profit public relations firm, who was in Toronto at the time of the meeting and kept a special eye on the deliberations.

Cameroon Concord News: It is always a pleasure talking with you. You were in Toronto when the meeting went underway. How was the atmosphere out there? 

Dr. Joachim Arrey: Thank you for granting me this opportunity to share my thoughts on the Toronto meeting which brought together key factions of the Southern Cameroons crisis that is in its fifth year and has been spreading death and destruction among the people of Southern Cameroons. Regarding the atmosphere in Toronto with regards to the meeting, thousands of Southern Cameroonians in Toronto have been looking forward to this meeting given that it will forever serve as the groundwork for further talks. I did speak with many Cameroonians and those with whom I met in affluent neighborhoods like Brampton, Mississauga, Caledon, Etobicoke, and others had one clear message – It is time to start talking if the Yaounde government is ready for frank and fruitful negotiations. Toronto has a huge rich Southern Cameroonian population which really wants the war to come to an end, but they want the war to come to an end not because they want to continue with the current  political dispensation in the country which is predicated upon hyper-centralization and control, but because they want genuine political transformation in the country which will enable Cameroonians  around the world to return home with their money with a view to giving the country’s ailing economy a shot in the arm. Cameroonians in Toronto may not belong to the same shade of political opinion, but they do agree that there will never be a military victory in Southern Cameroons. Some stand for secession and they are very vocal about it, while others hold that a federally united and indivisible Cameroon is possible and will very likely bring peace, stability, and prosperity to millions of Cameroonians if the government displays good faith and trust. However, despite the divergencies, there is a common thread that runs through these shades of opinion – war is not good for the country and peace through genuine talks is a huge possibility. 

Cameroon Concord News: Once news of the meeting became public, many people, especially extremists who think that secession is the only answer, said it was being sponsored by the Yaounde government and that those who were attending the forum had been compromised. What is your view?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: I also read a lot on this on social media, but because I had details about the meeting which many of those contesting the holding of such a meeting did not have, I was indeed unfazed. I would like to let you know that whatever you want to do in life, go ahead and do it, especially if it will help humanity. Don’t forget that some people’s stock in trade is sabotage. Such people will even sabotage their own progress. Why would the Yaounde government which is facing mounting financial problems send people on a retreat to Toronto, one of the most expensive cities in the world? The quality of the countries and organizations involved in the preparation and implementation of the Toronto meeting speaks to the world’s determination to end this dirty war which is consuming youthful lives in a region of the continent which needs human and financial resources to give its development efforts a real boost. Some of the factions opted to boycott the event while others were deemed unfit to attend because of their uncompromising stance against the holding of any conference that might result in peace and security in Cameroon. It should be recalled that no war ends without talks and negotiations. The First World War ended with the Treaty of Versailles. The Second World War ended with the Yalta and Potsdam Agreements. Those who are against talks are clearly against peace and the people should consider them as enemies of peace. The meeting organizers included the U.S. State Department, the Vatican, Canada, Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, Norway, the United Nations, and Greenclee which negotiated the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland. The quality of those who attended the meeting also inspires hope and I am confident that more of such conferences will be held and through such talks Cameroon will be pulled back from the brink of collapse. Let us not forget that for years Cameroonians across the globe have been scanning the horizon in search of hope and, based on what I know, the Toronto meeting is that bright spot which is telling Cameroonians that a solution to this senseless war is in the offing. There were informative and educative presentations by experienced Canadian conflict prevention and conflict management experts and discussions on the Irish experience regarding the liberation war involving the IRA and Sein Fein against the British were really edifying.

Cameroon Concord News: So, what was the objective of the Toronto meeting?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: The objective of the meeting was to help all the factions in the destructive war in Southern Cameroons to gain a better understanding of the situation and to ensure that the message of peace being promoted by internal and external stakeholders is clearly and fully understood by all the participants, including the Cameroon government which is using diplomatic channels to call for peace. All those who attended the meeting agreed that a military victory would be impossible in Southern Cameroons. If Southern Cameroonians need peace, they must be open to the idea of talks. No matter how hard the government and separatist fighters kill each other, they must know that they will at some point talk to each other to end the madness. As humans, we must rise above our egos if peace must return to the people of Southern Cameroons who have been suffering for five years because of a disagreement that could have been easily dealt with. There is nothing wrong in complaining. It was incumbent upon the government to listen to teachers and lawyers so as to better understand their needs. If the government had acted wisely, we would have avoided this situation which has unfortunately sent thousands of Cameroonians to an early grave. However, this is not the time to apportion blame. We should be forward-looking. The Toronto meeting has succeeded in its overall objective which was to bring together significant Southern Cameroonian groups in the Diaspora and on Ground Zero. I therefore think that there is hope on the horizon. 

Cameroon Concord News: So, what next?

Dr. Joachim Arrey: The Toronto meeting is just the beginning of a long and bumpy journey which will surely lead to a peaceful resolution. It will take time, but like other countries, Cameroon will emerge from its own ruins. The mistakes of the past have been understood and the lessons of this war are staring us all in the eyes. There is no point pretending that it does not hurt. When we see the number of people who have died, we all should be ashamed of ourselves that we lacked the courage and political will to do the right thing. Disagreement is as old as man and the only and surest way to address any disagreement is for the parties to come together to work out a few things. In this regard, the government must show leadership. Over the last five years, the Yaounde government has failed in its duties. It should be the one urging Cameroonians to work together, but in the Southern Cameroonian case, it had to bring out weapons to kill its own people. I see many estimates of those killed because of this war and whether the estimates are small or big, one life is very important. Nobody should die because politicians think they can perpetuate themselves in power. We have lost thousands of our soldiers in a very short time, and many have been maimed and scarred for life. Is this war necessary? Similarly, all the other factions which did not participate in the Toronto meeting should join the train of peace. They must stop the grandstanding. Life hasn’t a duplicate and those who are dying in the killing fields of Southern Cameroons will not be returning anytime soon. We all must work towards the resolution of this problem which has become a millstone around the government’s neck.

Cameroon Concord News: Thank you, Dr. Joachim Arrey, for your insight.

Dr. Joachim Arrey: It is always a pleasure for me to share my thoughts with you. 

ABBA halts promotion of new show after two die at tribute concert

3, November 2021

ABBA halts promotion of new show after two die at tribute concert 0

Swedish pop sensation ABBA announced Wednesday that they were pausing promotion of an upcoming show for 24 hours, after two died in a dramatic fall at a tribute concert.

The world-famous quartet is preparing to release a new album, “Voyage”, on Friday, 40 years after the group split up.

But on Tuesday night, an 80-year-old man fell seven storeys to his death at a concert hall in Uppsala in a presumed accident, killing another attendee.

The venue north of Swedish capital Stockholm was to host a tribute show for an audience of around 1,000 called “Thank you for the music”, honouring the works of Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, the two male members of ABBA.

“In the light of the tragic news at the tribute concert in Sweden last night, we have decided to hold off on releasing our concert trailer until tomorrow,” a post from the ABBA Voyage Twitter account said.

In addition to the release of its new album announced in early September, the Swedish cult band is currently building a venue in London that will host a show which includes digitised “avatars” of the four band members, scheduled for May 2022.

The exact form of these avatars, designed by a special effects company that worked on the Star Wars films, is still shrouded in mystery, but the band insists that they will not be mere holograms.

The “ABBAtars” will represent Agnetha Faltskog, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson and Anni-Frid Lyngstad as they looked in 1979.

Source: AFP

Former French hostage Sophie Pétronin missing again in Mali

3, November 2021

Former French hostage Sophie Pétronin missing again in Mali 0

French aid worker Sophie Pétronin, freed a year ago after four years in the hands of jihadist militants in northern Mali, is back in Mali and missing again, FRANCE 24’s sister station Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported on Tuesday.

Pétronin, 76, who ran a charity for malnourished and orphaned children in the desert city of Gao until her abduction in 2016, discreetly returned to Mali in March. The West African nation refused to issue her a visa for her return, but she eventually managed to enter the country by taking an overland route from Senegal, RFI reported.

Pétronin was reportedly unhappy in Switzerland, where she had been living since her release from captivity in October 2020, and wanted to return to the country where she had spent the last 20 years of her life. Sources close to the family told RFI that she was keen to be reunited with her adopted daughter.

Pétronin had always said she planned to return to Mali to continue her work.

More than seven months after her return, the Mali police issued a wanted notice for Pétronin on October 29, asking police to apprehend her, and to “escort” her to the capital Bamako.

Pétronin was reportedly last seen near Sikasso in the southeast of the country, more than 350 km from the capital Bamako.

But sources close to Pétronin told RFI that she hadn’t left Bamako since her return to Mali, and had never been to Sikasso. They are mystified as to why Malian authorities are searching for her.

French diplomatic sources have said that they are not interpreting the wanted notice as a “hostile act” from the Malian authorities, despite tense relations with France.

Source:  REUTERS

Toronto: Ambazonia Interim Gov’t insists on legitimacy of resistance against La Republique

3, November 2021

Toronto: Ambazonia Interim Gov’t insists on legitimacy of resistance against La Republique 0

The Southern Cameroons Interim Government (IG) has insisted on the legitimacy of self defense against French Cameroun occupational forces.

In a press briefing on Monday in Toronto, Canada, Vice President Dabney Yerima stressed that the French Cameroun regime in Yaoundé no longer have legitimate authority in the internal affairs of the Federal Republic of Ambazonia and that the independence of Southern Cameroons cannot be waived or bargained over.

The Dabney Yerima statement emphasized that self defense in all its forms, from “kontry Sunday” to armed resistance including lockdowns would remain an Ambazonian legitimate option, which has proved its utility until the British Southern Cameroons nation is restored and the French backed French Cameroun occupation ends.

Referring to French President Emmanuel Macron’s continued support for the ruling crime syndicate in French Cameroun, Vice President Dabney Yerima pointed out in the statement that France bears the guilt of the genocide in Southern Cameroons.

Since the Southern Cameroons crisis hit the global stage some five years ago, some 10,000 Cameroonians have been killed, with army soldiers accounting for close to 35% of the deaths.

Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been maimed and scarred for life in a conflict that could have been addressed through negotiations and genuine dialogue.

As of today, some one million Southern Cameroonians are either internally displaced or are seeking refuge in a neighboring country due to a conflict many observers say was avoidable.

Thousands of army soldiers whose consciences could not allow them to kill innocent civilians have left the country to escape the harsh punishment the government inflicts on soldiers who do not want to implement the decisions of the top military brass.

By Isong Asu on special assignment

France-Australia row deepens as Macron’s text leaked to Australian media

3, November 2021

France-Australia row deepens as Macron’s text leaked to Australian media 0

France has denounced Australia’s “very inelegant” move to leak a private text message from President Emmanuel Macron to the Australian premier about a submarine deal that Canberra later unilaterally dropped, deeply dismaying Paris and sparking a diplomatic row.

Several Australian media outlets reported that Macron had texted Prime Minister Scott Morrison two days before the announcement of a trilateral security partnership between Australia, the United States, and Britain, which led to the cancellation of a decade-old multi-billion-dollar Australian deal with France.

“Should I expect good or bad news for our joint submarine ambitions?” reads Macron’s text message.

Canberra had signed the deal with France to receive conventional diesel-electric submarines, but it scrapped the contract after secretly negotiating and signing the new partnership with the US and Britain, which is known as AUKUS and would allow Australia to acquire American nuclear-powered submarines.

The development has sent diplomatic relations between Canberra and Paris into free fall since September. France has accused both Australia and the US of betraying it, and Macron has hit out at Morrison for lying to him.

The leaking of Macron’s text message to Morrison has raised speculation that the French president was less surprised by the cancellation than he has claimed.

A source close to Macron, however, said that the text did not undermine Paris’ narrative. “On the contrary, this SMS shows that the president did not know that they were going to cancel the contract,” AFP quoted the source as speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“We knew that the Australians had some issues, but they only concerned technical aspects and the timetable, as with every big contract like this one,” the source added.

French Ambassador to Australia Jean-Pierre Thébault also reacted to the leak on Tuesday, saying that it had been a setback “in terms of truth and trust.” He said the text “demonstrates that until the last minute, we didn’t know where things were heading to.”

“You don’t behave like this on personal exchanges of leaders who are allies. But maybe it’s just confirmation that we were never seen as an ally,” Thébault said.

Thébault also warned world leaders that “there will be leaks, and what you say in confidence to your partners will be eventually used and weaponized against you one day.”

There were also reports that suggested the text message leak could have been engineered by Morrison’s office in retaliation for Macron’s “lying” charge.

Speaking to reporters in Dubai on Wednesday, Morrison did not dispute a suggestion that his office had leaked the text message, simply saying, “Claims had been made and those claims were refuted… what is needed now is for us to move on.”

He also said he would “never make any apologies” for scrapping the French contract, which he said was “not going to do the job that Australia needed to do.”

Source: Presstv

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