By Hans Ngala
A new file CNA has reviewed in the Epstein Case, has described Cameroon as “among the most corrupt regimes in Africa”. The file is from a speech given by Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington.
According to the document reviewed by our Political Affairs Editor, Hans Ngala, the document was published in The American Prospect magazine on June 4, 2003, and was being sent as an email attachment from a Sophia Swire to an email address that has been redacted by the US Department of Justice.
It is not clear who Swire was forwarding the email to, but in it, Soros, who founded the Open Society Foundations, is quoted during his speech at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in Washington as saying: “The war with Iraq does not help the building of open societies in other countries, either. In our efforts to gain allies and buy votes in the United Nations, we have become less concerned with internal conditions in those countries than we ought to b,e” the billionaire says. He goes further to say that “This is true of Russia and Pakistan and all the central Asian republics, not to mention Angola and Cameroon, which are among the most corrupt regimes in Africa. To claim that we are invading Iraq for the sake of establishing democracy is a sham, and the rest of the world sees it as such. The Atlantic Alliance has been severely disrupted, and both NATO and the European Union are in disarray.”
Soros further advocates regime change in some of these places he describes as “corrupt”:
“I would like to see regime change in many other places. I am particularly concerned about Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe’s regime is going from bad to worse. I also see Muammar Gaddafi as a dangerous troublemaker in Africa”. His remarks suggest that disdain for Gaddafi had long existed in the West, even under a Republican president like George Bush. Cameroonians having a disdain for Obama, who succeeded Bush and simply executed America’s foreign policy regarding Libya, is a narrow-minded view of complex geopolitical chess. “I support a project on Burma, or Myanmar as it is now called, which backs Aung San Suu Kyi as the democratically elected leader. I have foundations in central Asia, and I would like to see regime change in countries such as Turkmenistan. And, of course, I hoped for an easy victory in Iraq, if we went to war at all.”
The billionaire goes on to criticize many of President Bush’s policies in the Middle East and in Africa, arguing that democracy cannot be imposed on people but that they can be influenced to accept it, through what he describes as “an open society”.
The article mentions Cameroon passively without calling out Paul Biya by name, who by then had been in power for 21 years. Context matters here because a few years prior, Cameroon had been ranked as the world’s most corrupt country by Transparency International. This was in 1998 and 1999, so Soros’ description of Cameroon as “among the most corrupt regimes in Africa” was made within this context.
CNA will continue reviewing the dozens of files that mention Cameroon and will release those that are relevant to the Cameroonian public.
