Representatives of the exile after the signing of the statement./ Photo: geconfidencial.blogspot.com
Eduardo González. 09/07/2018
The five parties making up the Democratic Opposition of Equatorial Guinea in the Exile have demanded the VI Table of National Political Dialogue called by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo for July 16 to 21 to take place in Spain or in Equatorial Guinea “with the support of the international community”.
On June 11, Obiang Nguema called, as “arbitrator and moderator of the democratic process”, the VI Table of National Political Dialogue, which will gather “the legalized and not legalized political parties, both those of the interior of the country and those of the exile”. Furthermore, he committed to adopt “all the political, legal, administrative, social and humanitarian measures to facilitate the participation of all the political actors exiled abroad”.
On Wednesday, Obiang’s regime approved a decree “granting total amnesty to all the citizens sentenced by the courts of justice of Equatorial Guinea for political crimes” in order to “allow a wide participation of all the political actors in the National Dialogue to take place in Malabo (…) without limitations imposed by a penalty, judicial sentence or coercive obstacle”.
Sources of the exile in Spain -which had claimed a “decree of general amnesty for all those retaliated by the dictatorship” as a condition to participate in the dialogue- have told The Diplomat that this decision of the regime “does not affect at all” the rejection to Obiang’s proposal.
In June, the Board of Directors of the Party of the Progress, presided from the exile in Spain by Severo Moto, decided to reject “Obiang’s masquerade” and announced its intention of proposing a joint statement to the five parties exiled in Spain to “present an alternative of Table of Dialogue to the dictator”.
The joint statement, approved in Madrid on June 29, warns that the participation in the National Dialogue of the five parties of the exile (APGE, CORED, MAIB, PP and UP), “without international attestors and witnesses, will only lead to a disastrous ending for the country”.
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The opposition in Madrid affirms that the political amnesty of the regime “does not affect at all” its stance
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However, they continue, “nothing would prevent, the presence, participation and activity of the Guinean Democratic Opposition in the Exile, if this took place outside Equatorial Guinea (Spain, common motherland, for example) or in Equatorial Guinea, with the support, help, protection and security of the international community”.
The parties of the exile also remember that “the deep and vast gap of trust between the Guinean civil society and the dictatorial and military power in the country” has forced them to “turn to the international community”, in particular to the European Union, AU, UN, Spain, France, the United States, so “its presence and participation in the Table of Dialogue, as well as the intermediation, would facilitate in a very positive way the recovery of the trust lost”.
Furthermore, they continue, “the Bill for the Transition of Equatorial Guinea, drawn up and agreed by the Guinean Democratic Opposition in the Exile, and put in hands of the international community, would be a valuable contribution and a document to study and assess in the VI Table of Dialogue called by President Obiang Nguema”.
