At the trial of the bombing of the French camp Bouaké, the interrogation of witnesses will end on Tuesday, April 13. After former Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, it was former Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin’s turn to testify.
He says he is no longer a lawyer. Quoted as a witness at the trial of the attack on the French camp by the Licorne force that killed nine French soldiers on November 6, 2004 in Bouaké, Dominique de Villepin still surrendered for two hours to a real appeal.
Dark suit, serious tone, the former interior minister tried to show carefully that his ministry did not need to handle this file. Like Michel Barnier the day before, he says he was not personally informed of the arrest of the Togolese authorities by the alleged Sukhoi pilots who bombed the Bouaké camp.
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However, two telegrams, including an urgent one, were sent to his team to inform about the arrest of Slavic citizens. But the former minister points to the formalism in this latest statement, which was not addressed to anyone directly. In any case, he explains, this telegram was handled by the other two ministries: defense and foreign affairs. Two ministries that, according to him, are part of the Elysee of a “responsibility triangle”.
Jean-Pierre Raffarin: “There is no secret”
However, it is not a question for Dominique de Villepin to blame these ministries. He points to what he calls “the blind spot in this act”: the central judicial authority. He regrets that it could not act in the first hours after the tragedy. Dominique de Villepin concludes: “We can see that the problem is much more complicated than passing the ball between different ministries.”
The former interior minister also considered that “the state has not done everything it can or should do”. He regretted that the instruction did not go any further. “Together with the investigating judge CJR, we requested that the court of the Republic answer me Balan, the lawyer for the majority of the civil parties. This court is the only one that can judge ministers.” “Dominique de Villepin answers then. He does not melt this suspicion of manipulation of the French state.” This poison arouses deep anger in me, “he blasted.
Moments later, former Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin assures him that there can be no manipulation in this file. “When three ministries are involved, if the secret has not come out after 16 years, he says at the bar, it is because there is no secret.”
Everyone who was responsible at that time has a duty to tell the truth. This is the reason why I regretted that not everything was clear at the end of the investigation.
Dominique de Villepin, former Minister of the Interior
Also read:
Bombing of Bouaké: French politicians at the helm
The Bouaké Affair (1/5) – Genesis of a Franco-Ivorian enigma
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