A long-awaited testimony this Thursday, April 8, in the Bouaké bombing, in which nine French soldiers were killed on November 6, 2004. The Togolese Minister of the Interior at the time, François Boko, heard by video conference, explained how, while making the alleged perpetrators of raids available for the French authorities on 16 November, they refused to take it up. A very detrimental passivity for the investigation because it is now established that the alleged pilot and accused in this trial Yuri Sushkin was indeed part of the group.
With our special correspondent at the courthouse in Paris, Laura Martel
After the bombing, he feared that the “shock wave” would affect his country, says François Boko, he sent the special services to strengthen the borders. A Belarusian known for these services as the arms dealer’s secretary Robert Montoya, notices them: she crosses the border and returns from Ghana in a minibus with 8 Belarusians and 2 Ivorians.
The inconsistent statements of these men about their profession and their origins reinforce the suspicions that go back to the head of state: “General Eyadema gives the green light” to warn France, confirms François Boko, who first contacts the intelligence service, former classmate of Saint-Cyr campaign . “I said to him in a trivial way, ‘I must have the mercenaries who murdered your men, are you interested? “” Says the ex-minister, who provides photocopies of passports and fingerprints.
“Some time later,” François Boko continues, he told me that his hierarchy did not want it. Then I turn to the internal security appendix. Alas, he also answers negatively and I end up with the hot potatoes. “The ex-minister even emphasizes that he has done ‘legal gym’ to legally extend the detention of the group,” until France can react if it wanted to “, before making an expulsion decision after” two weeks “.
“Your interlocutors, wanting to know the president, did they say they had been instructed not to deal with it or not to respond at all?” “I am categorical,” confirms François Boko, whether it is the representative of the DGSE or the internal security attaché, where: “we were ordered to do nothing, Paris is not interested in these Belarusians” … although the internal security attaché specified that his hierarchy considered that, in the case of the military, it concerned more DGSE and military intelligence. “
The former minister told them that they had expressed their surprise, because “even though there were no assurances, there were still strong assumptions”, he emphasizes, against these men. How can French passivity be explained today? “In this function,” he points out, “we see green and not mature, we are not close to a contradiction. “
► Read also: Bombing of Bouaké: the case of the suspects arrested and released in Togo
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