It was not clear from Tiny's comments what the outcome of the meeting would be, although there has seemd to be in the past week a developing consensus for a technical review of the awards decisions by the Nigeria-Sao Tome and Principe Joint Ministerial Council.
Homeport noted that no mention was made in the Lusa report of such a meeting, to which we had earlier been alerted by mutawdadi, another regular and reliable poster here.
Here is the note from Homeport:
FYI, Portuguese Lusa news agency carrying a report ex-STP this evening with ruling MLSTP party spokesman, Carlos Tiny, accusing Pres. de Menezes of wrongdoings in JDZ oil negotiations.
The report makes no mention of any oil meet taking place in Sao Tome this evening. The story, in Portuguese, is on Lusa's (www.lusa.pt) reserved service, not free accessed. Nothing so far on its English service.
In brief, Tiny used a news conference to charge de Menezes with:
-- steering negotiations to "gain personal benefit";
-- encouraging "conflict of interests" by having named Mateus Meira Rita, his chief of staff and ERHC shareholder, to participate in the negotiations;
-- having used an unnamed "foreign adviser" with direct interests in the bidding process; and
-- seeking to "monopolize the process" by holding meetings at his private residence.
"It's been proved that there's no transparency", Tiny summed up. "The President of the Republic is violating the oil revenues law."
G'nite,
Homeport
Update, 8:52pm EDT, 5/9/05: The English language story from Lusa is now available on its Website. Here it is:
10-05-2005 0:35:00.
Fonte LUSA.
NotÃcia SIR-6986157
Temas:
Sao Tome: Biggest party says president making personal gain from oil venture
Sao Tome, May 9 (Lusa) - President Fradique de Menezes of Sao Tome and Principe was accused Monday by the largest MLSTP party of taking personal financial advantage from the allocation of blocs in the archipealgo's joint offshore oil venture with Nigeria.
Carlos Tiny, a member of the MLSTP's political commission, party spokesman and who ran against Menezes in 2001 presidential polls, denounced a "lack of transparency" in negotiations between Abuja and Sao Tome on the awarding of five oil blocs in the Gulf of Guinea.
Media reports emerged last month that the bilateral Joint Ministerial Council may have unfairly favored oil firms in which influential Sao Tomean figures hold shares.
In his criticism of Menezes, Tiny noted that one of the president`s aides, Mateus Meira Rita, represented Sao Tome at recent talks on the awarding of the offshore blocs.
Rita is also a shareholder in one of the firms who submitted a bid in the licensing round in question and this incompatible position led Menezes to remove him from the islands' oil negotiating body at the weekend.
RCN/CJB.
Lusa
5 comments:
What does this all mean?
Not exactly a surprise, given that the MLSTP-SDP party is a rival to Menezes and his coalition of parties. Folks who have read recent "situation reports" on STP will understand how volatile the political antagonisms and alliances are in STP. My question is, does LUSA ever fairly explore the Menezes administration's position? Does LUSA ever talk about the technical qualifications of ERHE's partners, for instance? I've noticed an apparent pattern of LUSA playing up the charges by Menezes' foes, and it seems that the same few journalists are always behind those stories--perhaps they are political cronies of Mr. Tiny and his associates. Perhaps that's why the former ambassador to Nigeria, Howard Jeter, said to ignore or downplay such reports unless confirmed by more credible sources.
Mark, if you are a literate English-speaking person, you know that this translation has produced a bunch of nonsensical sentences, and I don't publish gibberish here. However, if you look below about 10 ir 15 posts back, you will find my English translation of comments provided by Lusa last week. This nonsense only leads to more controversy about its real meaning.
To Anonymous 9:27 above:
I've been reading Lusa's STP correspondent for some time now. He's a local and, I think, generally correct in what he puts out. Problem is that he doesn't put out much, often does it late, fails to provide full context, etc.
I've not detected any anti-Menezes bias, but wouldn't exclude such a possibility. His lapses seem to go both ways.
OK, Homeport. Thanks for that information.
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