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How golden is French silence?
EDITORIAL
Deafening silence from Paris regarding nearly one billion Euros in court fines illustrate the width and depth of corruption that faces continued inquiries into disappearance of a former Pape'ete editor.
Neither left or right wing parties commented on fines for bribes associated with the 1991 sale of French frigates to Taiwan.
President Nicolas Sarkozy refused to comment about the court fines.
So too did the opposition.
News about the heavy fines broke during usually raucous question time – a time which recently saw opposition singing of the national anthem as a symbolic protest – for the first time in half a century.
No such patriotism for the frigate affair.
"The beneficiaries of fraudulent commission payments in China and Taiwan, some made in France, remained unknown because of military secrecy", reports Reuters news agency.
During the 2000s, military intelligence opposed requests from French investigating judges Renaud Van Ruymbeke and Xaviere Simeoni, appointed by the Ministry of Finance under left wing minister, Laurent Fabius, and the right, Francis Mer and Thierry Breton.
Intelligence officials refused to hand over lists of the recipients of commercial commissions, reported in 1991 by Thale and DCN, the state Directorate of Naval Construction, as under a procedure then required.
As Sarkozy backs off plans to remove investigatory powers from judges, the lack of response from all sides of the political spectrum raises questions about just how golden silence really is in France.
And how much information former Pape'ete editor Jean Pascal Couraud had in his possession when he disappeared in 1997.
Meantime, local media in Tahiti appear to have stopped referring to links between Pascal and multiple investigations involving widespread corruption involving the military and foreign affairs, including Clearstream.
LINKS
Silence politique en France sur l'affaire des frégates
Sarkozy renoncerait à la réforme de la justice avant 2012
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