US embassy cable - 04DJIBOUTI585

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DJIBOUTI 000585 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, PROP, PINS, DJ 
SUBJECT: DJIBOUTI ACCUSES FRENCH OF TRYING TO DESTABILIZE 
THE COUNTRY 
 
 
1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In reaction to an April 16 French 
program broadcast on TF1 and Radio France International 
regarding new developments in the Borrel case, the 
Djiboutian government issued a statement 17 April 
accusing France of attempting to destabilize the 
government of Djibouti.  The statement also cited 
"the American presence" as explaining France's 
"obstinate will to harm the image of Djibouti and its 
President."  Recent declassification of French foreign 
intelligence agency documents relating to the 1995 
death of Judge Bernard Borrel in Djibouti have brought 
back to the surface controversy over whether President 
Ismail Omar Guelleh, then Head of National Security, 
was involved in the judge's death.  END SUMMARY. 
 
GOVERNMENT OF DJIBOUTI'S STATEMENT 
---------------------------------- 
2. (SBU) The office of the Presidency of the Government 
of Djibouti (GODJ) issued April 17 an official press 
release via the Agence Djiboutienne d'Information 
(ADI - Djiboutian Information Agency) accusing France 
of "pursuing a single and unique objective: the 
destabilization of a country."  The statement expressed 
the Presidency's extreme dissatisfaction at the 
treatment of the Borrel affair in the French media and 
considered the piece an attack on the image of the 
Djiboutian government and its President.  The statement 
called the American presence in Djibouti an explanation 
for the French government's "obstinate will to harm the 
image of Djibouti and its President."  The statement's 
conclusion asserted the Djiboutian government's intent 
to forge its own destiny. 
 
3. (U) Following is a translation of the statement issued 
by the Djiboutian Government: 
"Yesterday, observers experienced some difficulty 
understanding the underlying motives and political meaning 
behind the media attack on the Borrel affair and 
accusations directed at the Republic of Djibouti and its 
President.  It appears today that the French state pursues 
a single and unique objective: the destabilization of a 
country. 
 
In fact, how else can one explain that from one note 
written by an agent of the DGSE immediately following 
the decision to declassify documents relating to the 
death of Judge Bernard Borrel, one hastily concludes 
that it was a political assassination. 
 
Convinced that it would be useful for all parties to put 
a definitive end to the controversy, Djibouti took the 
initiative 27 August 2003 to request that French 
authorities lift the secrecy from this affair.  A 
favorable response came on 10 March 2004.  But it was 
without planning on the manipulation and the will of 
the French government to cause harm.  This last, 
specialist in late recoveries, and little inclined to 
research the truth, engages once more in a media campaign, 
putting to work its agents of propaganda, RFI and TF1, 
who repeat hypnotically a single message: the 
assassination of Judge Borrel is no longer a doubt; It 
was President Guelleh and his entourage who were 
responsible for this.  It is in this manner that a 
poorly advised series, incoherent enough and which 
carries indelible traces of State manipulation, refers 
to the attacks at the Cafe de Paris in 1990.  One must 
remember that on the date Judge Borrel was assigned to 
Djibouti, the Cafe de Paris affair had already been 
tried, the perpetrators convicted and the case closed. 
 
It is permissible to suppose that if President Ismail 
Omar Guelleh bothers France, it is because he always 
poses himself as a leader who defends the promotion of 
the national interest.  He is the one who knew how to 
foil the strategy to divide the country, conceived and 
developed by France.  A strategy which unfortunately 
saw relative success in other areas of Africa, leading 
to a fate of inexpressible suffering and 
unconscionable misery. 
 
To those who know how to decipher the French political 
speech, the American presence in Djibouti explains the 
obstinate will to harm the image of Djibouti and its 
President. 
 
But it is in the exercise of its legitimate right to 
sovereignty that Djibouti establishes friendships and 
cooperation with the countries with whom it shares 
common values! 
 
Djibouti is determined to forge its own destiny.  The 
Djiboutian people, conscious of the stakes, support 
the President and his government in the pursuit of 
development objectives." 
 
End Translated Text. 
 
BACKGROUND ON THE BORREL CASE 
---------------------------- 
4. (SBU) The French judge Bernard Borrel, assigned to 
Djibouti in the early 1990's, was found burned at the 
bottom of a ravine on October 19, 1995.  The Djiboutian 
investigation of Borrel's death led to a conclusion of 
suicide, though no autopsy was done in Djibouti and the 
X-rays taken were not made available to French 
investigators.  Borrel's body was repatriated and 
buried in France, November 1995.  At that time, 
Borrel's wife initiated a request for an autopsy and 
investigation in the Court of Toulouse on the cause of 
Borrel's death.  The autopsy was done in February 1996, 
but results were not released for a full year.  The 
autopsy revealed Borrel had no soot in his lungs and 
therefore, did not die from burning. 
 
5. (SBU) After the autopsy, Elisabeth Borrel found 
documents among her husbands effects, relating to the 
Cafe de Paris attack in Djibouti in 1990.  The 
documents mentioned a request for audits of the case. 
Borrel had acted as the coordinator between the 
Djiboutian judge and the French judge in charge of the 
case, where Ismail Omar Guelleh is believed to be 
involved.  November 1997, French judges Roger le Loire 
and Marie-Paule Morrachini were nominated to look into 
the case.  In January 2000, their investigation turned 
up testimony from a witness who affirmed that judge 
Borrel was assassinated.  Mohamed Saleh Alhoumekani, a 
former officer in the Presidential Guard, accused 
Guelleh of ordering the killing of judge Borrel.  He 
claimed to have overheard a conversation on October 19, 
1995 between Guelleh and five men, one of whom said 
"mission accomplished! The nosy judge is dead!" 
 
6. (SBU) After no new results for several years, Mrs. 
Borrel pushed the case to be transferred to a new judge, 
Jean-Baptist Parlos.  Parlos ordered an exhumation and 
new autopsy of Borrel's body after a trip to Djibouti 
with three forensic experts in February 2002.  This 
autopsy revealed the cause to be a "violent death due 
to external causes."  Cranial trauma, a fracture of the 
left forearm and an alternation of burned areas of the 
body led experts to believe that Borrel was killed by a 
blow to the head before being burned.  Based on the 
evidence from the new autopsy the prosecutor supports 
the medical experts' theory that it was a murder.  In 
November 2003, the newest judge on the case requested 
declassification of ten documents held by the DGSE 
(French foreign intelligence agency) relating to the 
Borrel case.  The ten documents were released March 27, 
2004 causing a renewed media interest in the case. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment: The Government's reaction to the 
French broadcast is strong and included ordering the 
French to stop work on disaster assistance in the 
aftermath of flooding in Djibouti.  The government 
also launched a media campaign of its own in an 
attempt to cast doubt on the veracity of the French 
broadcast.  Embassy will comment septel on 
implications for Djibouti-French relations and 
evaluate government of Djibouti accusation that 
France's actions at this time are linked to jealousy 
over U.S.-Djibouti relations.  End Comment. 
RAGSDALE