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Page last updated at 11:19 GMT, Monday, 8 June 2009 12:19 UK

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OBITUARY: OMAR BONGO



Omar Bongo enjoyed strong support among the Gabonese people

Africa's longest-serving ruler, Gabon's President Omar Bongo Ondimba, has died.
He was 73.

A charismatic figure surrounded by a personality cult, he led the oil-producing
West African state for more than four decades.

Many in Gabon saw him as a guarantor of the former French colony's stability.

But critics said his rule was based on violence and corruption, accusing him of
amassing a personal fortune from the country's oil boom.

Mr Bongo's wealth was a well-kept secret, but he is thought by some to have been
among the world's richest men.

In May, it emerged he had been admitted to a Spanish clinic, amid reports he was
suffering from cancer.

A month later the Gabonese prime minister announced the veteran leader's death
from a heart attack at the Quiron hospital in Barcelona.

He was born Albert Bernard Bongo on 30 December 1935, one of 12 children, to a
peasant farming family in the Bateke region of south-east Gabon.

Moment of peril

His father died when he was seven years old.

To emphasise the journey he made from poverty to success, his official website
said: "He didn't come into the world on a hospital bed, and he didn't have a cot
or a nanny."



Omar Bongo often wore raised platform shoes to boost his height

Mr Bongo went to school in Brazzaville in Congo, and his path to power began -
as for many future African leaders of the time - in the colonial military.

He joined the French Air Force and said he was the first black man to serve in
the force in Chad.

The veteran leader's political career was made after he won the trust of the
father of Gabon's independence, President Leon Mba.

He was appointed director in the president's office in 1962, when just 27 years
old.

Mr Bongo's moment of peril came in 1964 when renegade soldiers arrested him in
Libreville and kidnapped the president himself.

French rescue

The plotters attempted to install a civilian, Jean Hilaire Obame, as leader in
order to legitimise their actions - but he lasted just two days in office.



Mr Bongo (R) was often described as one of the last of Africa's "big men"

French paratroopers rescued the abducted president and Mr Bongo, restoring them
to power. It was the only coup attempt in Gabon's history.

France, which has huge oil interests in Gabon, has always played a key role in
the African country's stability.

Mba rewarded Mr Bongo for his loyalty with the vice-presidency in 1967.

Less than nine months later, Mba suddenly died and Mr Bongo became Africa's
fourth-youngest president ever.

The Gabonese president changed his name to El Hadj Omar Bongo when he converted
to Islam in 1973.

He later added his father's traditional African name to his title and went by
the name Omar Bongo Ondimba.

He was a short man, like many of his minority Bateke ethnic group, and often
wore raised platform shoes so as to appear taller.

But his diminutive height belied his towering stature on Gabon's political stage
- which he ruled shrewdly for nearly 42 years - and on the African continent as
one of the last of the so-called "big men".

Riots rock regime

With a neat moustache and piercing gaze often hidden behind dark glasses, he
ruled over a one-party state for 26 years.



Mr Bongo (R) met, and outlived, many world leaders during his tenure

Critics long argued that Mr Bongo's stay in power was not simply down to
popularity.

Several of his political opponents were killed during the 1970s.

Then in 1990, the mysterious death of opposition leader Joseph Redjambe sparked
riots that rocked the regime for days.

Mr Bongo introduced multi-party elections in 1993 and Gabon held a presidential
poll, which Mr Bongo won, but the vote was marred by allegations of rigging.

The country soon found itself on the brink of civil war, as the opposition
staged violent demonstrations.

Determined to prove that he was not an autocrat, Mr Bongo entered into talks
with the opposition and managed to restore calm.

Murky scandal

When Mr Bongo won the second presidential elections held in 1998, similar
controversy raged over his victory, but he was able to appease his political
opponents by offering them government posts.



Mr Bongo is survived by more than 30 children - not all with his late wife

Mr Bongo's name was connected in the late 1990s with various murky financial
scandals involving the French oil company Elf Aquitaine, but he insisted the
affair was a domestic French matter.

Analysts say credit is due to Mr Bongo, given that Gabon is in a rough
neighbourhood, yet it avoided during his rule any direct spill-over from
conflicts in the nearby states of Congo and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

On the international stage, the Gabonese president cultivated an image as a
peacemaker.

He played a pivotal role in attempts to solve crises in the Central African
Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Observers say he had a style of exchanging favours for votes that was
characteristic of Africa's "big man" tradition.

He built a powerful dynasty, which analysts say benefited from the development
of off-shore oil production.



OMAR BONGO

Led Gabon for 42 years
Kept close economic and political ties with France
Oil money means Gabon officially one of richest countries in Africa
Reportedly had cancer
His son is defence minister
His daughter is his chief of staff
He denied corruption charges in French courts
Allowed multi-party polls in 1993; they were rigged, said opposition


The murky world of Omar Bongo

But the country's wealth remains concentrated in a small proportion of its 1.4
million population.

Last month, a French judge launched a landmark investigation into whether Mr
Bongo and two other African leaders had plundered state funds to buy homes and
cars in France.

His bank accounts in the country were subsequently frozen. Mr Bongo denied the
corruption allegations.

Shortly afterwards, he announced he was suspending official duties - for the
first time since taking power - to mourn his wife.

Edith Lucie Bongo Odimba - daughter of Congo President Denis Sassou-Nguesso -
died in March after a long illness, aged 45.

At the same time it emerged Mr Bongo was being treated at the clinic in
Barcelona, where the Gabonese authorities announced on 8 June 2009 that he had
died.

He is survived by more than 30 children - not all of them with his late wife.

Mr Bongo's daughter Pascaline, is his chief of staff, and his son Ali, is
currently Gabon's defence minister - and some say he is being manoeuvred to
replace him.




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SEE ALSO
Gabon leader in Spanish hospital
21 May 09 |  Africa
The murky world of Omar Bongo
21 May 09 |  Africa
Bongo's 40 years of ruling Gabon
28 Nov 07 |  Africa
Profile: Gabon's 'president for life'
20 Jan 03 |  Africa
Country profile: Gabon
26 Jan 11 |  Country profiles
Timeline: Gabon
26 Jan 11 |  Country profiles

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