20120306
AFP
An anti-corruption campaign group called Monday for UNESCO's Equatorial Guinea-backed Obiang prize to be investigated as part of a graft probe into the French assets of African heads of state.

In a letter from its lawyer William Bourdon, Transparency International France expressed concern over the financing of the award, which bears the name of Equatorial Guinea's controversial President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.

Bourdon voiced his "concern stemming from the at the very least confused or even contradictory information about the source and means of financing of the prize."

Obiang established the prize in 2008 and pledged three million dollars (around 2.3 million euros) over five years to reward research in life sciences, but the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation suspended the award in 2010 because of controversy surrounding its sponsor.

Human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, have repeatedly denounced Obiang for ruling Equatorial Guinea with an iron grip and heading a government marked by corruption and repressive tactics.

The tiny country is sub-Saharan Africa's third largest oil exporter, but its people live in severe poverty.

Since 2010, French judges have been probing the source of money spent in France by Obiang, as well as by Congo-Brazzaville President Denis Sassou Nguesso and the late Gabon president Omar Bongo.

As part of the probe, police searched the Paris residence of Obiang's son in February and seized truckloads of property, after confiscating 11 of the family's luxury cars in Paris in September.

Rights groups now want UNESCO to abolish the award and they reject the Obiang government's November 2011 offer to rename it as the "Equatorial Guinea Prize," without mentioning Obiang's name.

UNESCO's governing executive board is expected to make a final decision about the award before the March 10 conclusion of its current session at the Paris headquarters.

Of the 58 states on UNESCO's governing board, some African countries have stood by Obiang in the past and recently Brazil, Cuba and Zimbabwe refused to acknowledge problems with the prize, a source close to the matter told AFP.