Annabel Hughes
http://www.thezimbabwetimes.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=41&Itemid=2
Fierce Mugabe critic on pay-roll of another dictator
The then executive director of the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust, Annabel Hughes with Archbishop Pius Ncube, and Congressman Jeff Flake at a ZDT fundraising reception, in Washington DC in May 2003.
By Mzilikazi Wa Afrika
ANNABEL Hughes, the British human rights activist who spearheaded a fierce international campaign against President Robert Mugabe, has undertaken public relations assignments for another despot who is regarded as being more corrupt than the Zimbabwean head of state.
Documents show that Hughes undertook consultancy work in 2005 to determine what needed to be done to improve Equatorial Guinea’s "position and elevate its profile in Washington D.C".
She has previously denied this charge and threatened to sue a website which initially published details of what appears to be a classic case of political duplicity. The subsequent retraction of the story by a different website, as well as what now appears to be the direct link of Hughes to yet another online publication are now matters of an ongoing Zimbabwe Times investigation.
Our investigations have established that Annabel Hughes, the former executive director for the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust, registered on January 21, 2005, to perform consultancy work on behalf of the Equatorial Guinea dictator, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo and his government. Meanwhile the main objectives for the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust were "to give hope to the people of Zimbabwe" and "to expose corruption".
Hughes’s fearless campaign against Mugabe was instrumental in forcing American President W George Bush to sign the passage of the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act into law in 2001. Lord Renwick of Clifton, former British Ambassador to the US says of Hughes: "Her advocacy and lobbying skills have proved to be outstanding."
Hughes also arranged a meeting between Zimbabwe’s outspoken Archbishop Pius Ncube and Collin Powell, the former U.S. Secretary of States. Amnesty International reports that Equatorial Guinea has a shocking human rights violation record and that Mbasogo is more corrupt than Mugabe. Afrique Education, a French Magazine, has reported that 21 of the 50 Equatorial Guinea’s government ministers are relatives of Mbasogo. The United Nations has reported that torture "is the normal means of investigation" in Equatorial Guinea.
On April 3, 2006, ZIMBABWE Situation, a website containing news, views and links related to Zimbabwe, carried a story which alleged that Hughes was "now doing public relations for Equatorial Guinea dictator, Obiang Nguema Masogo." The story had been copied from another Zimbabwe linked website, New Zimbabwe.com.The story was thereafter expunged from the ZIMBABWE Situation website.
"This story is not only false, but slanderous," ZIMBABWE Situation said in a statement. "We have now removed this story at the request of Annabel Hughes, and print her statement about it."
In her own statement Hughes said she had only been contracted to undertake consultancy work for an investment firm which "was exploring the possibility of setting up a ‘Fund for the Future’ out of Equatoguinean oil revenue, similar to those funds set up in Kuwait and Norway-where a percentage of the revenue from oil investments is returned to the citizens of the country through social development projects".
Our own investigations have established to the contrary, however.
Hughes registered a public relations company, Annabel Hughes Communications, Inc. in the United States of America and listed the Equatorial Guinea government as a client.
All US companies contracted to undertake consultancy and communications work for foreign governments, political parties, organisations and individuals are required to register and to list their clients with the U.S. Department of Justice in order to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938.
Hughes has admitted to The Zimbabwe Times that she was hired by Barbour, Griffith and Rogers another lobby company. U.S. Department of Justice documents in our possession show that Barbour, Griffith and Rogers registered to undertake "public relations, government relations and advocacy before the U.S. government on behalf of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea."
At the beginning of the Foreign Agents Registration Act filings for the period since January 2005 it is stated:
"Below is a list of select companies that have registered with the U.S.
Department of Justice, FARA Registration Unit, Washington, D.C., in order to comply with the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, regarding their consulting and communications work on behalf of foreign principals, including governments, political parties, organizations, and individuals."
Among the many entries listed are the following:
Barbour Griffith & Rogers, LLC, Washington, D.C., registered Dec. 14, 2004 for Farragut Advisors, LLC, New York, N.Y., (on behalf of Republic of Equatorial Guinea) for public relations, government relations and advocacy before the U.S. Government.
Hughes Communications, Inc., Annabel, Washington, D.C., registered Jan. 21, 2005 for Farragut Advisors EG for the Government of Equatorial Guinea, New York, N.Y., regarding undertaking an assessment of the perception of Equatorial Guinea in the U.S. Administration and the U.S. Congress, with the intention of determining the requirements needed for Equatorial Guinea to improve its position and elevate its profile in Washington, D.C.
There is no reference anywhere to the setting up a "Fund for the Future, out of ….oil revenue, similar to those funds set up in Kuwait and Norway, where a percentage of the revenue from oil investments is returned to the citizens of the country through social development projects".
"I have no further comment," Hughes said in response to questions submitted to her. "For the record I am now in consultation with lawyers here regarding the libelous story in www.newzimbabwe.com."
Mduduzi Mathuthu, editor of NewZimbabwe.com, says he refused to retract the story after he received a threatening letter from Hughes.
"We stood by our story," he told The Zimbabwe Times. "I am not aware of any legal proceedings instituted against us."
Mathuthu said he wrote to ZIMBABWE Situation after they published the retraction, questioning their decision. Part of the letter read: "If undertaking an assessment of the perception of Equatorial Guinea in the US administration and the US Congress, with the intention of determining the requirements needed for Equatorial Guinea to improve its position and elevate its profile in Washington, D.C. is not doing PR work, then what is?
"(Hughes)says at the end of her statement that she has never taken money directly from the Equatorial Guinea government. Of course no-one said she did, but she has indirectly been on Obiang's pay and no amount of spin can hide that fact."
Meanwhile, the deputy editor of The Zimbabwe Times, Conrad Nyamutata, says he has vivid recollection of meeting an emissary of ZWNEWS, Marilyn Johnson, in Harare a few years ago. Johnson said she had been referred to him by former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and SW Radio Africa broadcaster, Georgina Godwin, to contribute articles to ZWNEWS.
"It was suggested that I would be paid by Hughes," Nyamutata says. "It was the first time I ever heard of the name Annabel Hughes. I remember this very clearly now."
Nyamutata says he wrote a few stories for ZWNEWS. Then he relocated to the United Kingdom in February 2002. "I immediately pursued payment for the articles," he says. "I had just arrived in the UK and I desperately needed the money. I asked them to issue a cheque in the name of my sister since I did not have a bank account at the time."
He says he contacted Johnson who sent him a cheque for £137.32, dated March 12, 2002.
Efforts to establish who owns or edits ZIMBABWE Situation or ZWNEWS have been in vain.
But Nyamutata says while he was told to expect payment by Hughes the cheque that he finally received was issued by a company called Promasidor Inc. The letterhead on a document on which the cheque was photocopied suggested Promasidor received or sent its correspondence at the care of a company called Landhurst, located in Hartfield, East Sussex, or shared the offices.
Curiously, there is no trace of Promasidor Inc in the records, either as existing or dissolved.
The ZDT is registered in the USA, where Hughes is based.
Our investigations continue.Equatorial Guinea has the third largest reserves of crude oil in Sub-Saharan Africa and has been dubbed the Kuwait of Africa. The nation’s wealthy president has become a close ally of Mugabe, and was recently hosted in oil-starved Zimbabwe on a state visit. Relations have strengthened since Zimbabwe foiled a coup attempt on the government of the West African country. The coup plotters were arrested at Harare International Airport where they landed to load military hardware purchased in Zimbabwe. New Zimbabwe.com has reported that Mbasogo made a donation of $US10 million to Zimbabwe with a further US$10 million being deposited in Mugabe’s personal account. The Zimbabwe government did not respond to the allegations.
Hughes operates her company from Ronald Reagan Building, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington D.C. These are the same offices where she used to run the Zimbabwe Democracy Trust. In a telephone interview she refused to answer any questions relating to her relationship with the Equatorial Guinea government.
Our investigations also established that Barbour, Griffith and Rogers was
paid $37 500 a month for undertaling lobbying and public relations assignments on behalf of the government of Equatorial Guinea. Annabel Hughes Communications and other lobbying firms that were hired by Equatorial Guinea campaigned against the U.S. government, forcing it to unfreeze $700-million that was secretly invested by Mbasogo with the Washington D.C branch of Riggs Bank.
The bank’s senior vice president, Simon Kareri was fined. The bank was fined a total of $16 million for violating US money-laundering rules by not reporting suspicious transaction by Mbasogo and his government. After Riggs Bank was forced to release the $700-million, Teodorin Nguema Obiang, the controversial Equatorial Guinea Minister of Forestry, Environment and Housing - who is also Mbasogo’s son - embarked on a consummate shopping spree, spending more than R60-million in South Africa, where he:
• bought a R26-million mansion at 35 Klaassens Road in Bishopscourt, Cape Town,
• another R23.5-million mansion at 76 Fourth Beach, Clifton, Cape Town,
• paid R3.2-million for a Lamborghini at Bloomsbury in Buitengracht, Cape Town. Along with Ferrari, Lamborghini is the ultimate statement in Italian luxury sports motoring.
• paid R7-million for two luxury Bentleys, as well as an MG Rover, all in
Cape Town.
A Johannesburg businessman, George Ehlers, won a court battle to attach
the houses in February this year after the Equatorial Guinea government
failed to pay him $7-million owed for construction work in the oil rich country.
Ehlers’s lawyers produced evidence in court to prove that the properties were bought with money belonging to the Equatorial Guinea government and not from Obiang’s own funds.
Hughes has refused to answer questions sent to her. The questions were accompanied by supportive documents showing the link between her company and the Equatorial Guinea government.
Her final statement was: "As I said in my email to you, I have no further comment."
