Hope for Obiang, Not Equatorial Guinea

Original article: http://www.worldpolicy.org/blog/2012/08/14/hope-obiang-not-equatorial-guinea

Beginning next week on August 20 in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea the world's longest-ruling non-royal—Teodoro Obiang Nguema—will host a "human rights" summit. It is being organized by a US-based charity, the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation, which is headed by Hope Sullivan Masters and includes president Bill Clinton as co-chairman of the board and former UN Ambassador Andrew Young as its other co-chairman. The effort is part of Obiang's systematic effort to whitewash his repressive regime and sweep 33 years of dictatorship and 44 years of human rights violations, under the rug as his government continues to amass oil wealth.

World Policy Journal was provided a copy of the list of VIP guests invited to the Sullivan Summit. It includes high profile figures from the worlds of sports, politics, entertainment, and media. All of the individuals below were offered an all-expenses paid trip, underwritten by the Obiang dictatorship, to celebrate his achievements and toast his "political reforms". Some of the individuals on the list have declined the offer. Most of them have refused to respond to media inquiries as to whether or not they will attend.

Obiang has ruled Equatorial Guinea with the very methods the Summit claims to oppose—censorship, torture, extrajudicial executions, rigged elections, and totalitarian control. Moreover, despite a GDP per capita of more than $35,000 (more than France, the UK, Spain, or Japan), two-thirds of Equatoguineans live in extreme poverty on less than $1 a day. The Obiang family loots most of the oil profits, exemplifying one of the world’s most kleptocratic regimes with a global reputation for profligate spending and obscene luxury. His brutal repression of the press, pilfering of state coffers, and iron grip on the state’s election mechanisms have earned Obiang sixth place on World Policy Journal’s Autocracy Index, which will appear in our fall issue, placing him in the company of Kim Jong Un, Alexander Lukashenko, and Robert Mugabe.

Despite the fact that Obiang has engaged in rule by violence, managing to hold power for 33 years and won the last three presidential elections by more than 95 percent, the Sullivan Foundation states that “in recent years, President Obiang has made significant reforms in his country and the Central African regions stressing the importance of democratic ideals.” In spite of the Obiang regime’s repression, the Sullivan Foundation even issues a press release claiming that the Summit “will showcase to the international community the advancement Equatorial Guinea has made in human development and the human rights arena.”

The Sullivan Summit has been extensively covered by world media. Some 32 advocacy groups have signed a petition challenging participants to educate themselves in advance of the summit, in hopes that they reconsider attending an event in honor of one of the world’s most brutal dictators.

The event itself, to take place at the billion-dollar Sipopo Conference Center, is set to go forward despite calls for its cancellation.

Categories and descriptors used in this invitation list, which follows the break, are as received from a source inside the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation. Inclusion does not imply endorsement of Teodoro Obiang Nguema or of the Sullivan Summit.

[UPDATE: Cancellations via Twitter as of 11:35, 08-17-2012]

Operation HOPE CEO John Hope Bryant has cancelled his engangement to serve as a keynote speaker at the Sullivan Summit.

Former President of Ghana, John Kufour, has withndrawn as chairman of the summit and will not be attending.

Actress Tatyana Ali has declined her invitation.

Actress Kim Coles has declined her invitation.

Actress Kim Fields has declined her invitation.

Actor Lamman Rucker has declined her invitation.

Journalist Roland S. Martin has declined his invitation.

Dr. Randal Pinkett, CEO of BCT Partners, has declined his invitation.

Singer-songwriter Ledisi denied receiving an invite, and added that she would never have attended the event even if invited.

Journalist April Woodard and reality-tv star Phaedra Parks deny receiving invitations.

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Alex Gladstein is a Program Director at the Human Rights Foundation.

[Photo courtesy of Embassy of Equatorial Guinea]

Political Personalities

Donna Brazile

Marc H. Morial

Martin or Bernice King

Mayor Alvin Brown

Mayor Michael Nutter

Rev. Al Sharpton

Rev. Jesse L. Jackson

Condoleeza Rice

Susan Rice

Colin Powell

Carlton Masters

Andrew Young

Rajiv Shah (USAID)

Actors/Entertainers

Alfre Woodard

Anna Marie Horsford

Chris Tucker

Keith David

Kim Coles

Kim Fields

Joseph Phillips

Lamman Rucker

Louis Gossett Jr

Marlo Hampton

Phaedra Parks

Phylicia Rashad

Phyllis Yvonne Stickney

Sheryl Lee Ralph

Tatyana Ali

Wendy Raquel Robinson

Tiffany Edwards

Shauna Chin

Sports Personalities

Earl “the Pearl” Monroe

Ramses Barden – NY Giants

Singers

J. Cole

Jill Scott

Ledisi

Lloyd

Olivia (singer/actress)

Stevie Wonder

Amanda Seales

Celebrities

Chef Henderson, Food Network

Donna Richardson Joyner

Suzanne de Passe

Terrance J.

Journalists

April Woodard, National Correspondent

Dr. Julianne Malveaux

Ed Gordon, National Correspondent

Jackie Reid, National Correspondent

Jeff Johnson, Politic365

Joe Watkins, MSNBC

Michelle Miller, CBS Correspondent

Mikki Taylor, Essence

Randal Pinkston, CBS Correspondent

Roland Martin, National Correspondent

Shannon Lanier, National Correspondent

TJ Holmes, BET

Valerie Morris, National Correspondent

Other people Invited

Benjamin Crump (Trayvon Martin’s attorney)

Desiree Rogers, CEO Johnson Publishing Co

Dr. Jeff Gardere, TV Host & Psychologist

Melinda Emerson, Author, Speaker

Randal Pinkett, Celebrity Apprentice

Terrie Williams, Stay Strong Foundation, Author and PR

Marc Lamont Hill, author and public speaker

Roderick Gillum

Rodney E. Slater

Bruce B. Stewart

H. Art Taylor