VOA标准英语2009-Gabonese President Omar Bongo Dead

Gabonese President Omar Bongo is dead. Gabon's prime minister said Africa's longest-serving leader died in a Spanish clinic.
　
Gabon's President Omar Bongo (File)

Albert Bernard Bongo was born in December of 1935 near the border with the Republic of Congo.

He graduated from Brazzaville's technical college with a diploma in commerce and worked at the colonial Post and Telecommunications bureau before military training. He was an Air Force captain who served in Brazzaville, Bangui, and what is now the Chadian capital, Ndjamena.

At independence in 1960, Mr. Bongo worked at the Ministry¹ of Foreign Affairs and directed the Presidential Cabinet for Information and Tourism.

President Leon M'ba put him in charge of national defense² before appointing him vice³ president in 1966. When President M'ba died one year later, Mr. Bongo became one of Africa's youngest heads of state at the age of 31.

Throughout his career, President Bongo sought to mediate⁴ regional conflict including violence in the Central African Republic, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Gabon was the second African nation to recognize the independence of Nigerian separatists in the breakaway republic of Biafra.

Following talks with French President Charles DeGaulle in 1968, President Bongo told reporters that he was shocked and indignant at newspaper accounts that Gabon and France were helping⁵ arm the rebellion. He said flights from Libreville to Biafra were purely⁶ humanitarian⁷.

Most histories of that conflict indicate France and Gabon, along with Portugal and Ivory Coast, did supply weapons to Biafra before the rebellion was put down by Nigeria's army.

Mr. Bongo converted to Islam in 1973 and changed his first name to Omar.

Gabon joined OPEC in 1975 with oil revenues fueling steady economic growth, accounting⁸ for 80 percent of export income and giving Gabonese one of the highest per-capita incomes in sub-Saharan Africa. But that wealth has been shared unevenly⁹, with the United Nations estimating that as much as 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

President Bongo resisted calls for political reform in the early 1980's. But a series of strikes and arrests connected to an alleged¹⁰ coup¹¹ attempt ultimately led him to agree to a multi-party government of national unity¹² in 1990.

He won re-election in 1993 and in 1998 in polls rejected by political opponents alleging¹³ vote fraud.

The corruption¹⁴ trial of a former chairman of the French oil producer Elf implicated¹⁵ President Bongo in a bribery¹⁶ scandal, a charge he denied in a 1996 interview with French television.

President Bongo said the corruption trial was an entirely¹⁷ French affair and involved neither himself nor Gabon.

He was one of three African leaders investigated by a French judge for embezzling¹⁸ public funds. The anti-corruption group Transparency International said more than 30 Bongo family properties in Paris and Nice worth nearly $200 million could not have been purchased on his state salary alone.

President Bongo denied wrongdoing. His French bank accounts were frozen in February.

Following his wife's death in March, President Bongo suspended his activities for the first time since taking power in 1967 and checked into a clinic in Barcelona to recover from what his government called "intense emotional shock."

Gabonese President Omar Bongo, dead at the age of 73.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。

5 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

6 purely   

adv.纯粹地，完全地

参考例句：

• I helped him purely and simply out of friendship.我帮他纯粹是出于友情。
• This disproves the theory that children are purely imitative.这证明认为儿童只会单纯地模仿的理论是站不住脚的。

7 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

8 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

9 unevenly   

adv.不均匀的

参考例句：

• Fuel resources are very unevenly distributed. 燃料资源分布很不均匀。
• The cloth is dyed unevenly. 布染花了。

10 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

11 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

12 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

13 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。

14 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

15 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

16 bribery   

n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿

参考例句：

• FBI found out that the senator committed bribery.美国联邦调查局查明这个参议员有受贿行为。
• He was charged with bribery.他被指控受贿。

17 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

18 embezzling   

v.贪污，盗用（公款）( embezzle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Accordingly, object embezzling waste to be carried temporarily the schedule of administration. 因此，反对贪污浪费就提上了临时中央政府的议事日程。 来自互联网
• Some were sentenced for taking bribes, others executed for embezzling funds. 有的因受贿而被判刑，有的因侵吞公款而被判处死刑。 来自互联网