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Acting on legal complaints filed by two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), prosecutors in Paris are investigating charges against the leaders of Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea and Angola over the purchases of French luxury homes and other property with allegedly stolen or unaccounted-for money.
African leaders enjoyed full diplomatic immunity from France's post-World War II presidents, who actively courted African interests. Most recently, African leaders enjoyed the tacit protection of former President Jacques Chirac. By contrast, newly inaugurated President Nicolas Sarkozy -- who ran on a platform of reform and anti-corruption -- appears intent on overhauling the relationship between France and its former colonies, a relationship that has dominated French foreign policy for the last half-century.
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