CONGO/BRAZZAVILLE: MOUNZEO-MACKOSSO (PWYP)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KINSHASA 000589 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS DEPT FOR AF/C MADEEHA ASHRAF AF/RSA MARINDA HARPOLE PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHER GREG D'ELIA E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/16/2016 TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV PINR AU CF SUBJECT: CONGO/BRAZZAVILLE: MOUNZEO-MACKOSSO (PWYP) ARRESTS IN . POINTE NOIRE - AN NGO INTERNAL AFFAIR REF: A. (A) GLOBAL WITNESS/SARAH WYCKES EMAILS ¶B. (B) 05 KINSHASA 1329 Classified By: CDA Mark J. Biedlingmaier, Reasons 1.4 (B)(D) ¶1. (U) Summary: In the wake of PWYP (Publish What You Pay) Coalition charges of political intimidation and procedural irregularities in the arrest of transparency campaigners Christian Mounzeo and Brice Mackosso, embassy officers contacted key host-government authorities, NGO liaison officers and international organization representatives to assess the validity of the criminal accusations lodged following the duo's detention, release and re-arrest the week of April 6-13. The pair was formally charged with breach of trust and forgery on April 12, by a court in Pointe Noire, in a civil complaint posted by Wilfred Bouaka, Secretary General of RPDH (Rencontre pour la Paix et les Droits de l'Homme). Mr. Mounzeo currently serves as President of RPDH and was formerly the Secretary General of another NGO based in Brazzaville, OCDH (Observatoire Congolais des Droits de l'Homme),from which he resigned following charges of misappropriation of funds. Mr. Mackosso is associated with the Congolese Jusice and Peace C ommission. Press Statements released by Global Witness chairperson Sarah Wykes and the Congolese Catholic Episcopal Conference have called for the immediate release of Mounzeo and Mackosso; however, the Director General of the Pointe Noire police, Jean-Francois N'Dengue, considers them to be a flight risk. Although minor irregularities of due process of law have been noted by local observers, the prevailing sentiment among international, NGO and diplomatic community representatives favors the Prosecutor General's claims of financial mismanagement and fraud rather than an orchestrated campaign of political harassment stemming from prior involvement in the "Beach Trials" held in Brazzaville, 2004-2005. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Charge d'affaires contacted Secretary General of the Foreign Ministry, Ambassador Daniel Owassa, on April 10 to express concern over the apparent arbitrary arrest and incarceration of leading human rights and transparency campaigners Christian Mounzeo and Brice Mackosso, as reported �00A;by Global Witness and the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Coalition . The incident had received wide international press coverage since the initial detention of the duo in Pointe Noire on April 6, their release from "protective confinement" on April 7 at the direction of the Prime Minister, and subsequent re-arrest the following day. The Charge d'affaires noted that the U.S. Embassy, UNHCR, ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross),representatives of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other western embassies (Belgium, France) had received a barrage of e-mails from Global Witness demanding action from the international community to demarche host-government authorities to release Mounzeo and Mackosso to t heir lawyer, Maitre Magloire Senga, and to demand due process of law. Owassa stated that he was unaware of all circumstances surrounding this case, and immediately called Foreign Minister Rodolphe Adada to report the substance of this conversation. IMF Resident Representative, Dr. Yaya Moussa, informed the Charge d'affaires that his Washington headquarters had instructed him to make a similar demarche, which was delivered on April 9 to the special counsellor to Prime Minister Isidore Mvouba, who was travelling with President Sassou-Nguesso on a four-nation tour to Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, Nigeria and Benin. IMF feared strong negative repercussions from the international community in light of Congo's recent approval for substantial HIPC debt relief from the World Bank, and allegations that Mounzeo and Mackosso, co-coordinators of the Congolese branch of Publish What You Pay (PWYP) Coalition, were being targeted for their ardent support of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI),a global pro cess which promotes transparency in the reporting of oil and mining revenues, and for their outspoken roles in the "Beach Trials" held in Brazzaville, 2004-2005, which involved several high-ranking military and government officials implicated in the brutal slaughter of an estimated 300 Congolese citizens. ¶3. (C) On April 12, Emboffs met with Mr. Cephas Ewangui, a reliable source and longtime collaborator of the embassy, who serves as President of the "Association Panafricaine Thomas Sankara." Mr. Ewangui was unshaken in his belief that the KINSHASA 00000589 002 OF 003 RPDH incident in Pointe Noire stemmed from financial mismanagement and fraud, not political intimidation or harassment of Mounzeo and Mackosso. He noted that Mr. Mounzeo had been fired from his position as Secretary General of OCDH in Brazzaville in 2004, and then, moved to Pointe Noire to accept an offer from Wilfred Bouaka, plantiff in the current court proceedings, to serve as President of RPDH. According to Ewangui, Mounzeo and Bouaka had a "parting of the ways at RPDH" and until recently had maintained a joint bank account for the NGO. Mr. Mounzeo and co-defendant, Brice Mackosso, recently co-signed a document to withdraw 3000 Euros from this joint account, apparently without the knowledge of Mr. Bouaka, which is the basis of the current legal action, as Mr. Boua ka, not Mr. Mackosso, should have been the co-signee on the withdrawal. Mr. Ewangui travelled to Pointe Noire on April 12, confirmed this version of events with the Prosecutor General, and reported to the embassy that both Mounzeo and Mackosso had admitted guilt in the affair. According to Congolese law, the defendants may be held for a period of four months subject to further investigation of the allegations before proceeding to trial. Mr. Ewangui added that, contrary to what had been published and widely disseminated by Global Witness, Mounzeo and Mackosso did receive access to legal counsel, and that its spokesperson, Sarah Wykes, was informed of the substance of the financial fraud charges. He also stated that Mounzeo and Mackosso were refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the matter and that the NGO community believed this "internal matter" should have been resolved peacefully, out-of-court several months ago. ¶4. (C) On April 13, Charge d'affairs and POL/FSN Brice Biabaro met with Mr. Roger Bouka, a member of the Observer Commission on Arbitrary Detention and Protection of Human Rights (ADHUC) and a former associate of Mr. Mounzeo, to corroborate the views expressed by Mr. Ewangui and other well-placed sources in the diplomatic community. Following his investigation of the matter through colleagues in Pointe Noire, Mr. Bouka was also convinced that this affair was an internal matter between sparring factions of an NGO, and unfortunately, he believed this incident would reflect negatively on the reputation of other NGOs in the Republic of Congo striving for credibility, stature and recognition as responsible members of civil society. He lamented the fact that many Human Rights NGOs were perceived to have "sold-out" to the United States or France, and in some quadrants, seen as "enemies of the state," but in this case, greed, not political retribution, seemed to have been the motive for the detention and arrest o f Mounzeo and Mackosso. Bouka commented that events "moved quickly" in Pointe Noire, referring to the initial detention of the pair, search and seizure of documents from their residence related to the case, and imprecision in both the media and from local authorities as to the basis of the arrests. This led some observers to speculate that the action was politically motivated rather than a civil matter predicated on funds misappropriation. ¶5. (C) By late evening April 14, IMF Resident Representative Moussa and Charge d'affaires agreed that no further action should be taken on this matter at this time, having been satisfied that host-government authorities in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cabinet of the Prime Minister in Brazzaville responded appropriately to our respective demarches, and, that the preponderence of evidence appeared to be weighted against Mounzeo and Mackosso. The political attache of the French Embassy, Olivier duFour, charged that Global Witness and Sarah Wykes had lost all credibility in this affair and appeared poised to repeatedly discredit the Congo in an irresponsible and uninformed manner. A two-page statement issued by the Congolese Catholic Episcopal Conference, represented by Bishop Portella of Kinkala and Archbishop Milandou of Brazzaville, offered no new evidence in defense of Mounzeo and Mackosso, and called for their unconditional release, respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and freed om from any forms of harassment or reprisals against the pair or other human rights defenders. Charge d'affaires will contact his colleague, Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Andres Carascosa Coso, currently on mission to Libreville, for a read-out of the situation, as the Catholic Church has provided financial support to RPDH and OCDH in recent years. KINSHASA 00000589 003 OF 003 ¶6. (U) Emboffs will continue to monitor this situation and report any significant developments to the Department. ¶7. (U) Brazzaville Embassy Office - Biedlingmaier MEECE