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
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

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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.


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6. (U) Emboffs will continue to monitor this situation and
report any significant developments to the Department.


7. (U) Brazzaville Embassy Office - Biedlingmaier


MEECE