Herve Ambroise Malonga: Profile of the advocat of lost causes

Herve Ambroise Malonga:  he is a pro-democracy activist and a courageous lawyer, who is frequently jailed for his positions that oscillates between pure legal matters and political domains. Herve Amboise Malonga is a true lover and supporter of real democracy and freedom of speech in Congo. He is among those fighting to have an independent judiciary in Congo and for that; he is marginalized by the current government. The current government doesn’t want to have an independent justice system. His courage has forced him to stand as lawyer for clients whose court cases are considered as lost, because the government is always determine that free and fair trials are seldom held or rendered in her courts , which are in reality  kangaroo courts. He has been a lawyer in many high profile cases in Congo. The well known are: the beach massacre trial, known in French as “Les disparu du Beach” and more recently, he was also amongst the group of lawyers defending Colonel Marcel Nstourou. No matter how courageous and competent he is, Maitre Herve Ambroise Malonga has his own short comings that, I have observed. As a person, he seems excellent and easy going and as already mentioned, professionally, he is competent. But my observations are that, sometimes he acts as though, he is not very sure of himself and in other occasions, he seems very negligent. Perhaps it is because of the pressure and physical as well as psychological persecutions that he receives from the government that alters his professional outputs in some courts cases that he handles.  Hence, it is believed or suspected that, in most cases or trials that he has lost, it is not necessarily because the government wanted or intervened or does not want to deliver honest verdict.  While the Congolese judiciary is not independent,  it is however honest to point out that, most of the time, when Herve Malonga loses a court case, it is because, he seldom prepares his defenses properly, and the primary reason being his addiction to alcoholism, while the secondary reason can be attributed to government interventions to cause miscarriage of justice.

He is sometimes also unpredictable and at times incoherent. It might also partly explain the reason why, he is no longer given lead role in high profile court cases. The professional incoherence and absence of concentration from the part of Malonga has not only made him to lose his luster, some of his colleagues are even distancing themselves from him.  One of such is Jean Martin Bemba. Mr Jean Martin Bemba is a former justice minister of Congo and now an arch rival to the president of the Republic. Jean Martin Bemba became the state enemy of because he is opposed to President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s plans to change the January 20^th 2002 constitution. Jean Martin Bemba, once  told me in french this : Maitre Herve Ambroise Malonga  est bon, mais je ne lui faire plus de confiance, car il bois trop. Or in English: Lawyer Herve Ambroise Malonga is an excellent lawyer, but I no longer have confidence in him, because he drinks a lot. Whatever his sins, he is amongst the great Congolese pro-democracy and human right activist, who have paid a heavy price for standing up against the injustices of the current regime. He is therefore a person worth of praise and also worth counting upon in Congo currently and in the future. In order for democracy and the respect of rule of law to find a foothold in Congo, people like Herve Amboise Malonga are indispensable in spite their short comings.

Raymond Zephirin Mboulou MP: Tenacious and rigorous minister of interior and decentralization(Profile)

Raymond Zephirin Mboulou MP: he is Congo’s minister of interior and decentralization and he is also Member of Parliament for Mpouya electoral constituency. Mpouya is a locality situated some 32km from the town of Ngo in the Plateau Region. Ngo in itself is a junction town. For Ngo which, is a market town specialized in the sales of cocoyam is also located on the routes that leads to Djambala, the headquarters of the Plateau region and also the passage to towns of Gamboma, Oyo, Owando and Ouesso.  Raymond Zephirin Mboulou MP is a soft spoken man but tenacious and rigorous. He is also a person who is extremely nationalistic and abhors France in particular. Once in his office in 2011, some days before the holding of a national dialogue in the northwestern town of Ewo, I overheard him in shock and awe promising to order the beating of an opposition leader, should he decide with others to stage a rival meeting in Brazzaville. Sometimes he is violent, especially when he is ordered by the President to act.  

Unlike others, he at least has the courage to counter the excesses of the extremists within the regime. In other words he is not a zealot. He is a reasoned man who is humble, humane and generous. These are positive aspects of Raymond Zephirin Mboulou that are not known by the opposition and other pro-democracy activists who spend time deriding him on social media. They also call him the minister of interior of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and the ruling Congolese Workers Party. In other words, the opposition refers to him as partial. This former secretary general at the presidency and a close ally to Justice Minister Aime Emmanuel Yoka is by his position, one man who is regularly consulted by the President of the Republic electoral and national matters. I have met and interviewed him on several occasions. But I was stroke three times by his reactions to three events. The first time was in 2011 as above explained and the second time was in 2012. Immediately after the legislative elections, there were riots in Gamboma, the most populated town in the north of Congo. The cause of the riots was the lost of the head of the opposition, Mathias Dzon, to Hughes Ngouelondele the Gamboma2 electoral constituency.  Hughes Ngouelondele is the lord mayor of the Brazzaville Greater City Council and son in law to the president of the Republic.

I called him after I had spoken with Mathias Dzon and he complained that, the army had closed down the town and were denying him the opportunity to go back to Brazzaville. The reply of Raymond Zephirin was shocking. He told me: Mathias Dzon must stay in Gamboma to cleanse the city and bring back order in the town, for he is the one who has created the mayhem. And he added: after all, I have my cassava in my mouth, let him not disturb me. The third was in 2013, December 16^th. The army and Police were attacking the home of Colonel Marcel Nstourou, a reneged army officer who was accused of having master minded the March 4^th 2012 Explosion that took place at an ammunition depot. He was eventually arrested, tried and acquitted with a suspended sentence. I was around the battle venue and when I saw how intense was the battle and also the possibility that,  Colonel Marcel Nstourou might be killed, I called the minister of interior and told him that, I am around the area of action and  that, within 30 minutes or so, I suspect that, Colonel Marcel Nstourou could be killed. He responded: let him be killed, for he is also responsible for several deaths.

My fear was that, should Colonel Marcel Nstourou be killed during the conflict, I think his death would plunge the country into a tribal war, pitting the ethnic Batekes, who are by far, the largest ethnic group in the country against the ruling minority Mbouchi of President Denis Sassou Nguesso. Fortunately, the Colonel was not killed. According to Matthias Dzon, President Denis Sassou Nguesso will use him like an orange, press-out all juice out of him and then throw him away. But Mr Mboulou ignores the warnings from Mathias Dzon and says that, he is loyal to the President and doesn’t care what will be his fate in the future. Raymond Zephirin Mboulou is an extremely hardworking and loyal man to President Denis Sassou Nguesso.  Nonetheless he is dominated in his ministry by Jean Francois Ndenguet who is the head of the Congolese Police Force. Jean Francois Ndenguet gets his strength to dominate over Mr Mboulou from Jean Dominique Okemba, who is the influential nephew of the president and also his special adviser. As a native of the Plateau of the Congo, a region that is reported to have one of the highest literacy rates in the country after the Pool region, he is a brilliant tactician. The people of the Plateau region are also known for their unique solidarity traits.This simply means that, in spite being part of the repressive security apparatus of Denis Sassou Nguesso and also classified amongst the extremists of the regime, Raymond Zephirin Mboulou still has a future in the country even after Denis Sassou Nguesso is gone from power.

Anani Rabier Bindji’s own African reality is a travesty

However, one name comes up regularly as the assassin of Marien Ngouabi. It is the name of Denis Sassou Nguesso. How true is the accusation? Why doesn’t Denis Sassou Nguesso absolve himself in a book as he does best, when attempting to market an idea? Why does he want to shoulder such as a responsibility and a responsibility that might live on long after him to hunt his family?  I am personally left in a kind of wilderness. I can’t accuse him for the information gathered on the death of Marien Ngouabi is fraught with lies, inaccuracies, vengeance and outright refusal to cooperate. Anyway, from what I have heard from Anani Rabier Bindji, I am confused. He certainly might hold the secret or the missing link to the death of Marien Ngouabi and also all those who are connected with the death of Marien Ngouabi or who took part. But, the problems with Anani Rabier Bindji are double. He is caught between speaking the truth and also preserving what he calls African reality. But the question that I asked him and that he refused to answer was this: does African reality imply telling or hiding the truth? Anani Rabier Bindji’s own African reality is a travesty, as most intellectuals have done before him or a currently doing.

For Anani Rabier Bindji thinks that, Marien Ngouabi never really knew what he wanted, which might means in my interpretations that, his (Marien Ngouabi) disappearance was a kind of salvation to many. But it doesn’t mean that, he supported his assassination.  Anani Rabier Bindji is also ambiguous. On one hand, he told me Denis Sassou Nguesso is an assassin and on the other, he wants to help Denis Sassou Nguesso in his plans to change the constitution, a project that will make him elongate his stay at the head of Congo and also extend the secret on the cause of the death Marien Ngouabi. These kinds of ambiguity and retention of information regarding the death of Marien Ngouabi that has made me to be reticent and also stop from ruling as many in Congo, who claim that, Denis Sassou Nguesso is the assassin of Marien Ngouabi. It doesn’t in anyway mean that, I am absolving Denis Sassou Nguesso, but I am also not going to accuse him either.  One thing is certain, one day, the truth shall be known and it will help in the national reconciliation of Congo and put her back on the path of glory. In 2009 when I was visiting Congo as a reporter, Chryst Bonaventure Engobo(retired)  was the Director of Presidential Protocol.

Currently, he is the deputy secretary general of the National Security Council of Congo. He has replaced the renege Colonel Marcel Nstourou.  Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo (retired) is quiet and elegant man and also above all intelligent for an average Congolese military officer or at least those that I know. He is a very humble and effaced man and not puffed up with pride or show and tell and brutes of the caliber of General Jean Francois Ndenguet. He is a loyal servant of President Denis Sassou Nguesso and also very patriotic. However, he has a certain admiration for communism especially the Cuban government. He is also a ma of principle who above all respects his words. One thing that I have noticed with this lover of Congolese music especially that of neighboring Kinshasa or the Democratic Republic of Congo is that, he is taciturn and seldom speaks about politics. He is nonetheless accused r considered by people of his hometown of Owando and also some southern Congolese as being a stooge of President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is also accused of being so loyal to Denis Sassou Nguesso to the point of causing or sparking the 1997 civil war that ended the regime of Congo’s only post independence democratic elected president, Professor Pascal Lissouba. However on this point just as in the case of the assassination of Marien Ngouabi, there are two schools of thought. The first are of the opinion that, Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is responsible for the 1997 brief but violent Congolese civil war, while a second school of thought is of the opinion that, it was late Colonel Aboya who was responsible. But whoever was responsible is not the subject, but according to Toussaint Mavougou, Colonel Chryst Bonaventure Engobo is as secretive as a feline. But, I must note that, he is a good man who also admires late Marien Ngouabi, but seldom speaks about him in mythical terms as does others from Owando and its surrounding villages. He has chosen his camp, even though, some say at the detriment or at the expense of his own. To his credit, he is the one who really introduced me into Congo and also made me to love that wonderful country.