Coup Trial Controversy

Lawyers for a group of 44 Congolese soldiers on trial for rebellion say political leaders are interfering in the case.



Their military court trial on charges of trying to destabilise the government, robbery, hiding weapons and murder began last year and could drag on for another three. Some of the soldiers, members of the former Zairian armed forces, the FAZ, have been held at Kinshasa’s Makala prison since 2004.



Under Congo’s 2006 constitution, detainees are entitled to have their case heard in a “reasonable period of time by a competent judge”.



They face charges in connection with “Opération Pentecôte” – March 2004 demonstrations at military barracks around the capital. They say it was an attempt to draw attention to their poor treatment by the government, but Kinshasa insists they were attempting a rebellion.



The soldiers served in the army during the time of Mobutu Sese Seko, the former Congo president who was deposed by Laurent Désiré Kabila in 1997.



After the regime change, Mobutu’s soldiers were in disarray. Some fled to Congo-Brazzaville and elsewhere but many stayed in Kinshasa. Those that did found their lives greatly changed. The armed forces in the capital were dominated by members of Kabila’s AFDL rebel group, who did not recognise the ranks of the Mobutu soldiers. This triggered tensions.



And life did not improve for the former FAZ following Kabila’s assassination in 2001. His son and replacement, Joseph Kabila, put an end to the civil war that had plagued Congo since 1998. But the FAZ soldiers remained on the sidelines and some were eventually forced into retirement.



Their anger spilled over on March 27 and 28, 2004 at demonstrations around the capital. The soldiers admit they fired their guns into the air during the protests, but lawyer Peter Ngomo, who is coordinating their defence, insists there was no attempt to overthrow the Kabila government as the charges suggest.



“These demonstrations unfolded only within military facilities and at night to avoid collateral damages,” said Ngomo. “There were no casualties or wounded people that night. Therefore, it is wrong to speak of coup attempt or an attempt to destabilise the system in place. The use of firearms was their only mean of protest.”



The organisers were arrested, and Ngomo says families were also targeted. “When some tried to flee, the state fell back on their family members,” he said, adding the majority of those charged were from Mobutu’s home province of Equateur.



Lawyer Pascal Ngongo, also a member of the defence team, said of the 44 now on trial only ten took part in demonstrations. “They tried to increase the number of persons involved to strengthen the argument of a coup attempt,” he said.



However, military prosecutor General Kiyani Mukunto, the president of the commission of inquiry that led to the arrests, insists the case against the soldiers is strong. He says the demonstrations were far from a spontaneous gesture of frustration, as the lawyers insist, and were in fact a well-planned operation intended to oust the government.



In the meantime, the trial goes on – very slowly. For the hearings, the defendants have been divided into subgroups depending on the military installation or camp at which they protested.



Ngomo says it is the defendants themselves that are covering many of the expenses. “The detainees have to bear the cost of the trial, renting the chairs, taking care of the sound and preparing the courtroom,” he said.



When not in court, they are held in a special wing of Makala prison under guard of the special services division, Detection of Anti-Patriotic Acts, DEMIAP.



All have been denied provisional release while the case winds its way through the courts. Their lawyers say particularly galling for the soldiers is their apparent exclusion from the 2005 amnesty for acts of war and insurgency.



They don’t know why they are not eligible or why the case is taking so long to resolve.



Ngongo, however, believes the case is politicised, an opinion shared by others in the human rights community, including lawyer Georges Kapiamba from the African Association for the Defense of Human Rights, ASADHO.



Kapiamba blames political interference and the inadequacies of the Congolese judicial system.



“There is an increased presence of politics in [this] case,” he said. “Political leaders give orders to the courts that the trial be conducted according to their [wishes]. We must condemn the non-independence of the judiciary from the [government]."



He fears the true facts about what happened five years ago may never be known. “Because justice is not independent, the whole truth of the matter may never come into the open,” said Kapiamba.



Patrick Tshamala is an IWPR contributor in Kinshasa.