Congo-Brazzaville: Authorities Try to Silence Anticorruption Activists

The government in Congo-Brazzaville is trying to silence anticorruption activists instead of addressing corruption. When activists allege that the government is misusing the country’s oil wealth, the authorities respond by arresting them.

Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch

Christian Mounzéo, a leading anticorruption campaigner in oil-rich Congo-Brazzaville, was arbitrarily arrested and detained by authorities upon his return to the country allegedly because of his criticism of the government’s misuse of oil revenues, Human Rights Watch said today.

On Monday, November 13, immigration police arrested Mounzéo at the airport in the capital Brazzaville when he returned from an advocacy trip in Europe. At the time of his arrest, the authorities reportedly told him that he was being detained because he had “defamed” President Denis Sassou-Nguesso during his advocacy trip abroad.

The police held Mounzéo in custody overnight and then escorted him to a court hearing in Pointe-Noire related to charges filed in April against him and a colleague on a separate matter, also believed to be in retaliation for their anticorruption campaigning.

“The government in Congo-Brazzaville is trying to silence anticorruption activists instead of addressing corruption,” said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. “When activists allege that the government is misusing the country’s oil wealth, the authorities respond by arresting them.”

Mounzéo is the founder and president of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Engagement for Peace and Human Rights (Rencontre pour la paix et les droits de l'Homme). He is the Congo-Brazzaville coordinator of the Publish What You Pay campaign, an international NGO initiative that promotes transparency and accountability in the use of natural resource revenues around the world. Human Rights Watch is also a member of this campaign.

In addition, Mounzéo is an NGO representative to the British government-sponsored Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). Prior to his arrest on Monday, Mounzéo had travelled abroad to attend several official EITI meetings and engage in other advocacy related to oil revenue transparency.

Mounzéo and another anticorruption activist, Brice Mackosso, a member of the Catholic Church Peace and Justice Commission (Commission justice et paix de l'Eglise catholique), were previously arrested on April 6, released, and then rearrested on April 7. The authorities held them in custody until April 28 and then released them on bail. They were charged with “breach of trust [and] complicity in breach of trust and forgery” allegedly related to the misuse of funds from a nongovernmental organization that Mounzéo founded.

A judge initially dropped some of the charges, but the prosecutor is appealing that decision in order to reinstate them. The defendants are pursuing their own appeal to the country’s Supreme Court. On November 14, a judge postponed the hearing in the prosecutor’s appeal until November 28 and released Mounzéo from custody.

Human Rights Watch believes that the case brought against them is a pretext to harass them for their outspoken criticism of government corruption and mismanagement of oil revenue. The arrests generated widespread international attention and led Paul Wolfowitz, the president of the World Bank, to criticize their arrests on April 24.

The prosecutor’s activities in this case have been controversial. The order to escort Mounzéo to Pointe-Noire on November 14 may itself have been unlawful. The Ministry of Justice reportedly suspended the prosecutor in August, yet he claims that he was not notified of this order and continues to pursue the case against the two men.

Congo-Brazzaville is the sixth largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa, and oil sales account for 94 percent of the country’s export earnings. The country ranked 142 out of 163 countries in Transparency International’s 2006 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The country qualified for debt relief under the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative. However, the decision was controversial and was partly premised on improvements in governance and transparency in the use of oil revenues. The government of President Sassou-Nguesso, which came back to power after a civil war in 1997, has also joined EITI.

“Citizens shouldn’t fear arrests when they are trying to determine how public funds are used,” said Ganesan. “A government can hardly be seen as a credible partner in any international transparency initiative when it repeatedly arrests the country’s foremost anticorruption campaigners. This is a crucial test for the World Bank’s new anticorruption strategy.”

Human Rights Watch called upon the international community to condemn the arrest, detention, and ongoing harassment of Mounzéo and Mackosso.

The World Bank, IMF, and EITI should reevaluate their dealings with the government of Congo-Brazzaville because of its lack of commitment to good governance and transparency. In particular, the World Bank should condemn the ongoing harassment and evaluate its relationship with the government in light of its new anticorruption and good-governance strategy.

Human Rights Watch

Equatorial Guinea: Account for Oil Wealth

Residents of New Building, the largest shanty town in the Equatorial
Guinean capital of Malabo, lack consistent access to running water and electricity.

© 2003 Paolo Woods

Across town, construction proceeds on the new presidential palace.

© 2009 Human Rights Watch

RELATED MATERIALS:

Well Oiled

Diamonds in the Rough

Congo-Brazzaville: Authorities Try to Silence Anticorruption Activists

Some Transparency, No Accountability

OTHER MATERIAL:

Marketplace Report: Equatorial Guinea not seeing oil money

CESR Fact Sheet: Analysis of Equatorial Guinea’s Abysmal Socio-Economic Indicators

RELATED AUDIO:

• President Obama has vowed to break US dependence on oil and move away from fossil fuels altogether. Meanwhile, the US gets 60 percent of its oil from foreign countries -- like Equatorial Guinea. Arvind Ganesan of Human Rights Watch has this commentary.

Here is a country where people should have the per capita wealth of Spain or Italy, but instead they live in poverty worse than in Afghanistan or Chad. This is a testament to the government's corruption, mismanagement, and callousness toward its own people.

Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch

(Madrid) - The government of Equatorial Guinea has set new low standards of political and economic malfeasance in handling its billions of dollars in oil revenue instead of improving the lives of its citizens, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 107-page report, "Well Oiled: Oil and Human Rights in Equatorial Guinea," details how the dictatorship under President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has used an oil boom to entrench and enrich itself further at the expense of the country's people. Since oil was discovered there in the early 1990s, Equatorial Guinea's gross domestic product (GDP) has increased more than 5,000 percent, and the country has become the fourth-largest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, living standards for the country's 500,000 people have not substantially improved.

"Here is a country where people should have the per capita wealth of Spain or Italy, but instead they live in poverty worse than in Afghanistan or Chad," said Arvind Ganesan, director of the Business and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch. "This is a testament to the government's corruption, mismanagement, and callousness toward its own people."

For example, infant and child mortality actually increased from an already-dismal 103 deaths per thousand in 1990 to 124 per thousand in 2007. Similarly, under-5 mortality rates increased from 170 per thousand in 1990 to 206 per thousand in 2007. The government's failure to provide basic social services violates its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Human Rights Watch said.

The country has had a series of corruption scandals involving government officials and their families. In 2004, a US Senate investigation into the country's dealings with the now-defunct Riggs Bank detailed how President Obiang used the country's oil wealth to finance numerous personal transactions, including spending $3.8 million to buy two mansions in a suburb of Washington, DC. That investigation led to one of the largest fines against a bank in US history, and ultimately the bank's takeover.

Obiang's eldest son, Teodorin, bought a $35 million property in California in 2006. In 2004, he spent about $8.45 million for mansions and luxury cars in South Africa. His only known income was a $4,000 monthly salary as a government minister. His $43.45 million in spending on his lavish lifestyle from 2004 to 2006 was more than the $43 million the government spent on education in 2005.

The people of Equatorial Guinea have no ability to hold their government accountable. The government severely curtails press freedom and independent civil society, and the political opposition is weak and faces constant government harassment, intimidation, and arrests.

Obiang has been in power since 1979, when he deposed his uncle in a coup. His uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, took control of the country when it gained independence from Spain in 1969. His rule was brutal and, by the time his nephew overthrew him, as much as a third of the population had been killed or exiled. In the most recent parliamentary elections in May 2008, Obiang and his allies won 99 out of 100 seats.

"Obiang controls the oil, the government, and the country," Ganesan said. "Without meaningful international pressure, the immense wealth of Equatorial Guinea will continue to be a private cash machine for a few instead of the means to improving the lives of many."

The bulk of investment in the country's oil industry comes from US-based oil companies such as Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil, Amerada Hess, and Vanco Energy. The significant interests of US companies have also meant that the US government is a key interlocutor with the government of Equatorial Guinea, along with Spain. Under the Bush administration, relations with Equatorial Guinea warmed, despite the Riggs Bank corruption scandal and ongoing human rights violations. For example, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice publicly told Obiang during a 2006 visit to Washington: "You are a good friend, and we welcome you."

"The Obama administration should take a different approach than its predecessor," said Ganesan. "Instead of ignoring corruption and human rights in favor of energy interests, it can make it clear that good governance and respect for human rights is essential for energy security."

The international community may be in a good position to push for change because the government has joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), an effort to make natural resources benefit everyone by setting a global standard for openness in oil, gas, and mining. However, Human Rights Watch has serious concerns that the government may not be fully committed to it because it still has not guaranteed that civil society can operate freely in the country and has been very slow to implement the initiative's standards.

"This is a key test for the government," Ganesan said. "But it is also a test for the credibility of the initiative, which risks just endorsing a slightly more transparent dictatorship."

Human Rights Watch called on the government of Equatorial Guinea to carry out policies for complete public disclosure of how it manages its oil wealth, including: making its budgets public; identifying all of the government's foreign bank accounts; implementing the law that requires government officials to declare their assets, and verifying those declarations; and conducting an audit of government accounts and making those results public.

Human Rights Watch called on foreign governments such as the US and Spain to: put concerted pressure on the government to improve human rights; deny visas to the country's officials who have been implicated in corruption; and identify any assets held by those officials in their countries, with the intent of seizing the proceeds of corruption and eventually returning them to the people of Equatorial Guinea.

Corrupt DRC magistrates send packing

More than 100 magistrates and judges in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been sacked as part of President Joseph Kabila’s campaign to clean the judiciary of greasy dealings.

Making the announcement yesterday, the Minister of Justice, Luzolo Bambi Lessa said the move was only the beginning as other sectors, including the military, were also to feel the pinch of the anti-corruption whip.

The minister said the operation had to start somewhere and that this was a good launch to ridding the country of corruption.

Those already in the sacking bracket include the president of the Supreme Court and the State Prosecutor who were amongst those pointed after recommendations made by a Congolese legal disciplinary body.

However, even though under pressure to clean the judicial house, the government has also been accused of not giving a fair hearing to those affected, with some sacked magistrates crying foul of victimisation.

By staff writer

© afrol News

Namibia graft body wants to interview son of Hu

1 of 1Full Size

By Marius Bosch

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Namibia's Anti-Corruption Commission has requested an interview with the son of Chinese leader Hu Jintao to glean information about a deal involving a Chinese scanner company, the head of the anti-graft body said on Friday.

Until last year Hu Haifeng, the only son of the Chinese president, was chief executive of scanner manufacturing company Nuctech which secured a $55.3 million contract to deliver x-ray scanning equipment to Namibia.

The commission said three people, two Namibians and a Chinese national, were arrested earlier this month on fraud, bribery and corruption charges in connection with the scanner deal.

Paulus Noa, director of the commission, said it had requested an interview with Hu and senior Nuctech management through the company's Namibian lawyer.

"We would like an interview with him to establish some information from him as the (former) head of the company. If he is not available, senior managers of the company should avail themselves so that we could have discussions with them," Noa said in a telephone interview from Windhoek.

Noa said Hu was not a suspect but would be able to give evidence.

Nuctech and Namibia's finance ministry signed an agreement for the supply of scanning equipment in May last year, The Namibian newspaper reported on its website.

Nuctech in Beijing was not immediately available for comment. Under the agreement, the ministry had to pay $12.8 million while the remainder of the cost of the scanning equipment was to be financed through a Chinese government loan.

ASSETS FROZEN

In March this year, Namibian company Teko Trading invoiced Nuctech for consulting services in connection with the transaction and the following month Nuctech paid the firm around $4.2 million, The Namibian said.

Namibia's High Court has ordered the assets of the three arrested people to be frozen. They were named as Teko directors Teckla Lameck, who is Namibia's Public Service Commissioner, her business partner Kongo Mokaxwa and Chinese citizen Yang Fan -- Nuctech's Africa representative.

Earlier this week, two Chinese portals -- Sina Corp. and NetEase.com Inc -- carried translated reports on the investigation, citing foreign media, without mentioning Hu's son. The channel on which the reports were carried were briefly inaccessible, and the reports had been removed when access was restored.

A NetEase spokesperson said he did not know the reason for the channel outage, while a Sina spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Source:Reuters

Using puppets to battle Kenya corruption

The XYZ Show in Kenya uses rubber puppets to tackle serious political situations By Will Ross BBC News, Nairobi At a recent prayer breakfast in Kenya, religious matters were pushed aside and instead gluttony was the order of the day. President Mwai Kibaki struggled to eat a whole chapatti in one go, Prime Minister Raila Odinga spilt tea down his suit and Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka struggled after getting a sausage stuck in his mouth. Luckily, these were just puppets being filmed in the cramped dining room of a Nairobi home for the latest of 13 episodes of the XYZ show. Every Kenyan should contribute to expose what is happening and to expose corruption Gado, Kenyan cartoonist The satirical puppet show, which was influenced by the British 1980s show Spitting Image and France's Les Guignols, is a chance for a group of scriptwriters and puppeteers to delve into the murky world of Kenyan politics. The man behind it is East Africa's best known cartoonist, Gado, who has been taking a pop at Kenya's elite for years and encourages people to question events in Kenya. "I think it's everybody's duty," he said. "You can't put that responsibility on one individual, as every Kenyan should contribute to expose what is happening and to expose corruption." Kenya has its fair share of political scandals and people have a fairly low view of their politicians, several of whom were accused of stoking the ethnic violence which flared after the disputed election in December 2007. Now members of the coalition government, formed to prevent the country descending further into anarchy, have another reason to watch their steps - unless they want to see an embarrassing action replay in latex. "We bring out the character... especially when it comes to the fact that the politicians never stand for anything, the double-standards and the hypocrisy," said director James Kanja, who says he is not expecting any threatening phone calls in response to the show. "We feel secure knowing that we are working with puppets so we could argue at the end of the day that this is a puppet not a real person." Working with muppets The XYZ team has set up its main studio in a warehouse across town. As the cameras roll, the production team is glued to TV monitors to check the mannerisms are just right. Senior figures like President Mwai Kibaki are not exempt from attention In the Kiswahili language, the puppet bearing a close resemblance to the prime minister is reassuring the nation that all is well in the coalition government because everyone is eating a healthy slice of the national cake. A clear reference to recent high level corruption scandals. Each character has two puppeteers - one controlling the eyes, the other the body. After working with muppets and marionettes for more than 10 years, Daniel Otieno now gets maximum job satisfaction working closely with a scarily life-like latex President Kibaki. "It's awesome to be in control of the president. After all, he gets his salary from us," says Mr Otieno, after helping the presidential puppet deliver a speech about safe sex. Delayed at customs The fact that the show is on air is a sign of press freedom here. If you tried to produce a show like this in several other countries, you would end up behind bars before you could say: "Camera, Lights, Action." The puppets and the puppeteers tend to do some very interesting things when given a free rein James Kanja Kenya sleaze book sparks shop ban In South Africa, a similar satirical show has been produced but so far has not aired. This has left people wondering whether the politicians and broadcasters are ready to witness the sight of a Jacob Zuma-like puppet fleeing from the National Prosecuting Authority or a latex version of Thabo Mbeki in drag, singing the Gloria Gaynor hit I Will Survive. Kenya's XYZ Show has been in the pipeline since 2002 but was recently given a financial leg-up when several embassies and the Ford Foundation came forward to support it. Projects that might help keep the politicians under scrutiny and promote democracy and accountability are seen by donors as worth sponsoring. USAid has been helping distribute Michela Wrong's latest book, It's Our Turn To Eat, which shines a bright light on political corruption. Kenyan bookstores had been extremely reluctant to stock it, fearing they might make enemies in high places. Without the funding, the show was unlikely to make it onto TV. I was told the puppets cost $2-3,000 each, with the latex imported from France. The creators have had some unusual explaining to do at customs. There was a production delay in the puppet workshop recently as Kenyan customs officials raised a few eyebrows over a small package which apparently contained the the eyes of the First Lady, Lucy Kibaki. Bigmouth? There is a history of political satire in Kenya, with the popular comedy trio Redykyulass having caused years of belly aches and Nation TV's Bull's Eye sending up the politicians each week. The feedback for the XYZ show itself has been lukewarm so far, with critics suggesting it is too serious and lacks pace. Two people are needed to operate one puppet But the team is confident it will improve and by veering off script it could produce more laughs. "Whenever we are not shooting the serious stuff on the scripts the puppets and the puppeteers tend to do some very interesting things when given a free rein," said Mr Kanja. The big question is how far the scriptwriters can push out the boat without upsetting the powers that be. "Our goal is not to avoid any character or subject," said Gado. He was being watched from the sidelines by Kenya's famous son Barack Obama, who has been given ears the size of satellite dishes. "We are going to push it as far as we can and if we get into trouble that's part and parcel of the show and the industry." So far it hasn't been possible to get any reaction from the real Kenyan politicians. But I did hear a whisper that one had complained, "Why have they made my mouth so big?"

Security and accountability are free public goods!

Public goods are those that are non-rivaled and non-excludable. This means, respectively that consumption of the good by one individual does not reduce availability of the good for consumption by others; and that no one can be effectively excluded from using the good. Due to the fact that the use by paying and non-paying consumers cannot be controlled, governments have to step in to ensure provision of such social goods. In turn tax monies go towards enabling governments to provide these social services.

Internal security is one such public good that falls to governments to provide to citizens. Though private sector security companies complement government security, they are constrained in providing this service for all as they do not enjoy economies of scale on the one hand and also to provide security for all is not economically viable in terms of ensuring that all consumers pay for such services.

According to Paul Collier writing in an article titled “Development in Dangerous Places” another public good is accountability. Historically, rulers needed revenue for their armies, which in turn provoked pressure for accountability and good governance from the taxpayers. Ultimately, security and accountability to Collier are not just public goods but expressions of power.

In countries of Collier’s Bottom Billion however, social divisions reign supreme. This lack of national cohesiveness in turn makes it more difficult to provide public goods. For instance, the 2008 post-election violence in Kenya aptly demonstrated the weak bonding of nationhood where tribes hacked one another with machetes and arrows causing the nation’s internal security to run down the doldrums. Kenya, fortunately or unfortunately has in its independence not had to face a massive external threat from an external aggressor which would galvanise its more than 40 tribes into a feeling of being Kenyan against foreign attackers. The Somalia and Ethiopian border squabbles never even reached such a point because the Kenya is home to sub-tribes of both nations. And even the most recent Migingo Island squabbles, were over a piece of land that hosts more Kenyans than Ugandans.

This lack of social cohesion breeds numerous self-identities and cultures which clash, and not without blood being poured. What is left is a fragmented population, where for instance the hint that Luis Moreno-Ocampo intends to prosecute crimes against humanity, send politicians into a tizz, whipping up ethnic hatred at the drop of a hat.

The second weapon politicians use is to invoke the concept of sovereignty forgetting that sovereignty requires a sense of nationhood; something that they themselves have to ensure is muted, so as to contain groupings calling for accountability.

Collier even names the weakened status of the military in bottom billion countries as a tool used by the political elite to retain power. It is this same military that presides over hurried swearing in ceremonies of tin-pot dictators when they steal elections overnight. And it is this same military that terrorises the masses to accept these “democratic election results”. But, it is this same military that must remain toothless in order for unpopular leaders to survive.

During the Migingo saga, many Kenyans commented that a small military battalion should invade the one acre island to shut Museveni up. But Kenyans were told that diplomacy was the way to go, even after President Museveni himself insulted Kenyans and more specifically members of the Luo tribe, from whom the Prime Minister Raila Odinga originates.

This was not the first time Uganda’s army had tried to stray onto Kenya’s territory. In the Moi era, and indeed during Jomo Kenyatta’s reign, Uganda insurgencies were swiftly turned back, and it was common to find the borders being closed as a matter of national security. However, probably as a good neighbour Kenya has turned to diplomacy as its weapon of mass destruction. This in turn has also led to the proliferation of small arms which have intensified a heightened scare amongst citizens for their personal safety.

The impact on business

Providing a safe environment where firms can conduct their business is a key function of any government. Yet, around the world, as many as 15% of firms report losses due to crime. In spite of this, a much higher share of firms (almost 60%) protect themselves from theft by using private security services, which adds to the cost of doing business. Interestingly, 16% of African firms report losses due to crime, at par with Eastern Europe and Central Asia. However, over half of the African businesses employ private security firms. Consequently, African firms spend an unrivalled amount of money on security, equal to over half a percentage point of sales, which is considerably higher than East Asia or South Asia.

The Africa Competitiveness Report 2009 (ACR) shows that most of the competitive disadvantage of African firms is due to invisible costs—that is, losses experienced by factors that include corruption (non-accountability) and lack of security.

The business costs of crime and violence and the sense that the police are unable to provide protection from crime are particular concerns for African entrepreneurs. The ACR disaggregates security into costs of terrorism, crime and violence, organized crime and the perceived reliability of police services. Amongst the survey’s findings Morocco’s weakening security environment was found to contribute to the country’s declining competitive position. The security situation in Kenya is also extremely worrisome, particularly in crime and violence, the potential of terrorism, and the prevalence of organized crime.

Unfortunately for small enterprise, there is no significant difference in the cost of security services borne by small firms compared to medium and large ones (in terms of share of sales), nor is there a difference between foreign and domestic firms. Africa’s export potential is further impaired as local exporters tend to spend more (almost 10% more) than non exporters.

Within Africa, individual country’s competitiveness is also adversely affected by the lack of security. For instance, Egypt one of Kenya’s major competitors has relatively high levels of security and a resulting low cost of crime and violence for business. In terms of interest from foreign investors to set up businesses in Africa, security makes many shy away from putting their cash in jeopardy in unsecure environments. Mauritius has been able to exploit insecurity on the continent, benefiting from significant inflows of FDI over the past years in part due to the fact that the level of security in the country is good, particularly by regional standards.

Within East Africa, Kenyan 75% of firms have to pay for private security services. This is 5% higher than the regional average. Kenya also pays the highest cost for these services. In turn government accountability data in East Africa indicates that government wastage of resources is highest in Kenya and the country also has the highest perception amongst its business community that the police are unreliable.

Security and accountability are two public goods that make economic development and growth possible. History has provided more than adequate testimony that civil conflicts in poor countries last longer than international wars. With such a looming dagger hanging over these countries, unless security and accountability to address wrongs are provided (not at cost!), the interest of entrepreneurs to venture into business will be lost. Somalia is a prime example of this where revenues generated from enterprise (whether legal or through illegal means such as piracy) are stashed away in foreign countries, further plundering the country into a failed status.

Finally as Collier states accountability is indeed a two way street between government and citizens. Thus standing up to demand security and accountability is required of us all in the democratic spirit of no taxation without representation!