Justin Koumba

Justin Koumba (born 5 April 1947[1]) is a Congolese politician who has been President of the National Assembly of Congo-Brazzaville since 2007.[2] A former United Nations official, he served in the government of Congo-Brazzaville as Minister of National Education in 1992; subsequently, he was President of the National Transitional Council from 1998 to 2002 and President of the National Human Rights Commission from 2003 to 2007.

Political career

Koumba was born at Gango in Kibangou District, located in Niari Department.[1] He worked as an official at the United Nations beginning in 1976.[1][3] During the 1991–1992 transition to multiparty elections, Koumba was appointed to the transitional government headed by Prime Minister Andre Milongo as Minister of National Education on 26 January 1992.[4][5] He was retained as Minister of National Education in a cabinet reshuffle on 21 May 1992, and was additionally given responsibility for science, technology, youth, sports, culture, and the arts.[6][7] The transitional period ended later in 1992; Koumba then returned to the UN and became UNESCO's representative for Central Africa and the Great Lakes countries.[1][3][8]

Following President Denis Sassou Nguesso's return to power in the June–October 1997 civil war, a National Reconciliation Forum was held in January 1998;[9] at the conclusion of the forum, Koumba was elected as President of the National Transitional Council (CNT), a 75-member body that was to act as the provisional parliament, on 14 January 1998.[10] Although Koumba was a southerner,[11] the CNT was mostly composed of northerners, in line with the political dominance of northerners under Sassou Nguesso. The body, in place from 1998 to 2002, was critically characterized as an "embarrassingly compliant rubber stamp".[12]

Speaking on Radio France Internationale in May 2000, Koumba alleged that former Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas, a political enemy of Sassou Nguesso who was living in exile, was a murderer. He also claimed that Kolelas had prisons built at his home and asserted that he had proof of these crimes. Kolelas denied Koumba's accusations.[13]

Koumba was the President of the Alliance for Congo (l'Alliance pour le Congo, APC), which was established in 2001 and supported Sassou Nguesso.[14] Prior to this, he was never a member of any political party.[8] After the CNT, headed by Koumba, had been in place for more than four years, a parliamentary election was held in May–June 2002 in order to replace it with an elected National Assembly. Koumba stood in the election as the APC candidate for Banda constituency in Niari, and he won the seat in the first round with 58.70% of the vote.[15] He did not attend the first meeting of the National Assembly, at which Jean-Pierre Thystère Tchicaya was elected as President of the National Assembly, on 10 August 2002.[16]

A year later, on 13 August 2003, he was one of 45 members of the National Human Rights Commission appointed by Sassou Nguesso, and on 2 September 2003, he was elected by the Commission as its President.[17]

On 26 May 2007, the APC announced its merger with Sassou Nguesso's Congolese Labour Party (PCT).[14] After resigning from his post as President of the National Human Rights Commission,[18] Koumba stood in the June–August 2007 parliamentary election as the PCT candidate[2][3][19] in Banda constituency and was re-elected to the National Assembly.[1][3][19][20] After receiving 36.70% of the vote in the first round, Koumba faced Action Movement for Renewal candidate Jean-Claude Moussavou in the second round;[21] he defeated Moussavou and won the seat.[20] At the opening session of the National Assembly's new parliamentary term on 4 September 2007, Koumba was elected as the President of the National Assembly.[1][2][19] He was the only candidate[2] and received 121 votes from the 129 deputies participating in the vote.[2][19] Koumba's election was in accordance with a custom that the post should be held by a southerner, and he was viewed as more reliably loyal to President Sassou Nguesso than the previous head of the legislature, Thystère Tchicaya.[22]

As Congo-Brazzaville marked its 50th year of independence in 2010, Koumba said at the opening of the National Assembly's ninth ordinary session in mid-2010 that "after half a century of political sovereignty, we must now achieve economic sovereignty."[23] In October 2010, Koumba visited Iran and met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying that he hoped for greater cooperation between the two countries.[24] He also visited the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and praised Khomeini for his leadership of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.[25]

Activities since 2012

In the July–August 2012 parliamentary election, Koumba was re-elected to the National Assembly as the PCT candidate in Banda constituency; he won the seat in the first round, receiving 62.71% of the vote.[26] When the National Assembly began meeting for its new parliamentary term, the deputies re-elected Koumba as President of the National Assembly on 5 September 2012. He was the only candidate for the post,[27][28] receiving 135 votes from the 138 deputies who voted.[27]

Alexandre Ferdinand Nguendet, President of the National Transitional Council of the Central African Republic, met with Koumba on 5 June 2013 to receive Koumba's advice on managing the work of a transitional parliament, given that Koumba had headed Congo-Brazzaville's own transitional parliament from 1998 to 2002.[29] On 2 December 2013, Koumba met with Claude Bartolone, the President of the National Assembly of France, in Paris. They discussed parliamentary cooperation as well as the unstable and violent situation in the Central African Republic.[30][31] Central African Prime Minister André Nzapayéké met with Koumba in Brazzaville on 14 February 2014 to discuss the situation in his country and to express gratitude to the Congolese people for the role played by Congo-Brazzaville in the crisis.[32]

During a visit by Sassou Nguesso to Niari in March 2014, Koumba, together with Pierre Mabiala, urged the President to embrace a proposal to change the constitution so that he could stand for another presidential term in 2016.[33][34] Soon afterward, on 6 April 2014, an organization intended to mobilize support for the proposal, the Citizen Front for Changing the Constitution, was established with Koumba as its President. Koumba said that the new organization's goal was to mobilize popular support for the proposal to get the government to act on it. Contrary to the widespread perception that Sassou Nguesso was ultimately behind the initiative, Koumba stressed that they were not acting according to Sassou Nguesso's instructions.[35]

In late April 2014, Koumba called on deputies to reflect on state institutions and suggested that those institutions might no longer be ideally suited to the country's situation. He said that he was "confident that we will, in sincerity and harmony, find solutions compatible with the requirements of the evolution of our society".[36] Koumba opened an African regional meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie that was held in Brazzaville on 26–28 May 2014.[37][38] He said on the occasion that "the role of parliamentarians is crucial to governance in Africa, because we have the power to legislate. The people who elected us based their hopes on our capacity for involvement and adaptation in different situations."[37]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Willy Mbossa and Roger Ngombé, "Qui sont les nouveaux membres du bureau de l'Assemblée nationale ?" at the Wayback Machine (archived July 8, 2011), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 8 September 2007 (French).
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Election du nouveau président de l'Assemblée nationale", Panapress, 5 September 2007 (French).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Willy Mbossa, "Portrait. Qui est Justin Koumba ?" at the Wayback Machine (archived February 9, 2012), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 4 September 2007 (French).
  4. ↑ Gaston-Jonas Kouvibidila, Histoire du multipartisme au Congo-Brazzaville: Les débuts d'une crise attendue, 1992–1993 (2000), L'Harmattan, page 51 (French).
  5. ↑ Gabriel Entcha-Ebia, Congo 50 ans d'indépendance: Pour quel avenir ? (2012), L'Harmattan, pages 107–109 (French).
  6. ↑ Kouvibidila, Histoire du multipartisme au Congo-Brazzaville: Les débuts d'une crise attendue, 1992–1993, page 66 (French).
  7. ↑ Bulletin de l'Afrique noire, issues 1,570–1,614 (1992), page 12 (French).
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Jean-Dominique Geslin, "« Le dialogue est ouvert à tous »", Jeune Afrique, 24 October 2000 (French).
  9. ↑ John F. Clark, The Failure of Democracy in the Republic of Congo (2008), Lynne Rienner Publishers, page 258.
  10. ↑ "Congo-Brazzaville: UNESCO employee elected Congo parliamentary speaker", Panapress, 15 January 1998.
  11. ↑ Africa Research Bulletin: Political, Social, and Cultural Series, volume 35 (1998), page 12,976.
  12. ↑ Clark, The Failure of Democracy in the Republic of Congo, page 260.
  13. ↑ "Congo: Former premier denies "murder" charges, challenges for proof", Radio France Internationale, 27 May 2000.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "L'Alliance pour le Congo fusionne avec le Parti congolais du travail" at the Wayback Machine (archived February 9, 2012), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 26 May 2007 (French).
  15. ↑ "Elections législatives : les 51 élus du premier tour" at the Wayback Machine (archived July 8, 2011), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 5 June 2002 (French).
  16. ↑ "Jean-Pierre Thystère-Tchikaya élu président de l’Assemblée nationale" at the Wayback Machine (archived June 12, 2012), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 10 August 2002 (French).
  17. ↑ "Justin Koumba élu à la tête du bureau national de la commission des droits de l’homme" at the Wayback Machine (archived February 9, 2012), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 3 September 2003 (French).
  18. ↑ "Le sort des poids lourds positionnés dans les circonscriptions électorales de l'hinterland" at the Wayback Machine (archived March 11, 2012), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 20 June 2007 (French).
  19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 "La nouvelle Assemblée nationale entre en fonction" at the Wayback Machine (archived September 30, 2007), Xinhua, 5 September 2007 (French).
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "La liste complète des députés" at the Wayback Machine (archived February 9, 2012), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 11 August 2007 (French).
  21. ↑ Ya Sanza, "Législatives : La liste des duels du second tour", Congopage website, 3 July 2007 (French).
  22. ↑ "Reclassements postélectoraux", Jeune Afrique, 10 September 2007 (French).
  23. ↑ Roger Ngombé, "L'Assemblée nationale plaide pour la souveraineté économique du Congo" at the Wayback Machine (archived June 4, 2012), Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 3 July 2010 (French).
  24. ↑ "Iran Pres. talks of 'historic' opportunity", Press TV, 24 October 2010.
  25. ↑ "Congolese speaker praises Iranian revolution founder's revolutionary endeavours", Islamic Republic News Agency, 25 October 2010.
  26. ↑ "Résultats du premier tour des élections législatives 2012", La Semaine Africaine, 24 July 2012 (French).
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 "Assemblée nationale: Justin Koumba veut des réformes en matière de gouvernance", Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, number 1,570, 6 September 2012, page 1 (French).
  28. ↑ "Koumba re-elected Speaker of Congolese National Assembly", Panapress, 6 September 2012.
  29. ↑ Roger Ngombé, "Diplomatie : Justin Koumba partage son expérience avec Alexandre Ferdinand N'Guendet", Les Dépêches de Brazzaville, 5 June 2013 (French).
  30. ↑ Bélita Gloire Wassemo, "Assemblée nationale: Le président Justin Koumba reçu par son homologue français", Le Patriote, number 261, 16 December 2013, page 4 (French).
  31. ↑ "Assemblée nationale : Justin Koumba a rencontré son homologue français, à Paris", La Semaine Africaine, 17 December 2013 (French).
  32. ↑ "RCA : « Nous voulons un gouvernement d’ouverture », souligne André Nzapayéké", ADIAC, 14 February 2014 (French).
  33. ↑ Guy-Gervais Kitina, "Niari : les sages du département en appellent à la modification de la constitution", ADIAC, 24 March 2014 (French).
  34. ↑ Cyr Armel Yabbat-Ngo, "Rencontre à Dolisie du président de la République avec les sages du Niari : Les cadres de la majorité présidentielle demandent le changement de constitution", La Semaine Africaine, 25 March 2014 (French).
  35. ↑ Josiane Mambou Loukoula, "Constitution : les natifs du Niari crée un front citoyen pour son changement", ADIAC, 7 April 2014 (French).
  36. ↑ Roger Ngombé, "Gouvernance : l’Assemblée nationale invitée à réfléchir sur le devenir des institutions républicaines", ADIAC, 30 April 2014 (French).
  37. ↑ 37.0 37.1 Josiane Mambou Loukoula, "Assemblée parlementaire de la francophonie : Brazzaville abrite l'assemblée régionale Afrique", ADIAC, 26 May 2014 (French).
  38. ↑ Cyr Armel Yabbat-Ngo, "22ème assemblée régionale Afrique de l’A.p.f : Les constitutions post-transitions et la gouvernance démocratique en débat", La Semaine Africaine, 27 May 2014 (French).

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