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Floribert CHEBEYA
The
human rights activist,
Floribert Chebeya, was a personality in Congolese civil society, often
consulted by the United Nations regarding human rights questions in
Central
Africa. He fought in the most sensitive fields from the end of the
eighties on.
Floribert Chebeya was internationally recognised for his integrity and
his
obstinate defence of dossiers on assassinations, repression and
corruption. In
May 2010, two weeks before his assassination, Floribert Chebeya
denounced the
cost of the celebrations for the fiftieth anniversary of the
Independence of
the Congo in the face of the fact that the bulk of the Congolese
population
lived in poverty. He announced his filing of a complaint against John
Numbi
before the International Criminal Court for the massacre of a Bas Congo
tribe.
For years, he had been the target of threats, intimidation and arrests
by the
Congolese authorities.
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General John NUMBI
General
John Numbi BanzaTambo, 48, chief of the Congolese police, officially
suspended
after the death of Floribert Chebeya for the purposes of the
investigation, is
a close collaborator of President Joseph Kabila. Numbi is the man who
deals
with delicate missions. It is he, with his famous Simba Batallion, who
flew to
the aid of Kabila during his confrontation with the militiamen of
Jean-Pierre
Bemba, in Kinshasa, in March 2007, following his defeat during the
presidential
elections. It was also he who was given the task of negotiating with
Laurent
Nkunda, the former rebel leader, and with coordinating Operation Umoja
wetu,
jointly led in North Kivu by the Congolese and Rwandan armies in 2009
against
the rebel forces. Finally, he also quashed the demonstrations of the
dissident
BundudiaKongo movement, in Bas Congo, which resulted in dozens of
deaths.
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Annie CHEBEYA, Floribert’s wife
Annie
Chebeya accompanied Floribert through thick and thin in his life as a
human
rights activist. Today, she has taken refuge in Montreal, Canada, with
her five
children. But Annie has not, for all that, given up
Floribert’s cause and has
followed the trial closely from Montreal, regularly intervening over
the
Internet to denounce the drifts in procedure and above all to the
absence on
the accused bench of the person whom she considers to be the main
suspect and
probable guilty party, General Numbi.
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Marie-José BAZANA, wife of the
missing chauffeur
Marie-José
Bazana is the wife of Fidel Bazana. The youngest of her eight children
is just
5 years old. She lived near to the family of Floribert to whom her
husband,
Floribert’s chauffeur, was related. Fear, and above all, a
sense of abandonment
havegnawed at her. Despite constant efforts, she has not been able to
retrieve
the body of her husband. At the end of the trial she obtained a visa
for
herself and her family and has taken refuge in France.
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Colonel Daniel MUKALAYWA MATESO
Head
of Special Services and John Numbi’s right-hand man, it is
this
man who contacted Floribert Chebeya to confirm the time of his
appointment with
General Numbi. He is considered to be the coordinator of
Chebeya’s
assassination. He and his team are suspected of interfering with the
inquiry,
seizing evidence, and hindering investigations. He is accused of
conspiracy,
kidnapping, assassination and terrorism. Despite his repeated denials,
the
Military Court of Kinshasa handed hima death sentence. But is he the
main man
behind the crime? The families of the victims and the NGOs have their
doubts.
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The Cameroonian witness Gomer MARTEL
Veritable
cornerstone of the trial, Gomer Martel, a Cameroonian who lived in DRC
for
twenty years, is the sole witness to the presence of Floribert Chebeya
in the
police premises on the day of his assassination. After having given
testimony, he
became the victim of pressure and threats and went into hiding before
fleeing
abroad, leaving all his possessions behind him in DRC.
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