Denis Sassou-Nguesso

Denis Sassou-Nguesso

Denis Sassou-Nguesso [ dəˈni sasungɛˈso ] (born November 23, 1943 in Edou in the Oyo district in the Congo) is an officer and was President of the People's Republic of Congo from 1979 to 1992 . He has been President of the Republic of the Congo again since 1997 .

Early years

Sassou-Nguesso belongs to the Mbochi ethnic group . He joined the army in 1960, shortly before the country's independence . He subsequently received military training in Algeria and in Saint-Maixent-l'École , France , before being assigned to an elite unit.

Political career

Sassou-Nguesso supported the opposition to President Fulbert Youlou and took part in a military coup in 1968 that brought Marien Ngouabi to power. Sassou-Nguesso was a founding member of the Parti Congolais du Travail (PCT) in December 1969 .

In 1970 Sassou-Nguesso became Director of Security and Minister in the new Presidential Council. When Ngouabi was assassinated, Sassou-Nguesso played a key role in maintaining power and briefly headed the Comité Militaire du Parti (CMP) party's military committee , which controlled the state until his successor Colonel Joachim Yhombi-Opango took over. Sassou-Nguesso was awarded the appointment of colonel and vice-president of the CMP. He remained Vice President until February 5, 1979, when Yhomby-Opango was forced to resign on corruption charges .

president

On February 8, 1979, the CMP elected Sassou-Nguesso as new President, and the PCT's Third Extraordinary Congress confirmed his position.

Sassou-Nguesso surprised many observers, who saw him as just a military man, with his attitude towards Marxism and his pragmatic politics. He negotiated loans with the IMF and allowed foreign investors from France and the US to extract oil and other mineral resources . He also traveled to Moscow in 1981 to sign a 20-year friendship treaty with Leonid Brezhnev .

He was elected President of the PCT Congress in 1984 for an additional 5 years. He was President of the Organization for African Unity from 1986 to 1987 . At the end of 1987, with French help, he managed a military revolt in the north of the country.

Sassou-Nguesso in the United States, 1986

Sassou-Nguesso began a process of democratization under pressure from France and the collapse of the Eastern bloc . In December 1989 he announced the end of economic controls by the state and a partial amnesty for political prisoners. In the following year he tried to improve the worsening economic situation and curb corruption. Political parties other than the PCT have been allowed since August 1990, and Sassou-Nguesso visited the US and laid the groundwork for further IMF loans. From June 8, 1991 until the 1992 elections, real power lay with the new Prime Minister André Milongo as head of a transitional government.

In the 1992 elections, the PCT won only 19 of the 125 seats in the National Assembly , the Union panafricaine pour la démocratie sociale (UPADS) was the party with the most votes. Another powerful force was the Mouvement Congolais pour la démocratie et le développement intégral (MCDDI) . The presidential elections in August were a duel between Pascal Lissouba (UPADS) and Bernard Kolelas (MCDDI) . Lissouba won this in the second ballot with 61%. Sassou-Nguesso was eliminated in the first with only 17% of the vote.

exile

Lissouba's inauguration was overshadowed by allegations of election rigging and he tried to maintain his power through repression. From November 1993 to the end of the year, at least 1,500 people died in fighting between sympathizers Kolelas and Lissouba. In 1994 Sassou-Nguesso left Congo for Paris . It was not until three years later, in 1997, that the former head of state came back to run for the presidential election in July of that year.

On June 5, 1997, the army surrounded the Sassou-Nguessos estate in Brazzaville on behalf of the incumbent President Lissouba . Sassou-Nguesso's militias resisted the army and a major conflict began. Sassou-Nguesso received support from Angola and took control of Brazzaville from October 11-14 through his troops. Lissouba fled and Sassou-Nguesso was declared president on October 25.

Further terms of office

Sassou-Nguesso attempted to bring the country back to democracy and began a three-year transformation process in 1998, but resurgence of fighting with opposition groups put an end to those efforts. After peace negotiations in 1999, elections were scheduled for 2002, although not all rebel organizations signed the agreement. On March 10th, Sassou-Nguesso won with over 90% of the vote. His two greatest political opponents, Lissouba and Kolelas, were not allowed to vote, and the only remaining serious rival, André Milongo, called on his supporters to boycott the election and was eliminated from the election. A new constitution was passed in January 2002 that gave the President new powers, extended his term of office to seven years and included a bicameral parliament.

From January 24, 2006 to January 2007, Sassou-Nguesso was President of the African Union .

In the presidential elections on July 12, 2009, Sassou-Nguesso was confirmed in office with 78.6% of the votes. He was already considered a sure election winner in advance. Leading opposition officials called for a boycott of the ballot and accused the ruler of manipulating the election. Observers from the European Union also reported irregularities in the electoral roll, while the African Union spoke of a free and fair presidential election.

On October 25, 2015, Sassou-Nguesso held a constitutional referendum to abolish the constitutional limitation of the presidency to two terms. The constitutional referendum was passed so that Sassou-Nguesso could run for the 2016 presidential election. He was confirmed in office in the first ballot with 60% of the votes. The opposing candidates spoke of massive election manipulation, but accepted the result anyway.

Procedure

In December 2001, the non-governmental organization FIDH in France filed a criminal complaint against Denis Sassou-Nguesso for torture, enforced disappearance and crimes against humanity in Brazzaville in May 1999 on the basis of universal law . In November 2004 the case was generally annulled. Following an objection by the FIDH, the decision on the lack of jurisdiction was overturned by the French highest court of cassation in January 2007. Further investigations are ongoing.

Orders and decorations

On March 21, 2010, Sassou-Nguesso was awarded the highest order of the Republic of Namibia as part of the 20th anniversary of Namibia's independence day. He personally accepted the Welwitschia Mirabilis Order 1st Class.

Web links

Commons : Denis Sassou-Nguesso  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ Election of new chairperson; ... at the 8th summit of the African Union. (PDF; 927 kB) (No longer available online.) AUC, February 16, 2007, archived from the original on January 7, 2009 ; accessed on January 14, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ ^{a b} Tagesschau : In the Republic of the Congo everything stays the same ( memento from July 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) from July 15, 2009.
3. ↑ Die Zeit : Controversial elections in a small African state on July 12, 2009.
4. ↑ Der Standard : Presidential election: Opposition calls for a boycott of July 12, 2009.
5. ↑ Euronews: Constitution changed, Brazzaville's long-term president account may run for re-election
6. ↑ Liberation: Congo: le président Sassou réélu au premier tour, l'opposition conteste (French)
7. ↑ l'express: Congo: réélection contestée du président Sassou Nguesso (French)
8. ↑ Denis Sassou Nguesso. (No longer available online.) TRIAL, March 25, 2008, archived from the original on December 24, 2008 ; Retrieved January 14, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ^ Great reunion at the state banquet in Windhoek, Allgemeine Zeitung, March 24, 2010