Freedom in the World 2001 - Congo, Republic of (Brazzaville)

2001 Scores

Status: Partly Free
Freedom Rating: 5.0
Civil Liberties: 4
Political Rights: 6

Ratings Change

Congo-Brazzaville's civil liberties rating changed from 5 to 4, and its status from Not Free to Partly Free, as a result of further consolidation of peace and an easing of repression since peace agreements were signed at the end of 1999.

Overview

Military ruler Denis Sassou-Nguesso called for an "all-embracing dialogue" on the country's future and said election dates would be announced in March 2001. Gabonese President Omar Bongo, who is acting as mediator, said such a dialogue could include the country's main exiled political leaders: former President Pascal Lissouba and Prime Minister Bernard Kolelas. Kolelas said he was encouraged by the proposal, but the lack of a venue for such a dialogue, and the government's ambivalent commitment to it, remain stumbling blocks.

A decade after its independence from France, a 1970 coup established a Marxist state in Congo. In 1979, General Sassou-Nguesso seized power and maintained one-party rule as head of the Congolese Workers' Party. Domestic and international pressure forced his acceptance of a national conference leading to open, multiparty elections in 1992. Lissouba, of the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy, won a clear victory over Kolelas, of the Congolese Party for Genuine Democracy and Development, in a second-round presidential runoff that excluded Sassou-Nguesso, who had run third in the first round.

Disputes over 1993 legislative polls led to armed conflict. The fighting subsided but flared once again among ethnic-based militias in 1997. Sassou-Nguesso had built a private army in his native northern Congo and forcibly retook the presidency in October that year. Peace agreements signed in late 1999 between Sassou-Nguesso and a number of senior rebel leaders were seen by many observers as a stopgap approach to ending the war because the accords did not include Lissouba and Kolelas. The peace led to a halt in the fighting and included an amnesty for combatants who voluntarily disarmed. Sassou-Nguesso has had military support from Angola and political backing from France. Civil wars in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo and nearby Angola made large numbers of weapons and fighters available to fuel the conflict.

Mistrust lingers and a number of fighters remain armed. Security, however, has improved markedly throughout the country. About 600,000 of 810,000 internally displaced persons have returned to their homes. There were fewer reports of human rights abuses in 2000 than in previous years, although arbitrary arrests continued. Steps were made toward further liberalizing the press.

The country's economically important train linking Brazzaville with the southern oil city of Point-Noire became operational again in August 2000. The International Monetary Fund in November approved a credit worth U.S. $14 million for post-conflict reconstruction. Economic growth has been forecast.

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

Congolese have not had the right to change their leaders through elections since civil war broke out in 1997. They elected their president and national assembly deputies to five-year terms of office through competitive multiparty elections for the first time in 1992 and 1993, respectively. Lissouba's 1992 victory at the polls was widely considered to be free and fair. Presidential polls set for July 1997 were preempted by the war that returned Sassou-Nguesso to power. Sassou-Nguesso, who received only 17 percent of the vote in the 1992 presidential elections, has promised to conduct open, multiparty elections in 2001. But sharp ethnic divisions among the country's nearly three million people can be expected to produce electoral results similar to those in 1992, when voting along ethnic lines gave Sassou-Nguesso little support outside his minority ethnic base in the north.

Legislative elections in 1992 produced no clear majority. After an anti-Lissouba coalition formed, the president dissolved the assembly and called for fresh polls. Legislative polls in 1993 produced a presidential majority, but were marred by numerous irregularities. Several parties boycotted the second round.

Sassou-Nguesso appointed a 75-member transitional assembly, the National Transition Council, in 1997, but it does not have a broad political base and exercises no real power. Sassou-Nguesso replaced the 1992 constitution with the Fundamental Act, which established a highly centralized presidential system of government. A new constitution has been drafted and is expected to be put to referendum in 2001. Most of the country's dozens of political parties are formed along ethnic lines.

The government generally respects press freedom, but continues to monopolize the broadcast media. However, broadcasts from neighboring countries are widely heard. The government, in 2000, approved a freedom-of-information bill, which confirmed the abolition of censorship and sharply reduced penalties for defamation. A 1996 law that imposed registration requirements and severe penalties for slander and defamation, however, remains in effect. About 10 private newspapers appear weekly in Brazzaville, and these sometimes print articles or letters that are unflattering to the government.

Freedom of assembly and association is constitutionally guaranteed, and this right is generally respected in practice. Fear of abuses by security forces prevents public demonstrations. Members of security forces or other armed groups manning checkpoints or roadblocks commonly extort bribes from travelers, and rights abuses such as beatings and rapes are reported.

There have been numerous and persistent reports of atrocities against civilians committed by both sides in the conflict. Victims described persecution by soldiers and militia members who have not disarmed. Violations include arbitrary detentions, beatings, and rapes. A United Nations report in November 1999 said tens of thousands of women had been raped during the war and a whole generation of youth had resorted to a life of plunder and extortion. Most of the president's soldiers are from northern ethnic groups, which exacerbates tensions between northerners and southerners.

Scarce resources and understaffing create a backlog of court cases and long periods of pretrial detention. The judiciary is subject to corruption and political influence. The three-tier formal court system of local courts, courts of appeals, and the supreme court was generally considered to be politically independent until the civil war. In rural areas, traditional courts retain broad jurisdiction, especially in civil matters. In September 1999 authorities set up two military tribunals to try soldiers accused of committing atrocities.

Prison conditions are life threatening, with reports of beatings, overcrowding, and other ill-treatment. Local human rights groups, however, as well as the ICRC, have been allowed access. Nongovermental organizations (NGOs) generally operate freely. Religious freedom is respected in law and practice.

Religious freedom is respected. Pygmy groups suffer discrimination, and many are effectively held in lifetime servitude through customary ties to Bantu "patrons."

Workers' rights to join trade unions and to strike are legally protected. Collective bargaining is practiced freely. Unions are legally required to accept nonbinding arbitration before striking, but many strikes have proceeded without adherence to this process. Most workers in the formal (wage) sector are union members, and unions have made efforts to organize informal sectors such as those of agriculture and retail trade.

There is extensive legal and societal discrimination against women despite constitutional protections. Access to education and employment opportunities, especially in the countryside, are limited, and civil codes regarding family and marriage formalize women's inferior status. Polygyny is legal, while polyandry is not. Violence against women reportedly is widespread. NGOs have drawn attention to the issue and provided counseling and assistance to victims.