Julienne Mpemba: "There has never been child theft"

Main accused in the case of alleged fraud in the adoption of Congolese children, the Belgian-Congolese lawyer, Julienne Mpemba, breaks the silence and delivers, for the first time, her version of the facts to the media. And this, a week after his dismissal in correctional by the Chamber of advice of Dinant. For Ms. Pemba, this is a fabricated case, because there has never been any child theft and the investigation has never proven otherwise. ACTUALITE.CD publishes below, the entire interview with the Director of the TUMAINI Orphanage.

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You are the main accused in a case of alleged theft of children in the DRC to have them adopted in Belgium and you have just been referred to the criminal court, therefore to a criminal court. Would you like to summarize the substance of this matter for us?

Julienne Mpemba : First, I deny all the accusations against me and I reject them en bloc. There has never been any theft of children. Indeed, I have just been sent back to correctional in this case where there were ten accused. Regarding the rules of procedure, my lawyers and I had seen fit not to fight at the level of the Council Chamber. I was impatiently awaiting a referral to correctional, because I want to go and explain myself to the trial judge. I was therefore not surprised by this referral to correctional, given that I never asked for a dismissal in this case. My strategy was not to fight in the Council Chamber in order not to reveal my defense strategy.

You dismiss the charges, but what are the reasons you are being sued?

If I have to lay out all the reasons, we could spend 48 hours discussing. I am currently in the process of writing a book on this affair, in particular on the genesis of this assembly and the way in which all my rights were despised. There has never been any child theft and the investigation has never proven that there has been child theft.

But what really happened?

At the end of 2011, I returned home to Kinshasa and decided to set up an orphanage, called Tumaini. I had the idea because, since 2006, I worked in school sponsorship in the DRC via the TUMAINI association that I created in Belgium and I have always worked in Belgium where I studied law. as a lawyer, in particular for the city of Namur, in a ministerial office, in a government advisory service, etc. When I left for Congo, and saw the number of abandoned children, I decided to create the orphanage on my own funds. It cost me about 45 thousand US dollars. It was the best orphanage in Kinshasa and those who accuse me know it because they have photos and videos. I have some too. At the opening, the orphanage was located in the district called "GB", near downtown. Currently the children of the orphanage are accommodated in the municipality of Masina. A delegation from the Wallonia-Brussels federation arrived in Kinshasa at the beginning of 2012. We agreed to work and collaborate on adoption. Quickly, there was resistance from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My collaborators from the French community then explained to me that this is a natural resistance of Belgium towards the DRC. We were pressured by the Belgian Foreign Ministry, but we went ahead and started to collaborate. Everything always went well and the children were treated very well in the orphanage.

And how did we come to talk about child theft?

In 2013, the Congolese state adopted a moratorium prohibiting the departure of any adopted Congolese child from the country, on the grounds that same-sex couples in North America would adopt Congolese children. This moratorium surprised us all too. During our agreements with parents and the Wallonia-Brussels community, it was agreed that the children would spend 6 months in the orphanage and therefore that the orphanage would receive support corresponding to these 6 months. But, in this case, the children stayed in the orphanage for over two years because of the moratorium. I had 35 children at the orphanage, 12 of whom had already been adopted by Belgian couples. . I proposed that, with my own means, I take care of the 23 children who had no one and that the parents of the 12 adoptees could take care of their children. 8 couples out of 12 categorically refused to take care of their own child, we were stunned with my team in front of such bad faith on the part of those who call themselves parents. . These couples who refused to take care of their children thought they had the right to start holding me to account for the health of the children. I felt they were irresponsible. I used my salary to feed their children, while we all lived in Belgium. I was losing sleep because I had to feed their children and they had the right to demand that I be of service to them? I felt no. I take care of the children because I love them and these parents leave me alone. There were tensions and I wrote to various Belgian authorities, but no one answered me. I informed them that the orphanage was in debt and that these 8 couples had to take care of their children . But, I was faced with an outright refusal for months. In the end, these couples said they would pay when they were 100% sure that their children could leave Congolese territory. And in the meantime? Were the children going to live on fresh water?

And what happened next?

Subsequently, the Congolese state allowed the children to leave the territory, it was at the end of 2015 and the Wallonia-Brussels community decided to pay, but an amount that it arbitrarily fixed itself and not the bill. presented by the orphanage, based on actual costs. With speeches like "we know the Congo" , "we are used to the Congo". Phrases that I couldn't stand. To hear these people installed in ministerial cabinets in Brussels convinced that they know my country more than even its president. I must tell you that officials have always been correct; it was the policies that were in very bad faith. In the meantime, we have also had conflicts with the Belgian embassy in the DRC. The then ambassador Michel Lastschenko was very disrespectful, in particular towards the Congolese authorities. When they spoke of them, it was always insults. Finally, the Belgian Foreign Affairs decided to take care of the children at the orphanage up to 25 dollars per child and per month. So 300 Usd for 12 children per month, to feed them, pay for school, nannies, medical care, etc. So, for Belgian Foreign Affairs, a Congolese child in Kinshasa costs less than a dollar a day, even if he is already of Belgian nationality. Contempt.

The conflict was permanent with the ambassador. I don't have the character to be silent when I am insulted, I reply. And one day, there was a violent altercation in the ambassador's office, it was following the procrastination and especially his racist comments. The windows of his office shattered and the altercation continued in the halls of the Embassy.

The Diplomat did not hesitate to threaten me by saying "I will have you". And I answered him, you are not my God. The ambassador had a meeting with three Congolese authorities, including the former Minister of Justice, Thambwe Mwamba, and the former head of the ANR. They decided to arrest me. The next day, I saw Congolese police officers coming to search my home. What shocked me the most was seeing three Belgian agents in my living room searching. Besides, Mr. Nema Lemba (Papa Molière), well known in Kinshasa, was in my living room and filmed the scene. I asked them (the Belgians) to leave my home because they had no authority to conduct a search in a dwelling in the DRC. I was deprived of my liberty for 48 hours. The day after my release, I returned to Belgium, exhausted. I was fired from my job at the Public Service of Wallonia, it was a clear dismissal with compensation. I understood that they had received an order. I thought it was going to end there, but they put together a whole case of child theft, which is totally implausible. It was Mr Reynders, former Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, who denounced me to the former Belgian Minister of Justice. The latter then ordered the Belgian federal prosecutor's office to prosecute me, using its positive injunction right.

Why is this implausible?

Because I only adopted children who were completely abandoned and who were brought in by social workers. In my orphanage, social workers in Kinshasa did not appreciate when I told them that I no longer had a free bed because I had reached the maximum of 30 children. I could have up to 36 but exceptionally. So they do not understand that the person who refused to take the abandoned children could go out at night and pay a thug to go and steal the children from their mothers. Then take a picture of them, put them on Facebook, and have them adopted in Belgium. Unbelievable.

And how did the procedure continue in Belgium?

I was arrested in Belgium for the first time in 2016, supposedly for taking child hostages. But, my lawyers immediately defeated this accusation. How do you expect me to be able to take children in my care hostage? The Congolese state has given me custody and it is I who take charge of them. I was arrested a second time in November 2017, so they had a year to file a case that I allegedly stole children. Two letters rogatory were sent to the Congo. The case was dismissed by the Congolese justice for the first time. The Belgian prosecution shouted at the corruption of the Congolese magistrates. A second rogatory commission was sent to Congo and the then Minister of Justice Thambwe Mwamba put pressure on the magistrates who reopened the case. Despite his pressure to help the Belgians, the magistrates found nothing against me. I was placed in “provisional” detention in Belgium for two and a half years. Concerning me, I have a clean criminal record; I have the same diploma as these magistrates who kept me in detention and we come out of the same universities, I have always worked at the height of my diploma, I am a single woman with children including a little one who was only 5 years old. years at the time. Belgian justice at Liège level (Court of Appeal) has never taken all these elements into account. They even refused me an electronic bracelet that I asked for if only to raise my children who were alone. My young daughter who was 19 at the time and my son who was 5. I was not allowed to return home to raise my two children, even with an electronic bracelet. I was left in prison for two and a half years, on remand in violation of the rules on preventive detention. I sometimes saw people accused of murder being released because they were mothers of small children or perpetrators of other crimes being released. And me, I have been released more than ten times by the Council Chamber and more than ten times the prosecution has appealed to Liege and more than ten times the Liege Court of Appeal has reformed the order of the Chamber. advice so that I remain in preventive detention. Even when the Council Chamber wrote that my detention was against human rights, Liège kept me in detention. I believe my accusers' goal has always been to break me down, but they won't. At each hearing, the prosecution made statements like "she is going to flee to the Congo", they never took into account the fact that I am Belgian, that my mother, my sisters, all my family is Belgian and lives in Belgium. My children are Belgian and especially flee? With the horrible things that the Belgian press writes without even trying to hear my version of the facts? Running away to do what with my diploma? of my life ? of my ambitions? Run away from what? A badly assembled file? It is not possible. I believe my accusers' goal has always been to break me down, but they won't. At each hearing, the prosecution made statements like "she is going to flee to the Congo", they never took into account the fact that I am Belgian, that my mother, my sisters, all my family is Belgian and lives in Belgium. My children are Belgian and especially flee? With the horrible things that the Belgian press writes without even trying to hear my version of the facts? Running away to do what with my diploma? of my life ? of my ambitions? Run away from what? A badly assembled file? It is not possible. I believe my accusers' goal has always been to break me down, but they won't. At each hearing, the prosecution made statements like "she is going to flee to the Congo", they never took into account the fact that I am Belgian, that my mother, my sisters, all my family is Belgian and lives in Belgium. My children are Belgian and especially flee? With the horrible things that the Belgian press writes without even trying to hear my version of the facts? Running away to do what with my diploma? of my life ? of my ambitions? Run away from what? A badly assembled file? It is not possible. my whole family is Belgian and lives in Belgium. My children are Belgian and especially flee? With the horrible things that the Belgian press writes without even trying to hear my version of the facts? Running away to do what with my diploma? of my life ? of my ambitions? Run away from what? A badly assembled file? It is not possible. my whole family is Belgian and lives in Belgium. My children are Belgian and especially flee? With the horrible things that the Belgian press writes without even trying to hear my version of the facts? Running away to do what with my diploma? of my life ? of my ambitions? Run away from what? A badly assembled file? It is not possible.

Today, faced with all that you have lived and experience, when it started with a good intention to have Congolese children adopted in Belgium, do you regret having opened the orphanage and having has Congolese children adopted?

I will never regret it. I am very proud to have done so. There are parents who have DVDs of adopted children when they are found by social workers and that is not a pretty sight. Every child that I put up for adoption in Belgium is a child that I saved from an uncertain future and worse from certain death. I will never regret that and especially that I also met beautiful people that are some parents. My best friend is a mother who has an adopted child from my home.

How many children have you adopted?

From memory, there are more or less thirty in Belgium and there are two in the United States.

Are you still in contact with some and their parents?

I am in contact with some. There are parents who are truly magnificent. But there are also the eight others with whom we had a conflict who present themselves as civil parties in this case. I am only waiting for one thing and I am impatiently waiting for it: that in court, they come to tell me that they had taken care of their children at the orphanage. Other parents are also afraid because they have been questioned by investigators. I understand that they are panicked. In this case, I have suffered things that are beyond me. But let these people be reassured, there have never been any stolen children. When the time comes, I will explain myself to justice if God decides.

The orphanage still exists until today?

There are still and currently there are 19 children who are doing very well. They go to school and are very happy. You can visit their Facebook Page. There are children who were there in 2013 and who are still there until today without anyone claiming them, they are the same sex and the same age as those I am accused of having stolen; So I leave an abandoned child and take a stolen child to put it up for adoption.

On a personal level, how has this matter affected you?

When God continues to allow you to breathe, you must always know how to stand and give thanks. I was fired from my job. I am being sued, and defending myself in criminal matters is very expensive. There is financial ruin of course. But worse, my son was completely disoriented. It took two years to get it back, because it was completely lost. My daughter, who is currently 22 years old, and who is in her final year of law at the Catholic University of Louvain, had never failed in all her life and spent a blank year. My mom developed a lot of illnesses that she didn't have before. I lost everything I had in Kinshasa and here in Belgium. Nevertheless, I give thanks to God and I remain strong. One thing is certain, they are not going to break me and I will never give them the opportunity to break me. I will fight to the end. I am serene because I know that we cannot invent what has never existed. I am rebuilding myself with the few people who remain around me.

This story also allowed me to realize that several people who were believed to be friends, were only there because there was a return. I thank God because the cleaning has been done naturally around me and this on the basis of the lies reported by a biased, subjective and unprofessional press and which has never tried to listen to the other story. I have learned a lot about the human person. I bless God for my family.

Interview by Patrick Ndungidi

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