Interview. Julienne Mpemba: "There has never been a theft of children"
Main defendant in the case of alleged fraud in the adoption of Congolese children, the Belgian-Congolese lawyer, Julienne Mpemba, delivers, for the first time, her version of the facts to a media, a few days after her dismissal in correctional ( criminal court) by the Dinant Council Chamber. For her, it is a completely fabricated affair, because there has never been any theft of children and the investigation has never proven the slightest theft of children.
Le Courrier de Kinshasa: You are the main defendant in a case of alleged theft of children in Congo to have them adopted in Belgium and you have just been referred to the correctional court, therefore before a criminal court. Could you summarize the substance of this case for us?
Julienne Mpemba : First, I deny all the charges against me and I reject them altogether. There have never been any child thefts. Indeed, I have just been returned to correctional in this case where there were ten accused. At the level of 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 corrections, 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 the case to be dismissed. My strategy was not to fight in front of the Council Chamber in order not to reveal my defense strategy.
LCK: You reject the charges, but what are the reasons for which you are being prosecuted?
JM: 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 case, in particular on the genesis of this assembly and the way in which all my rights were disregarded. There was never any child theft and the investigation never proved that there was child theft.
LCK: But what happened?
JM: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 had been working 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 consulting service, etc. When I left for Congo, and saw the number of abandoned children, I decided to create the orphanage with my own funds. It cost me, approximately, 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 in early 2012. We agreed to work and collaborate on adoption. Quickly, there was resistance from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My colleagues from the French community then explained to me that this was a natural resistance from Belgium towards the DRC. We were pressured by the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but we ignored it and started to collaborate. Everything always went well and the children were treated very well in the orphanage.
LCK: And how did we come to talk about child theft?
JM: In 2013, the Congolese State took a moratorium prohibiting the exit of the territory to any adopted Congolese child, on the grounds that homosexual couples in North America would adopt Congolese children. This moratorium surprised us all too. During our agreements with the parents and the Wallonia-Brussels community, it was agreed that the children would spend 6 months at the orphanage and therefore that the orphanage would receive support corresponding to these 6 months. But, in this case, the children stayed at the orphanage for more than 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 resources, 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 charge of their own child, we and my team were flabbergasted by such bad faith from those who call themselves parents. .These couples who refused to take charge of their children thought they had the right to start asking 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 serve them? I considered not. I take care of the children because I love them and those parents leave me alone. There were tensions and I wrote to various Belgian authorities, but nobody answered me. I let them know that the orphanage was in debt and that these 8 couples had to take care of their children .But, I was faced with a categorical refusal for months. Finally, these couples said they would pay when they were 100% sure that their children could leave Congolese territory. And waiting? Would the children live on fresh water?
LCK: And what happened next?
JM: 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 set itself and not the invoice presented by the orphanage, based on the actual costs. With speeches like "we know the Congo" , "we are used to the Congo". sentences that I couldn't stand. To hear these people installed in ministerial offices in Brussels convinced that they know my country more than even its president. I must tell you that the civil servants have always been correct; it was the politicians who acted in very bad faith. In the meantime, we also had conflicts with the Belgian embassy in the DRC. The ambassador at the time Michel Lastschenko was very disrespectful, especially towards the Congolese authorities. When they spoke of them, it was always in insults. Finally, Belgian Foreign Affairs decided to support the children in the orphanage at the rate of 25 dollars per child per month. So 300 Usd for 12 children per month, in particular 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. Nauseating contempt.
The conflict was permanent with the ambassador. I don't have the character to shut up when I'm insulted, I reply. And one day, there was a violent altercation in the office of the ambassador, it was following the procrastination and especially the racist remarks of this one. The windows of his office shattered and the altercation continued in the corridors of the embassy.
The Diplomat didn't hesitate to threaten me saying "I'll get 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, Mr. KALEV. They decided to arrest me. The next day, I saw Congolese police coming to search my home. What shocked me the most was to see three Belgian agents in my living room conducting a search. Besides, Mr. Nema Lemba (Papa Molière), very well known in Kinshasa, was in my living room and filmed the scene. I asked them (the Belgians) to get out of my house because they had no authority to carry out a search in a dwelling in the DRC. I was deprived of 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 no-fault dismissal with severance. I understood that they had received an order. I thought it was going to end there, but they've come up with a whole child theft case, which is totally unbelievable. It was Mr. Reynders, former Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs, who denounced me to the former Belgian Minister for Justice. The latter then ordered the Belgian federal prosecutor's office to prosecute me, using his right of positive injunction.
LCK: Why is that unlikely?
JM: because I only adopted completely abandoned children who were brought in by social workers. Within my orphanage, the social workers of Kinshasa did not appreciate when I told them that I had no more free bed because I had reached the maximum of 30 children. I could have up to 36 but exceptionally. So they don't understand that the person who refused to take the abandoned children could go out at night and pay a thug to steal the children from their mothers. Then take a picture of them, put them on Facebook, and have them adopted in Belgium. Implausible.
LCK: And how did the procedure continue in Belgium?
JM : I was arrested in Belgium, for the first time, in 2016, supposedly for taking children hostage. But, my lawyers immediately challenged this accusation. How do you expect me to take children in my care hostage? The Congolese State entrusted me with the custody and it is I who take charge of them. I was arrested a second time in November 2017 and so they had a year to build cases, according to which I allegedly stole children. Two letters rogatory were sent to the Congo. The case was closed without further action by the Congolese justice system for the first time. The Belgian prosecutor's office cried out at the corruption of the Congolese magistrates. A second letter rogatory was sent to Congo and the then Minister of Justice Thambwe Mwamba put pressure on the magistrates who reopened the file. 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 those magistrates who kept me in detention and we come from the same universities, I have always worked up to my diploma, I am a single woman with children, one of whom was only 5 years at the time I have a clean criminal record; I have the same diploma as those magistrates who kept me in detention and we come from the same universities, I have always worked up to my diploma, I am a single woman with children, one of whom was only 5 years at the time I have a clean criminal record; I have the same diploma as those magistrates who kept me in detention and we come from the same universities, I have always worked up to my diploma, I am a single woman with children, one of whom was only 5 years at the time.The Belgian justice at the level of Liège (Court of Appeal), has never taken into account all these elements. 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 years old. 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 defiance of the rules on preventive detention. I sometimes saw people accused of murder being released because they were mothers of young children or perpetrators of other crimes being released. And me, I was released more than ten times by the Chambre du Conseil and more than ten times the prosecution appealed to Liège and more than ten times the Court of Appeal of Liège reformed the order of the Chambre du conseil for that I remain in preventive detention. Even when the Chambre du Conseil wrote that my detention was contrary to human rights, Liège kept me in detention. I believe that the objective of my accusers has always been to break me, but they will not succeed. The prosecutor's office made comments like “she is going to flee to the Congo” at each hearing, they never took into account the fact that I am Belgian, that my mother, my sisters, my whole family is Belgian and lives in Belgium. My children are Belgian and above all flee? With the horrible things that the Belgian press writes without even trying to hear my version of the facts? Run away to do what with my diploma? of my life ? of my ambitions? Flee what? A badly assembled file? It is not possible.
LCK: Today, faced with everything you have been through and are going through, when it started with a good intention to have Congolese children adopted in Belgium, do you regret having opened the orphanage and have Congolese children adopted?
JM: I will never regret it. I am very proud to have done it. There are parents who have DVDs of adopted children when they were found by social workers and it is not a pretty sight. Every child I put up for adoption in Belgium is a child I saved from an uncertain future and worse from certain death. I will never regret that and especially since I also met beautiful people who are some parents. My best friend is a mother who has a child adopted by me.
LCK: how many children have you adopted?
JM : From memory, there are more or less thirty in Belgium and there are two in the United States.
LCK: Are you still in contact with some and their parents?
JM: 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'm just waiting for one thing and I'm waiting for it impatiently: 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 file, I 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.
LCK: the orphanage still exists until today?
JM: It still exists and there are currently 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 have the same sex and same age as those whom I am accused of having stolen; So I leave an abandoned child and I take a stolen child to put him up for adoption.
LCK: On a personal level, how has this case affected you?
JM:When God continues to allow you to breathe, you always have to know how to stand up and give thanks to him. I was fired from my job. I am being sued, and defending myself in criminal proceedings is very expensive. There is financial ruin of course. But worse, my son was completely disoriented. It took me two years to get it back, because it was completely lost. My daughter, who is 22 now and in her final year of law at the Catholic University of Louvain, had never failed in her entire life and had a blank year. My mother developed many illnesses that she did not 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 until the end. I am serene because I know that one cannot invent what has never existed. I rebuild myself with the few people who remain around me.
This story also made me realize that several people we thought were friends, friends, were only there because there was a return. I give thanks to God because 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 sought to listen to the other story. I learned many things about the human person. I bless God for my family.
Patrick Ndungidi
Captions and photo credits:
Julienne Mpemba
Notification:
Nope
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