Twenty innocent men charged with planning a coup against the
president of Congo: evidence was fabricated. SJ Dodgson. MJoTA v6n1 p0517
On Feb 5th, 3013, 19 men were rounded up for a
routine job that was supposed to permit them to go home that night to have
dinner with their families, but because of a series of absurd events, instead
found themselves locked up in Pretoria Central Prison where they remain as I
write this, on May 17, 2013.
The men found themselves forced to put on military uniforms
and were driven to an area one of their captors described as a killing field,
tied to trees, and instead of being shot, were handed over to South African police
with fabricated evidence that they had been spending over a year training in
military camps in order to overthrow the government of the President Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo. What else
could the South African police do but charge them with breaking the laws of
South Africa? The South African police were overly enthusiastic: I have been
told the men were tortured into admitting their guilt. I have no independent
evidence of this; but if indeed evidence is given at trial that each man signed
a confession, I can say categorically that every one of them has declared his
innocence to family members and friends who have spoken with them.
I was told by a relative of one of the men charged
that the men believed they were not shot dead because their captors had the
absurd idea that this group of family men included Etienne Kabila.
The next day, Etienne Kabila turned himself in to the police
in Capetown, 2000km (over 1100 miles) from Johannesburg. The police had
broadcasted widely that they needed to speak to him.
Etienne Kabila claims to
be the true son of the previous President Kabila of DRC; and he certainly
resembles him physically. He further claims that the current President Kabila
is no relative; and is in fact a pretender fraudulently elected by ballots that
were not counted or not existent. President
Kabila does not resemble the previous President Kabila. Etienne Kabila has been
locked up with the other 19 in Pretoria Central Prison since his arrest.
The arrested men mostly work in construction, mostly have
lived in South Africa several decades, own property in South Africa. Nearly all
have children who are South African citizens and during their entire lives,
have never lived anywhere else. They love South Africa and expect the South
African judicial system to do what it excels at: throw out this case for lack
of evidence and because of overwhelming evidence that every one of these men
came home to their wives every night for dinner for at least a year or decade
before the arrest.
In the middle was US
citizen James Kazongo, who was caught in this net during what he believed was a
short visit to South Africa and Swaziland.
From what I have learned in my short
time in Johannesburg and from spending time with his wife and children in and
around Philadelphia, James had nothing to do with a plot to overthrow the
government of President Kabila because there was no plot.
James spent his last year in the house in Middletown,
Delaware cutting the grass, taking his kids swimming, teaching them how to play
drums and guitar, and working as a cook. His sons Mike and Matt and Max told me
he makes the best chips in the world. Which is what he was doing. Hanging out
with his wife and sons. Building on the life he had started in America 3
decades ago.
James Kazongo had too much to lose to do anything so stupid;
and did not have the time to do it either. Ten days in South Africa before
arrest was hardly enough to overcome jet lag.
Because the South African judicial system is
fair and will not tolerate fabricated evidence, we know he will be released
after the 20 men face trial on Thursday May 23, 2013.
South Africa has been
through a lot; its constitution was forged with blood and fire. I look forward
to James returning to his children to make the best chips in the world this
year, and next year, and for many years to come. Max is only 4.
