André Milongo
Encyclopedia
Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo , sometimes known locally as Congo-Brazzaville, is a state in Central Africa. It is bordered by Gabon, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo , the Angolan exclave province of Cabinda, and the Gulf of Guinea.The region was dominated by...
politician who served as Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo from June 1991 to August 1992. He was chosen by the 1991 National Conference to lead the country during its transition to multiparty elections, which were held in 1992. He was also the founder and President of the Union for Democracy and the Republic (UDR-Mwinda), a political party. From 1993 to 1997, he was President of the National Assembly
National Assembly of the Republic of the Congo
The Parliament of the Republic of Congo has two chambers. The lower house is the National Assembly . It has 153 members, for a five year term in single-seat constituencies.-See also:...
, and he was again a deputy in the National Assembly from 2002 to 2007.
Early life and political career
A member of the Lari ethnic groupLari (ethnic group)
The Lari is an ethnic group of the Republic of the Congo and the name of the language they speak. A subgroup of the Kongo people, the Laris live in Brazzaville, Pointe-Noire and the Pool Region, where they constitute almost the entire population. There an estimated 1.2 million Laris living in Congo...
, Milongo, one of four children in his family, was born in October 1935 in Mankondi, a village located to the south-west of the capital Brazzaville
Brazzaville
-Transport:The city is home to Maya-Maya Airport and a railway station on the Congo-Ocean Railway. It is also an important river port, with ferries sailing to Kinshasa and to Bangui via Impfondo...
, in the Boko District
Boko District
Boko is a district in the Pool Region of south-eastern Republic of the Congo. The capital lies at Boko....
of Pool Region
Pool Region
Pool is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the southeastern part of the country. It borders the departments of Bouenza, Lékoumou, and Plateaux, and internationally, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It also surrounds the commune district of the national capital, Brazzaville. The...
.
After his primary and secondary schooling in Brazzaville, Milongo earned a Master's Degree
Master's degree
A master's is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
in Law at the University of Nancy, after which he studied at the École Nationale d'Administration
École nationale d'administration
The École Nationale d'Administration , one of the most prestigious of French graduate schools , was created in 1945 by Charles de Gaulle to democratise access to the senior civil service. It is now entrusted with the selection and initial training of senior French officials...
(ÉNA) in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, graduating in 1964. That year is also known as the "Blaise Pascal generation" at ÉNA. He was among only four Congolese citizens to have graduated from ÉNA. Former Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
lese prime minister Edem Kodjo
Edem Kodjo
Édouard Kodjovi Kodjo, better known as Edem Kodjo , is a Togolese politician and diplomat. He was Secretary-General of the Organization of African Unity from 1978 to 1983; later, in Togo, he was a prominent opposition leader after the introduction of multiparty politics. He served as Prime...
was a classmate of Milongo at ÉNA.
Milongo began his professional career in 1964 as the first Congolese National Treasurer (Trésorier Payeur Général) in the newly independent Republic of the Congo, a position he held for five years. In this position, he rigorously managed the country's public funds. After this, he became director of the country's foreign investments in 1969 (Directeur General Des Investissements) at the Ministry of Planning, remaining in that position until 1973. Two former prime ministers of the Republic of the Congo also enlisted his help as an economic policy
Economic policy
Economic policy refers to the actions that governments take in the economic field. It covers the systems for setting interest rates and government budget as well as the labor market, national ownership, and many other areas of government interventions into the economy.Such policies are often...
advisor under the government of Marien Ngouabi
Marien Ngouabi
Marien Ngouabi was the military President of the Republic of the Congo from January 1, 1969 to March 18, 1977.-Origins:...
.
Milongo married Ndambo Marie-Therese Laurentine on February 4, 1967, and with her he had seven children.
He was elected to the board of governors
Board of governors
Board of governors is a term sometimes applied to the board of directors of a public entity or non-profit organization.Many public institutions, such as public universities, are government-owned corporations. The British Broadcasting Corporation was managed by a board of governors, though this role...
at the African Development Bank
African Development Bank
The African Development Bank Group is a development bank established in 1964 with the intention of promoting economic and social development in Africa...
in the Ivory Coast
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
in 1976, and represented eight African countries: Congo, Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, Cote d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
, Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
and Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
. He held that position for 7 years, before being elected to the board of governors at the World Bank
World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is a family of five international organizations that makes leveraged loans, generally to poor countries.The Bank came into formal existence on 27 December 1945 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary...
in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
in 1983, where he met his colleague Nicephore Soglo
Nicéphore Soglo
Nicéphore Dieudonné Soglo is a Beninois politician who was Prime Minister of Benin from 1990 to 1991 and President from 1991 to 1996. He has been the Mayor of Cotonou since 2003.-Biography:Soglo was born in Togo...
. He remained at the World Bank until 1990.
In the early 1990s, the Republic of the Congo was going bankrupt because of the loss of support from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
after the collapse of Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. This led to the emergence of a new generation of Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n leaders like Nicéphore Soglo in Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Ouattara
Alassane Dramane Ouattara is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Côte d'Ivoire since 2011. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund and the Central Bank of West African States , and he was the Prime Minister of Côte d'Ivoire from November 1990 to...
in the Ivory Coast and André Milongo. At the end of the Sovereign National Conference of 1991, the Conference elected Milongo as Prime Minister on June 8, 1991. As Prime Minister, he was given executive powers and placed in charge of directing the country's transition to multiparty elections in 1992. The National Conference additionally assigned the positions of Minister of Defense and Minister of Mines and Energy to Milongo.
Milongo's government was dominated by members of the Lari and Bakongo
Kongo people
The Bakongo or the Kongo people , also sometimes referred to as Kongolese or Congolese, is a Bantu ethnic group which lives along the Atlantic coast of Africa from Pointe-Noire to Luanda, Angola...
ethnic groups. Tensions between the government and the army led to a serious crisis in January 1992. It was alleged that, in order to gain control of the army, members of Milongo's government spread rumors that the army was plotting a coup. Furthermore, in moves viewed as being directed against loyalists of President Denis Sassou-Nguesso, Milongo appointed Col. Michel Gangouo, who had been implicated in a 1990 coup attempt against Sassou-Nguesso, as Secretary of State for Defense on January 2, 1992. He made further changes to the military command, which he said were intended to fight tribalism, in mid-January. The army strongly opposed these changes and demanded that Milongo reverse them. The Higher Council of the Republic (CSR), which was acting as the transitional parliament, judged that the coup rumors had been created by members of Milongo's government and requested that Milongo accede to the army's demands. Milongo refused to dismiss Gangouo, however, at which point soldiers took over the international airport as well as state radio and television, fired on Milongo's supporters, killing several, and called for Milongo's resignation. Milongo went into hiding and called for international assistance. Gangouo then resigned from his position and Milongo appointed a new Minister of Defense who was supported by the army; however, he also placed himself in supreme command of the army.
Republic of the Congo parliamentary election, 1992
Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of the Congo in 1992, along with a presidential election, marking the end of the transition to multiparty politics. The election was held in two rounds, the first on 24 June 1992 and the second on 19 July 1992...
and presidential elections
Republic of the Congo presidential election, 1992
Presidential elections were held in the Republic of the Congo in August 1992, marking the end of the transitional period that began with the February–June 1991 National Conference...
scheduled for later that year from Milongo's government to an electoral commission.
In the August 1992 presidential election, Milongo ran as a presidential candidate, placing fourth with 10.18% of the vote. He received his strongest support in Brazzaville
Brazzaville
-Transport:The city is home to Maya-Maya Airport and a railway station on the Congo-Ocean Railway. It is also an important river port, with ferries sailing to Kinshasa and to Bangui via Impfondo...
and Pool Region
Pool Region
Pool is a department of the Republic of the Congo in the southeastern part of the country. It borders the departments of Bouenza, Lékoumou, and Plateaux, and internationally, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It also surrounds the commune district of the national capital, Brazzaville. The...
, with 21.6% and 16.5% respectively.
Milongo founded a political party, the Union for Democracy and the Republic (UDR-Mwinda: Union Pour la Démocratie et la République; Mwinda means light in the Lari language), which he headed until his death. In the 1993 parliamentary election
Republic of the Congo parliamentary election, 1993
Parliamentary elections were held in the Republic of the Congo on 2 May 1993, with a second round in several constituencies on 6 June. The result was a victory for the Presidential Tendency coalition, which won 65 of the 125 seats in the National Assembly....
, he was elected to the National Assembly as the UDR candidate in Boko constituency, becoming one of two UDR deputies in the National Assembly. On June 22, 1993, Milongo was elected as the President of the National Assembly, remaining in that position until 1997. During the political violence of 1993, Milongo requested and obtained a ceasefire
Ceasefire
A ceasefire is a temporary stoppage of a war in which each side agrees with the other to suspend aggressive actions. Ceasefires may be declared as part of a formal treaty, but they have also been called as part of an informal understanding between opposing forces...
from both parties involved in the conflict, President Pascal Lissouba
Pascal Lissouba
Pascal Lissouba was the first democratically elected President of the Republic of the Congo from August 31, 1992 to October 15, 1997. He was overthrown by the current President Denis Sassou Nguesso in the 1997 civil war....
and opposition leader Bernard Kolélas
Bernard Kolélas
Bernard Bakana Kolélas was a Congolese politician and President of the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development...
.
After the June–October 1997 civil war, in which Denis Sassou Nguesso returned to power, Milongo remained in the Congo, stating that he had nothing to fear from the Sassou Nguesso's leadership. He asserted that the Republic of Congo belonged to all Congolese nationals. After the war, he was a member of the National Transitional Council (CNT).
On September 24, 2001, Milongo's candidacy for the next presidential election
Republic of the Congo presidential election, 2002
A presidential election was held in the Republic of the Congo on 10 March 2002. This followed a civil war in 1997, which returned Denis Sassou Nguesso to power, and a subsequent transitional period, in which a new constitution was written and approved by referendum in January 2002.The election...
was announced by the Alliance for Democracy and Progress
Alliance for Democracy and Progress
The Alliance for Democracy and Progress is a political party in the Central African Republic.In the election held on 13 March and 8 May 2005, its presidential candidate, Olivier Gabirault, won 0.8 % of the vote, and the party won two out of 105 seats in the National Assembly....
(ADP), a grouping of parties that supported him. Milongo accused the government of fraud in the January 2002 constitutional referendum, claiming that the "No" vote had actually won, and said that if he won the presidential election, he would initiate a "new political order" with a peace pact to end political violence and would allow all exiled politicians to return. On March 8, 2002, two days before the presidential election on March 10, Milongo withdrew his candidacy, accusing Sassou Nguesso of rigging the vote. He said that party members were not allowed to observe the voting process, that there were areas where half of the ballot papers omitted his name, and that he had requested that the election be delayed. In the May 2002 parliamentary election
Republic of the Congo parliamentary election, 2002
A parliamentary election was held in the Republic of the Congo in 2002; the first round was held on 26 May and the second round on 20 June. The Congolese Labour Party and its allies won a majority of seats in the National Assembly....
, Milongo was elected to the National Assembly as the UDR-Mwinda's candidate in Boko constituency; he won the seat in the first round with 59.65% of the vote. Due to his status as the oldest deputy, he presided over the National Assembly's first meeting of the new parliamentary term, at which the bureau of the National Assembly was elected, on August 10, 2002. In the National Assembly, he became President of the UDR-Mwinda Parliamentary Group on August 24, 2002.
In addition to heading the UDR-Mwinda, Milongo was the chairman of a coalition
Coalition
A coalition is a pact or treaty among individuals or groups, during which they cooperate in joint action, each in their own self-interest, joining forces together for a common cause. This alliance may be temporary or a matter of convenience. A coalition thus differs from a more formal covenant...
of 11 political parties (Front Pour Une Commission Electorale independante), an assembly of political parties calling for transparency and independence in the management of all future elections.
Milongo ran for re-election to the National Assembly in the 2007 parliamentary election
Republic of the Congo parliamentary election, 2007
A parliamentary election was held in the Republic of the Congo on 24 June 2007, with a second round initially planned for 22 July 2007, but then postponed to 5 August 2007. According to the National Commission of the Organization of the Elections , 1,807 candidates stood in the first round for 137...
, but was defeated in the first round, held on June 24. Following an illness, he died in a hospital in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on July 23, 2007. In a statement on July 24, Sassou Nguesso described Milongo's death as "a great loss for the Congolese nation" and praised Milongo for his service as Prime Minister from 1991 to 1992. Milongo was laid in state
Lying in state
Lying in state is a term used to describe the tradition in which a coffin is placed on view to allow the public at large to pay their respects to the deceased. It traditionally takes place in the principal government building of a country or city...
at the Parliament building, where politicians paid tribute to him and Sassou Nguesso bestowed a posthumous high honor on him, before being buried at his residence on August 20.