Eye on Africa

*** Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele — Bemba Campaign Posters 2006 Kinshasa

Mes chers compatriotes,

J’ai suivi avec consternation, depuis trois jours, comme beaucoup d’entre vous, la dégradation de la situation politique et sécuritaire dans la province du CONGO CENTRAL.

A la confusion de la situation sécuritaire à l’Est du pays : ITURI, GOMA et MINEMBWE, les événements malheureux et tragiques du CONGO CENTRAL s’ajoutent comme une sonnette d’alarme pour nous interpeller sur la nécessité de prévenir, de manière ordonnée, l’escalade de la violence.

Je voudrais, avant toute chose, présenter mes condoléances les plus attristées à l’ensemble des familles des victimes qui sont tombées, une fois de plus, face aux forces de l’ordre, mis en mouvement par les autorités politiques, sans précaution quant à la protection des vies humaines.

Ma compassion s’adresse également aux familles des forces de l’ordre victimes, elles aussi, de la chaîne de responsabilité politique qui les met dans les circonstances douteuses, face à la population, sans une doctrine et une politique efficace protectrice de nos policiers et de nos populations, comme cela devrait être le cas dans un Etat de droit démocratique et moderne.

Mes chers compatriotes,

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Kinshasa

Of the presidential campaign billboards I saw in Kinshasa, one still stands out in my mind. It said, “Kabila Le Rassembleur.” The “unifier.” Hubris is a key element of good campaign politics. Every time I saw that ad, I smiled and wondered whether the president’s team really meant it. Candidates tend to exaggerate their potential and downplay their limitations.

Kabila may honestly believe he is the rassembleur. But his record over the last five years does not fully support that claim. He has been as much a unifier as he has been a divider. Now that he has won the election, and as he starts a new term as the country’s first democratically elected president in over 40 years, Kabila has another chance to become a real unifier of Congo. The world is watching to see whether he will rise to the occasion.

On November 30, Kabila surprised his fellow Congolese when he paid Bemba, his main challenger, a courtesy visit at his private residence in Kinshasa. The visit was a good start. The symbolism behind it reassured the Congolese they could remain hopeful about the future.  

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele. Kabila supporters celebrate victory in Kinshasa.

In an alarming piece Reuters’ David Lewis wrote the following:

"A pledge by Congo’s defeated presidential candidate to enter the opposition peacefully came as a relief to many on Wednesday, but concerns lingered that President Joseph Kabila may deny his party a meaningful role.

Fears of a violent backlash were allayed on Tuesday when former rebel Jean-Pierre Bemba vowed, in the name of peace, to lead the opposition rather than challenge a Supreme Court decision confirming Kabila as president.

But hope that polls, meant to draw a line under a 1998-2003 war, have ushered in a new era for the Democratic Republic of Congo were matched by fears that a Bemba-led opposition could be marginalised and even forced back onto the streets.

Kabila’s majority in the new parliament has allowed his law makers to alter procedures for choosing members of key commissions, charged with leading investigations and audits.

"This still worried us a lot. If it is not corrected, it will prevent us from playing our role as the opposition," Thomas Luhaka, executive secretary of Bemba’s MLC, told Reuters on Wednesday.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Kinshasa

In an address to the nation Bemba conceded defeat and said he would go into political opposition after his presidential election defeat "to preserve peace and save the country from chaos and violence". The former presidential candidate said he was disappointed with the Supreme Court’s decision, but vowed to continue the democratic course. "However, in the higher interests of the nation, to preserve peace and save the country from chaos and violence, today I pledge before God, the nation and history to lead … this struggle for change as part of a strong republican opposition," he said.

Read the full concession speech

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Kinshasa.

Now that the Supreme Court has rejected UpN’s charges of widespread electoral fraud and confirmed Joseph Kabila’s victory, the time has come for Jean-Pierre Bemba Gombo to concede defeat.

To be sure, this electoral process has been plagued with a number of problems, from lack of voter education to uneven access to finance to questionably high turnout rates in some areas on Polling Day. In the justices’ judgment, however, these irregularities did not constitute ground for the cancellation of Kabila’s victory. There is no more legal recourse for UpN.
 
As the election’s results show, Bemba has fought a good fight – winning 42 percent of the votes. In a way, the UpN has lost a battle – not the war. Bemba himself, like the Congolese people, has traveled a long way. In five years, he evolved from fils à papa to rebel leader to vice-president to become the main challenger against an entrenched Kabila regime. He denied Kabila’s AMP victory in half of the country (including Kinshasa), forcing the so-called East-West divide. UpN’s victory in the West, and the popular and strident anti-Kabila discontent it represents, weakens President Kabila’s mandate.

****Photo MONUC

When my friend Mzee in Washington told me Jean-Pierre Bemba’s partisans had set the Supreme Court offices on fire, I did not believe it. I thought it was a joke, bad humor. He said he had called Kinshasa and confirmed with his contacts in town, and it was true. I still refused to believe it.

“How could anyone set the Supreme Court on fire?” I asked. “I cannot understand it.”

See, if you had visited Kinshasa recently, then you would understand my disbelief. Primo, the neighborhood around the Supreme Court, which is close to Bemba’s residence, has been protected by MONUC troops, guarded with UN armored vehicles and heavily armed Uruguayans and EUFOR elements stationed every so many meters. One could not help, but feel under siege when driving around the court. The area felt like a war zone. I remember seeing one or two armored vehicles parked right outside the court.

So how did a crowd of partisans force its way to the building and set it on fire? I know the Congolese do not like facing the barrel of a gun, let alone armored gunships. Perhaps I miss something.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Mbandaka, Equateur

Watch the report at  http://tv.wafbu.com/tv5.php

ELECTION RESULTS AS THEY COME IN FROM CEI.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele. Voting Center at the Centre Universitaire, Mbandaka, Equateur.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele. Smear campaign in Mbandaka, Equateur.