Eye on Africa

****Photo: Cedric Kalonji — www.congoblog.net

Will they or will they not leave?
Voyons voir!

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele — Thunderstorm Forming over Congo River, Equateur

LE MONDE | 20.07.07 | 13h19  •  Mis à jour le 20.07.07 | 13h19

Le bilan des six premiers mois du nouveau gouvernement de la République démocratique du Congo est inquiétant. Il est marqué par l’usage disproportionné de la force contre des opposants, le recours à la corruption pour parvenir à ses fins et un dangereux regain de tensions dans les provinces de l’Est. Si le gouvernement congolais ne convainc pas la population de sa détermination à vouloir reconstruire le pays ravagé par la guerre, poursuivre les réformes institutionnelles et consolider le processus de paix par des méthodes démocratiques, il sera de nouveau considéré comme une nuisance plutôt qu’une autorité légitime, et échouera certainement à restaurer l’autorité de l’Etat.
 
La transition issue du dialogue inter-congolais et des accords de Pretoria fut, par certains aspects, un remarquable succès. Elle a permis de réunifier le pays et d’améliorer la situation sécuritaire sur une grande partie du territoire. Les troupes des principaux mouvements rebelles ont pu être intégrées dans l’armée nationale et aucune force militaire, nationale ou régionale ne menace aujourd’hui le gouvernement élu. Une commission électorale indépendante a organisé un référendum constitutionnel en décembre 2005, puis des élections nationales entre juin et novembre 2006, considérées par les observateurs comme relativement libres et crédibles.

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

When Antoine Gizenga, 81, announced last spring he would run for President, few analysts took him seriously. He is old, says nothing, and has not held a public office in four decades. But it appears that Gizenga is not yet finished.

His Parti Lumumbiste Unifié helped Kabila win the election and Gizenga is expected to be appointed Prime Minister. But the appointment to the premiership has been delayed. Instead, on December 19 President Joseph Kabila appointed Gizenga informant. In a parliamentary system, a president appoints an informant to consult other parties in order to form the government when no party wins a clear majority in the parliament.

In 1960, Patrice Lumumba was appointed informant because, in spite of his party’s success at the polls, he did not have a clear majority. Therefore, President Joseph Kasa-Vubu asked Lumumba to negotiate with the other parties and report to him with a proposed government.

The situation is different today. Congo does not have a parliamentary system. And with 300 of the 500 seats in the parliament, Kabila’s Alliance pour la Majorité Presidentielle has a clear majority. This mean President Kabila could have appointed Gizenga Prime Minister right away, skipping the informant phase.

***Photo Congo Pax

In his December 6 inauguration speech, President Joseph Kabila promised to initiate a deep change of mentality, based on good governance, democracy and the respect of human rights. That promise, however, sounded hollow to most Congolese. 

On November 21, three weeks before the inauguration, a special unit of the police arrested Marie-Thérèse Nlandu Mpolo Nene, 53, a prominent and respected lawyer, former presidential candidate, and a member of Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Union pour la Nation. She is married and has four children. Her family says her health has deteriorated in detention.

Amnesty International has adopted her as a prisoner of conscience and several human rights groups have taken up her case. Yet, to date, the case has generated little interest in international media. Neither the BBC nor Reuters or any other major foreign news correspondent in Kinshasa has written on Nlandu’s detention.

The police has charged Nlandu, along with six other detainees, with “terrorism and possession of firearms” for the burning of the Supreme Court building on November 20. The circumstance of the court fire remains murky at best. It is not clear who set the building on fire – and for what purpose. Policemen fled the scene when a riot broke out. Neither United Nations nor European Forces intervened on time. Foreign media were quick to blame Bemba’s supporters for the fire. No one has substantiated that claim.

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Mbandaka, Equateur

This I promise you…

***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 - Kinshasa

Joseph Kanambe Kabange Kabila — Le Gagnant

***Photo Mvemba Phezo Dizolele - Kinshasa

As the Congolese wait for the winner’s inauguration…

***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.