First impressions of Kin

I arrived in Kin on June 22. One of my bags got misplaced and ended up at the South African Airlines. It took me two days to retrieve it. The first time I attempted to get downtown to the office of the South African Airlines, my taxi got caught in a traffic jam from 11:45 to 3 p.m.  Massive bumper to bumper traffic jams are the bane of Kinois these days. Downtown roads are getting fixed and moving around the capital is a test of patience and nerves. Tempers fly high and some motorists come to blows. The second day, my taxi was able to get to the office of the South African Airlines on Boulevard du 30 Juin—where I was told my bag was instead at N'Djili Airport! Another hour-drive and I was able to retrieve my bag. At long last… 

These traffic jams have spawned a new breed of Kinois entrepreneurs:  taxi-motorcyclists.  These motorcycles-taxis are very practical to navigate the clogged roads. But this means of transportation is dangerous, I was told by friends and family when they found out I was biking around the city with Dolen, one of those taxi-motorcyclists…

Murdered rights activist Flori Chebeya was laid to rest on Saturday, June 26, not at the downtown Gombe Cemetery, but at Mbeseke. The body was first displayed at the Kintambo Vélodrome.

There was also a big interfaith event on Saturday. It was the launching at the Cathédrale du Centenaire in the Lingwala Commune of a 3-day fast and prayer for the nation's atonement. The 3-day fast and prayer was called by First Lady Maman Marie-Olive Lembe… The "keynote" prayer was said by Maman Marie-Olive Lembe who was profusely crying throughout! The evangelicals who were commenting on the event claimed the First Lady was akin to the biblical figure of Queen Esther! In this scenario, who the king, Mordecai, or Haman are, is anybody's guess…

Read More

In the boonies

I'm writing this post from inside the cab that's driving me from N'Djili Airport (see photo).

I can't believe this: the Belgian BA lost one of my luggages! I hope they find it tomorrow...
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Read More

Back to the future: Mark down my prophecy: Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa may have survived this assassination attempt, but he’ll be killed within the next two years (Remember Seth Sendashonga)

Timeout for World Cup

According to Zapiro

(Credits)

Whereas, according to Zapiro, the conflict-ridden parts of this world have called a timeout on violence to enjoy the World Cup, the terrorist regime of Kigali thought it was an opportune moment to carry out the assassination of its enemy of state number 1.

Well, I’m not the least surprised by what transpired Saturday in Jozi. In fact, it’s eerily similar to the first attempt on the life of exiled former Interior Minister Seth Sendashonga in Nairobi in February 1996, when he “was lucky to have escaped with a gun wound.”

Then, two years later—on May 19, 1998—Seth Sendashonga was shot and killed alongside his driver in Nairobi:

“Sendashonga was travelling in a UN vehicle (his wife works with UNEP in Nairobi) when the assassins appeared in a Toyota Corolla. They sprayed him with bullets in a traffic jam, drove some 200 metres, abandoned the car and took off. Mission accomplished!”

At that time, the then Rwandan foreign minister Anastase Gasana claimed that his government wasn’t in the business of killing opposition members.

This time around, here’s what Louise Mushikiwabo, the current Rwandan foreign minister, said when asked about the involvement of Rwanda in the assassination attempt on Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa:

“The Rwandan government does not go around shooting innocent citizens ...The time when presidents and governments went around assassinating their citizens is over in Rwanda.”

Hmm… Isn’t it strange that Louise Mushikiwabo is now calling Gen Faustin Kayumba Nyamwasa an “innocent citizen” while the regime she’s representing accuses the shooting victim of thievery and terrorism?

In fact, Mushikiwabo was reacting to the following comment by Rosette Kayumba, the wife of Gen Nyamwasa: “He [Kagame] must be behind this, I don't have proof ... but we've been harassed for such a long time.”

Well, I believe Rosette Kayumba. But I’ll also advise her to tell her husband to write his will and to put his affairs in order, for the man is going to die within two years... tops! Kagame is a natural-born killer who doesn’t take lightly being crossed!

And the fact that Kagame would choose the truce of the World Cup to perpetrate his crime shows that the man is what Africans call a “sorcerer” or evil incarnate, an enemy of football and a killer of the joy of the vuvuzuelas! The man had killed rumba in eastern DRC for a while…

Why the United States keeps funding the terrorist regime of this sociopathic mass murderer is beyond any decency…

Read More

My buddy Paul, the die-hard Walt Whitman scholar

I missed Mundial games again to go and meet with my buddy from Cambridge, MA, Dr Paul Rajcock, a naturopathic physician. He's seen in this photo in front of the Madison Building of the Library of Congress on Independence Avenue.
(I don't even know how the layout of this post will be as I'm experimenting posting via email! So my apologies if the post turns out to be ugly.)
Paul is a die-hard die-hard Walt Whitman scholar. Thus, despite being on vacation with his family (they've also been college-hopping for their son), Paul was today in the bowels of the Library of Congress handling Paul Whitman's manuscripts.
We had lunch at a nice Thai restaurant by the Capitol South metro station. Well, "we" are from Boston and thank God Samuel Adams beer was available: 4 Sams between the two of us.
Paul has been definitely scrutinizing manuscripts for a long time. He noticed immediately that the menu of the Thai restaurant spelled Samuel of Sam Adams as "Samual"...
Paul also gave me an invaluable present: a book by French philosopher REGIS DEBRAY entitled "God: An Itinerary" and translated by Jeffrey Mehlman. I happen to know both author and translator!
I'm sending this post now. Hoping it won't be disastrous...
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

UPDATE BY PC:

1) I learned that I first have to rename pictures on my phone before attempting to attach them to my email. The original picture of this post was a street scene of Washington DC.
2) There is no way of adding labels to a post when sent via email. I'm adding a label here after the fact.
3) I also couldn't find a way of adding links.
4) I misspelled the name of my buddy's name: it's Paul RAJCOK.

Blogging by mobile phone is definitely fun, despite its limitations. It could also be hand if you happen to be in the boondocks!

Read More

Kinshasa authorities let out a sigh of relief: Flori Chebeya Funeral set for Saturday, June 26

Flori Chebeya

(Credits)

Kinshasa media report that the widow of Flori Chebeya, Anne-Marie Mangbenga, has set the funeral date of her murdered husband for Saturday, June 26. No doubt, this announcement was greeted with a sigh of relief by Kinshasa authorities who feared that the family would follow the call by some rights groups to have the funeral on June 30, Independence Day!

In a statement released June 14 and signed by family spokesman and veteran rights activist Flory Nyamwoga Bayengeha, the widow informed the public that the wake is now being held at the deceased’s residence at 15bis Avenue Démocratie, in the neighborhood of Binza Ozone, in the Commune of Ngaliema.

The statement states that, having received the necessary authorization (including the death certificate) from the Attorney General to retrieve the body from the morgue [which is usually done in the Congo on the eve of the funeral], the family was inviting people willing to participate in the funeral arrangements to contact the family directly.

But the statement immediately next adds that:

“Otherwise, public statements made outside of this framework of consultation with the family will only bind their authors.”

In the meantime, the killers of Chebeya remain at large and the whereabouts of his driver, Fidèle Bazana Edadi, still unknown. It seems that the investigation by the special security services of the National Security Council is stuck, without any valuable lead, despite arrests. Faced with international pressure, did the investigators arrest the wrong guys? The mystery thickens by the day…

Read More

Trafficking in Persons Report 2010: DRC Country Narrative Horrendous; and Congolese media think it’s a vast US conspiracy against Congo

Illustration of the Trafficking in Persons Report 2010

(Credits)

This Monday June 14, the US Department released its global 10th annual report on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) titled "Trafficking in Persons Report 2010." The State Department is mandated to do so by the law called The United States’ Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA).

TVPA stems from the UN Palermo “Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children” to which 117 countries are signatories.

And, according to the letter of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that prefaces it,

“The Report, for the first time, includes a ranking of the United States based on the same standards to which we hold other countries. The United States takes its first-ever ranking not as a reprieve but as a responsibility to strengthen global efforts against modern slavery, including those within America. This human rights abuse is universal, and no one should claim immunity from its reach or from the responsibility to confront it.”

The introduction of the Report repeats Clinton’s argument, and adds that “[there] is no shame in addressing a problem of this magnitude; the shame lies in ignoring it.”

The Report ranks countries in 4 tiers, with an accompanying interactive Google map assigning tier color codes to each country: 1) Tier 1 (color: blue); 2) Tier 2 (color: yellow) ; 3) Tier 2 Watch list (color: dark orange); 3) Tier 3 (orange red).

Here’s how the Report defines these 4 tiers:

“Tier 1

Countries whose governments fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking.

Tier 2

Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.

Tier 2 Watch List

Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND:

a) the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;

b) there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecution, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials; or,

c) the determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional steps over the next year.

Tier 3

Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the minimum standards and are not making significant efforts to do so.”

The Report also gives alphabetical country narratives that are compiled from reports by NGOs, local civil societies, individual citizens and American diplomats. The country narrative is written according to the “3P paradigm”: Prevention, Protection and Prosecution. The narrative also provides recommendations to each individual country’s government.

A chart of the diachronic tier positioning of the country since the inception of this reporting in 2000 is also given in the Report.

The specific case of the DRC is enlightening when it comes to this chart of diachronic positioning. From the abysmal low of a tier-3 country in 2000, the DRC shot up 2 ranks to tier-2 in 2003, falling down one rank in 2004 to a tier-2-watch-list country, and then climbing up again to a tier-2 country in 2005 where it maintained itself for three consecutive years till 2007. The DRC slid down for the next two years to a tier-2-watch-list country; and then spiraled down abruptly to a tier-3 country this year, the very rank it had 10 years ago!

Well, this downturn could easily be diagnosed. It is by and large attributable to the wrong-headed peace agreements imposed on the DRC by the international community whereby armed groups, instead of simply being disarmed, are incorporated helter-skelter under the umbrella of the FARDC while maintaining their own command and control.

The Report itself recognizes this fact in so many words:

“From November 2008 to October 2009, 623 confirmed cases of unlawful child soldier recruitment were attributed to the FARDC, 75 percent of which were attributable to ex-CNDP (National Congress for the Defense of the People, a former Congolese rebel group) elements absorbed into the FARDC in 2009. In April 2009, for example, 100 children, ages 13 to 15, were recruited by the FARDC along the Bunyakiri-Hombo axis. An unspecified number of children recruited by the CNDP during past reporting periods remain within integrated FARDC units.”

For many Congolese, the imposition of these peace agreements evinces a lack of respect for the Congolese nation, for it would never cross the mind of these peace-makers to force this kind of arrangement between, say, the FDLR and the Rwandan government.

Be that as it may, the Report is out. And, contrary to human rights groups’ annual reports that Lambert Mende, the Congolese Minister of Information, could dismiss with contempt, the State Department Report has venomous fangs that could paralyze the cash-strapped DRC government—particularly at this juncture where it’s reached a crucial point in its debt-relief program with the IMF:

“Pursuant to TVPA, governments of countries on Tier 3 may be subject to certain sanctions, whereby the U.S. government may withhold nonhumanitarian, non-trade-related foreign assistance. Such assistance may be withdrawn from countries receiving it, and in addition, countries on Tier 3 may not receive funding for government employees’ participation in educational and cultural exchange programs. Consistent with the TVPA, governments subject to sanctions would also face U.S. opposition to assistance (except for humanitarian, trade-related, and certain development-related assistance) from international financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

Imposed sanctions will take effect on October 1, 2010 (…)”

What’s even more damning, there’s also the stringent U.S. Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008 (CSPA) with its separate sanctions. CSPA has issued a 2010 infamous list of 6 countries (with Burma, Chad, DRC, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen) that are also barred from receiving certain critical “forms of assistance” from the U.S. by October 1, 2010, including “international military education and training, foreign military financing, excess defense articles, section 1206 assistance, and the issuance of licenses for direct commercial sales of military equipment.”

The squeeze is definitely on the DRC. And the pro-government media of the Congolese capital that also function as the regime weathermen are now frantically broadcasting early warning advisories on the twister about to blast “throughout fiscal year 2011,” as the Report ominously anticipates.

I don’t know whether this Report is also translated into other languages. In the DRC, the Report is utterly misunderstood by the media, who seem to misconstrue it, based on VOA reporting, as dealing solely with “human slavery” as practiced in Mauritania, for example, whereas the expression “trafficking in persons” (TIP) covers a wide spectrum of crimes, including forced labor and use of child soldiers—of which are routinely accused various Congolese armed groups (as well as the FARDC).

The misconstruction of the Report explains this bafflement of Joachim Diana G. of L’Avenir in a June 16 article titled “DRC-USA: Washington threatens DRC with sanctions”:

“That the U.S. State Department should put the DRC in the same boat as Mauritania for example could certainly be shocking and concealing something nefarious. It’s well known that in Mauritania black communities are still living in slavery. It’s understandable to demand that the leaders of that country put an end to that practice. There are no Congolese who put [other] Congolese in slavery.”

This is crass ignorance and wacky reporting. First, the slavery in Mauritania is not state policy but practiced by some in local communities, a fact of which Joachim Diana G. seems unaware. Secondly, armed groups in the DRC routinely coerce people to work as diggers in mines, as carriers of their wares or use women as sex slaves. And more importantly, the concept “Trafficking in Persons” doesn’t necessarily involve moving the victim from one place to another.

In a delirious editorial on the same subject also penned by Joachim Diana G. and entitled “Washington takes off the mask,” L’Avenir literally loses its marbles:

“The DRC gives the impression of a country under siege. A country that doesn’t know whence the danger would come. (…) When Barack Obama came to power, Africans thought that a page would be turned on a certain American policy [in Africa]. Now we have become disillusioned. (…) [We] are entitled to fall back to the belief that the USA remains the USA, whatever the shape of the nose of its president.”

Joachim Diana G. also charges that:

“When you scan the list of countries warned by Washington, you find yourself along a certain axis of unloved countries. It consists of Eritrea, Mauritania, Sudan and Zimbabwe."

Wow, nice cast of rogue and knaving countries!... The State Department should urgently consider translating this Report into French so as to avoid this kind of misapprehension in the boonies of this world.

Read More

Kinshasa Update: 1) House Arrest of Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko: A canard or a persistent rumor?; and 2) Opposition creates Shadow Cabinet

1) House Arrest of Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko: A Canard or a persistent rumor?

Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko

Contrary to what I previously stated here, relaying what the Congolese press had announced this past weekend—L’Avenir and Le Soft being among the culprits—Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko was AT NO TIME under house arrest.

The maddening thing about this rampant reporting malpractice that bears all the features of the Congolese grapevine of Radio-Trottoir [Sidewalk Radio] is that whenever the canard is contradicted by facts, the media culprit just picks things up where it left without ever thinking of apologizing to readers or viewers for the false reporting.

This is the case of L’Avenir, which reports this Monday June 14 that Gen Oleko appeared on Sunday at the police barracks of Camp Lufungula in the Commune of Lingwala to launch a “fortnight of [police] road courtesy” and to announce the intensification of police patrols before the Cinquantenaire. The same news is also relayed by Radio Okapi, the only reliable source of information in the DRC.

To its credit, however, L’Avenir now talks of “rumors” that maintain that “henceforth the general has to appear each Friday at the Auditorat Militaire [JAG corps of DRC] and, as a result, forbidden to leave the city-province of Kinshasa.” On his part, Ben-Clet of Le Potentiel is far more self-assured: “the general [Oleko] was briefly held and questioned by security services.”

2) Opposition MP Clément Kanku announces the creation of a Shadow Cabinet:

MP Clément Kanku 

Coordinator of opposition platform "Union pour la Nation" (UN)

(Credits)

Radio Okapi reports that opposition MP Clément Kanku, coordinator of the UN or “Union pour la Nation” [Union for the Nation] (an opposition platform to which belongs the MLC), announced Saturday, June 12, the creation of a Shadow Cabinet (“gouvernement fantôme” in French). Radio Okapi doesn’t give, however, the composition of the shadow cabinet.

Radio Okapi quotes Clément Kanku as stating:

“We will criticize [the government] and we’ll tell the population what we would have done, if we were in power.”

My guess is that this new opposition gimmick is just what it appears to be: a gimmick! The opposition is torn by contradictions, rivalries, and corruption. For instance, though dominated by the “Union pour la Nation”, Kinshasa provincial assembly elected as governor André Kimbuta of Kabila’s party. The opposition provincial MPs are alleged to have been bribed by the ruling presidential majority alliance (AMP).

Read More

Rant against copyright hoarders: Dr D’Lynn Waldron and her May 1960 photos of Patrice Lumumba

Patrice Emery Lumumba

In his house

Stanleyville (Kisangani), May 1960

Photograph posted here under “fair use” doctrine

Photo by Dr D’Lynn Waldron

(Credits)

I must state this off the bat, just in case Dr D’Lynn Waldron contemplates suing me for reposting the photo above. Section 107 of Chapter 1 of Title 17, U.S. Code pertaining to copyright law is titled “Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use.”

It states:

“Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.”

It goes without saying that, in reproducing reposting the photograph above, my intent is clearly within the strictures defined by this provision of “fair use”; particularly as my intent here in reproducing reposting the above photograph is solely to illustrate the point I’m making: to castigate the useless hoarding of copyrighted materials with national and cultural significance.

This being said, here’s my problem with Dr D’Lynn Waldron. This past month of May, while doing some research on the net for the 50th anniversary of DRC Independence, I came across 6 photos I’ve never seen before of Lumumba taken by Dr D’Lynn Waldron in May 1960—that is, 50 years ago. The interest of these 6 photographs lies in the fact that they capture an unguarded Lumumba at his home and in his neighborhood of Stanleyville (changed to Kisangani by Mobutu)—my hometown, incidentally.

Here’s an excerpt of the email I sent Dr Waldron on May 28, 2010, asking for her permission to use these 6 pictures:

“Dear Dr Waldron:

I'm a (...) blogger (…). I stumbled on your trove of stunning pictures of Lumumba today. Could you allow me to use them on my blog with full credits attributed to you? There’s also a fountain-pain signature and a scribbled rhetorical question Lumumba asked you that I'd like to use. I live in the Washington DC area and if you happen to be in this area, could you share with me your memories of the man? Otherwise, could I email you the few questions I'd like to ask you about Lumumba?”

The next day (May 29), Dr Waldron answered me as follows (excerpt): “I would have to see what you are writing before I can give permission to be associated with your blog.” I wasn’t asking Dr Waldron “to be associated with [my] blog” but to grant me permission to use 6 photographs taken over 5 decades ago and if possible to “share with me [her] memories of the man [Lumumba].”

At any rate, I promptly replied to Dr Waldron on the same day giving her the web addresses of my two blogs (the English and the French blogs) while informing her that I am a “native of Kisangani” and suggesting the impact the photos could have in the month of May 2010—as she took these pictures in May 1960: “It'd be so eerily powerful if I were to use your photos before the end of this month of May as you took them in May 1960!”

Having not received any reply from Dr Waldron by May 30, I sent her another email:

“You still haven't responded to my request for an interview about your encounter with Lumumba in May 1960 and about the use of your photographs. The Cinquantenaire (50th anniversary) of Congo's independence is about to be celebrated this month of June and you are part of that history--like it or not. Your encounter with Lumumba, the man, is a unique experience and thus constitutes a critical part of that history. It is therefore important that you share this material and your recollection with the Congolese people.

So, please, Dear Dr Waldron, respond to this request.
Yours respectfully…”

On June 2, Dr Waldron made this reply to me:

“On May 29th, I replied to your e-mail of May 28th and I attach that exchange of e-mails below.

You made no mention of an interview then and the content and tone of this e-mail is entirely different from your e-mail of May 28th.

You did not answer my questions about your trip or your blog

I [do] not give interviews and you have not received permission to use any of my materials.”

Well, my email might have somehow gotten lost in some cyber recesses—though my email account still claims the email was sent and delivered. And what have my trips to do with the permission to use the photographs? Besides, if you reread my opening email to Dr Waldron, I specifically asked her to “share with me [her] memories of the man”—which, in other words, is an interview request…

Indefatigable, I replied the same day:

“Dr Waldron:

I can't use your materials without your permission. On May 29, I answered your query. In fact, immediately after receiving your reply. I don't understand how you couldn't have received my email.

Below is the reply I wrote to you on May 29. I'm pasting it from the outbox of my email account. Please let me (…) know if you get this one...”

Since then, total silence from Dr Waldron!

I never really understood the point the anti-copyright movement was attempting to make in fighting for the abolition of copyright laws. Until this silly exchange with Dr D’Lynn Waldron. Dr Waldron is certainly entitled to her intellectual property rights. But I find that this unnecessary hoarding of copyrights for 6 pictures of a Congolese national hero I just wanted to use in celebrating the 50th anniversary of a nation amounts to depriving an entire nation of its historical and cultural rights to information… and a shameful exercise in utter futility!

Read More

Flori Chebeya Murder Investigation: 1) Autopsy by Dutch medical examiners; and 2) Kinshasa Police Chief Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko under house arrest

1) Autopsy by Dutch and Congolese medical examiners:

Dutch and Congolese medical examiners

(Credits)

The autopsy on the body of Flori Chebeya was conducted on Friday, June 11, at Kinshasa Mama Yemo Hospital by Dutch medical examiner Frank van de Goot, who was assisted by two other members of his team: another medical examiner and a forensic photographer. Dr Tshomba Honda, a Congolese medical examiner, participated in the autopsy.

Though the preliminary results of the autopsy are “inconclusive,” the hypothesis of murder has already been retained by Attorney General Flory Kabange Numbi.

As the medical examiners were leaving for the Netherlands, the Dutch embassy in Kinshasa released a statement that read in part:

“No cause of death has yet been established for certain…Nothing excludes the use of violence… "[The] autopsy does not indicate up to now any sign of excessive force…. Additional, more extensive examinations will be conducted at several [forensic] institutes in the Netherlands.”

In the meantime, DRC Minister of Justice, Professor Emmanuel Luzolo Bambi Lessa, had a meeting with Congolese human rights groups on the sensitive issue of the funerals on Independence Day. As he couldn’t convince the angry activists to set the funerals for another date, he urged them not to be unruly on June 30.

After the meeting with the Justice Minister, Marie-André Kayembe, the spokesman of the rights groups, said:

“We consider that June 30 is a sacred day for our country. Chebeya is a martyr of our country; for us, this will be a way of paying tribute to him.”

For Kayembe, the investigation would only lead to one conclusion:

“We are convinced and sure that the enquiry will lead to this: Floribert Chebeya was tortured on police premises and he died of it.”

2) Kinshasa Police Chief Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko under house arrest :

Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko

(Credits)

The position of Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko had become untenable of late—especially after making radio and televised statements claiming that the police had “found […] the corpse of a man without any visible sign of violence, whose pants fly zipper was open and beside whom were two condoms already used and one unused tree-condom pack; a box of the [Indian-made erectile] stimulant Davigra containing a bubble pack of two tablets already used; two artificial nails and a few women’s artificial hair extensions.”

For uttering such blatantly false statement, Gen Jean de Dieu Oleko was put under house arrest on Friday, June 11, by the special investigative unit of the National Security Council which is in the purview of President Kabila.

According to Le Soft, a newspaper close to the ruling presidential majority:

“While one can’t accuse [Gen Oleko] of killing the rights activist Floribert Chebeya Mahizire, the chief of police of the capital is henceforth in this case the number one suspect. For attempting to mislead the public, for whatever reasons best known to himself.”

Other senior intelligence police officers were also arrested Friday, including Major Georges Kitulwa Amisi.

Read More

Flori Chebeya Murder Update: 1) London: Retributive terror attack against DRC Ambassador Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi; 2) Instrumentalization by opposition; 3) Suspended Top Cop John Numbi NOT arrested and No one has confessed to the murder (Attorney General); 4) The Dutch Ambassador Ellen Berends-Vergunst imposes a 4-member forensic team for autopsy (June 11)

1) London: Terror attack against DRC Ambassador Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi:

Dr Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi

Kinshasa Ambassador in London

(Credits)

Here is a message in French DRC Ambassador in London Barnabé Kikaya Bin Karubi wrote on his Facebook wall:

“On the night of Sunday [June 6] to Monday [June 7], at around 10:45 pm, strangers came to my residence and set fire on the official vehicle, on my wife’s car and on my residence. My family and I had a narrow escape. I urge those who can do it to pray for my two kids who’re still traumatized by the violence of this act.”

According to Congolese media reports, the fire on Kikaya’s residence, located in the neighborhood of Hendon, raged for almost an hour before firemen had the blaze under control. The two cars were utterly crammed burnt and the damage to the residence substantial.

In his interview with Kinshasa radio station Top Congo, Kikaya said that the assailants, who identified themselves as “combatants,” claimed responsibility the next day [Monday]—as retribution to the murder of Flori Chebeya. Radio Okapi reports that the arson is now being investigated by the Counter Terrorism Command of the London Metropolitan Police.


This attack has angered Kinshasa mainstream media, including the otherwise guarded Le Potentiel, which uncharacteristically was vocal in its condemnation of the entire British police:

“This attack being the umpteenth act of terrorism perpetrated against our diplomats, it’s fitting to pose questions about the ability of British authorities to protect foreign diplomats and particularly those from the Democratic Republic of Congo!”

London is the European epicenter of Congolese rejectionists. It teems with violent “informal sovereigns” (Thomas Blom Hansen), “doppelganger anticitizens” (Comaroff and Comaroff), vicious zombies, maleficent golems, iniquitous vigilantes, and wacky whatnots who’ve taken upon themselves to produce an alternative, all-encompassing, exclusive and single narrative of the Congolese nation that mixes prophet Simon Kimbangu, Patrice Lumumba, Bundu-dia-Kongo guru MP Ne Mwana Nsemi, Jean-Pierre Bemba and Jesus-Christ into one oxymoronic hagiography!

They call themselves "Londoniens" (Londoners), “combatants,” “resisters” or “bana-mboka” (native children of the land). They are hardcore sectarians who don’t even acknowledge that the Raïs is a Congolese or the son of Laurent Kabila for that matter. They spell Congo “Kongo” and some of them claim to be the direct descendants of ancient Egyptians: they refer to ancient Egypt as Kemet (or Kermit). They are often MLC supporters from Kinshasa and the Western Lingala-speaking provinces of the DRC. They are well known for their acts of pornographic violence and vandalism against Congolese officials, musicians, or common fellow citizens who don’t agree with their narrative and whom they label as “infiltrés”[moles], “collabos” [collaborators], “Rwandans,” or “sellouts.”

Once you’ve been thus labeled as an enemy, you better watch over your shoulder, for you’d be living under the permanent fatwa issued on the internet by any number of these hooligans. Short of growing a pair of eyes on the back of your head, the only alternatives left for you would be to get out of London or to stay but to live in total seclusion--which is impossible!... They’ve got a panoptic view of all prominent Congolese living in the diaspora or in the Congo over whom they think they have biopolitical sovereignty!

These goons have converted the Congolese grapevine of Radio-Trottoir [Sidewalk Radio] into the internet. They have developed an informal albeit effective intelligence machine on other Congolese's political activities or allegiances. They have a flair for spotting the whereabouts of their victims upon whom they then descend in murderous posses. They operate with the swiftness and efficiency of Black Bloc anarchists with the uncanny ability to vanish into thin air in the streets, back streets and alleys of London after their “direct actions.” It’s just a miracle no one has died so far at their hands. They are also armed with sophisticated digital cameras and camcorders to record their deeds as trophies to plaster on their blogs and internet forums.

About two years ago, Koffi Olomide had to cancel a concert in London for fear of attacks. And, btw, most Congolese musicians are considered “collabos” by these “bana-mboka” who have declared London a no-go zone for any Congolese who’s remotely associated with or perceived as accommodating to the regime in Kinshasa…

Léonard She Okitundu

Then chief of staff to the President

After being severely beaten by "informal sovereigns" in London

October 2006

(Credits)

In October 2006, Senator Léonard She Okitundu, then chief of staff to the President, was assaulted, stripped naked and beaten senseless in the streets of London. In 2007, the "informal sovereigns" in London set the DRC embassy ablaze.

Here’s the dramatic first paragraph of The Guardian report on the beating of Léonard She Okitundu in an article titled “Beaten, stripped and humiliated online – an African minister’s welcome to the UK (Congolese dignitary ‘waited for hours in hospital’; ‘Photographs of stolen clothes posted on internet’)”:

“A senior member of the Congolese cabinet was attacked in London by a gang who beat him around the head and body with a baseball bat, stripped him and posted pictures of his clothes on the internet. Scotland Yard last night launched an investigation into the assault on Leonard She Okitundu, the chief of staff to Joseph Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, amid questions over why a foreign dignitary should be so vulnerable. The politician was left in the A&E of the Middlesex Central hospital with no trousers, covered in a blanket. ‘The police didn't seem to care. No one helped me and I was naked, that would never happen in my country,’ he said.”

Remember mom’s saying, “Always wear clean undies”? Well, to this day, Senator She Okitundu is pondering that age-old wisdom. Sadly, there are pictures of Okitundu's white undies with a huge shit-colored blotch running down the middle of the back, as if the man had used his underwear to wipe his ass! The shameful photographs still grace the blogs of these pornographers (just check here)!

And I have a strong suspicion that in May 2007 the pictures of these filthy undies played a critical part in the upset pulled by the members of his own ruling majority in the Senate by passing him over and electing instead as the President of the Senate Mobutu’s erstwhile Prime Minister and opposition leader, Léon Kengo wa Dondo! In the crowded and promiscuous dog-eat-dog biodiversity of the Congolese political class where every specimen claims to be peerless, the man had simply lost the respect of his peers. And, I suspect, these people just decided on the spot to disobey Kabila (who was pushing Okitundu for the seat) by not letting a man who literally doesn’t wipe his behind to be first in the line of succession to the presidency!...

MP Yves Kisombe

(Credits)

The second notorious direct action by the “Londoniens” involved the baby-faced and flashy Kinois MP Yves Kisombe. Born into a rich Bakongo family, Yves Kisombe is famous in Kinshasa for his expensive clothes, shoes, and lavish lifestyle. And on the day of his lynching, he was fortunate enough to be wearing clean undies! In August 2009, while on vacation in London, Yves Kisombe, who had just been expelled from the MLC party for siding too often with the presidential majority alliance (AMP) at the National Assembly, was spotted being ushered to a table at a Tottenham restaurant. Before long, an angry Congolese mob had gathered outside the restaurant.

A police patrol car, with two London “bobbies” inside, stopped by to inquire about the fuss. One savvy Congolese went to the patrol car to tell the politically-correct cops that it was a great African evening: the crowd was simply accompanying in proper traditional fashion a paramount chief fresh from Africa who was dining inside the restaurant. To which the bobbies responded: “Carry on, mate!”—before leaving the scene of a crime in progress!

Soon afterwards, about 6 crazed guys then entered the restaurant and dragged Yves Kisombe outside to a dark alley nearby where they stripped him naked. Eerily, the beating of Kisombe was preceded by a kangaroo court. The assailants even gave him “due process” by assigning to him a defense counsel! After pronouncing the guilty verdict on all counts, the “judge” then pronounced the sentence: “You shall herewith be ‘Okitundized’ by the bana-mboka!”

The most bizarre thing about these “informal sovereigns” gone haywire is that, if we were to believe the main line of their narrative, according to which the power in Kinshasa is dictatorial, then they mirror it exactly in a strange chiasmatic configuration!

2) Instrumentalization of the murder by MLC and affiliate opposition parties:

François Mwamba

MLC Secretary-General

(Credits)

The instrumentalization of Flori Chebeya murder is also now being systematically done by the domestic Congolese opposition for political gain. On Saturday, June 5, MP François Mwamba, Secretary-General of the MLC party, in the deep tremolo of the best tradition of Francophone oratorical delivery, made a bombastic declaration, telling the nation that his party is withdrawing from the festivities of the Cinquantenaire (the 50th anniversary of independence) and urging all Congolese citizens to stay home on that day in order “to meditate” “on the current situation of the country.”

Excerpt from François Mwamba’s statement (my transcription of the audio):

“In light of the culpable indifference of the government in the face of the martyrdom of the Congolese people and so as not to give our support to the utilization of assassinations and other political crimes as instruments of governance in our country, the MLC hereby declares, bound by the duty of solidarity with these numerous victims, that it will not participate in the activities organized by the power in place on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the accession of our country to independence. Consequently, the MLC urges its elected representatives—national and provincial senators and deputies, members and sympathizers not to get involved in these festive activities of June 30, which are in contradiction with the social reality of our country and, above all, with the goal of the fight, led at times at the price of their lives, by the fathers of independence.”

(A quick rant: this statement strikes me as a personal insult to Patrice Lumumba, especially as it comes from the party that trampled Congolese sovereignty by allying itself with Uganda and giving it free rein to plunder and destroy the DRC—crimes of aggression and pillage for which the DRC is still claiming $23b in reparation from Uganda, and as recently as this very past Sunday, June 6!)

This instrumentalization is all the more worrying as Flori Chebeya’s funerals are planned on Independence Day! I wonder whether Kinshasa authorities would want to postpone them by 2 days or more when tempers would have somehow abated and in order to avoid bloody riots while their guests are around.

Strangely, one of the most notable reactions to MP François Mwamba’s outburst came from the opposition-leaning daily L’Observateur, in an op-ed penned by JPS and Nsimba Sikama and titled “What if the DRC was the victim of a machination?”:

“It’s regrettable that some fellow citizens claiming to be representatives from the opposition are already engaged in finger-pointing, accusing the powers that be of being the culprits of this murder.

What is curious is that they don’t rest these accusations upon any investigation. Given that the latter is on-going. Even if everyone was entitled to one’s opinion, one shouldn’t pump raw emotions into such a sensitive dossier as Chebeya’s. Everybody is awaiting the results of the investigation. And the powers that be or at least those speaking on their behalf are striving to shed light on this case that seems to be tarnishing the image of the DRC.”

MP François Mwamba and his party are wont to withdraw or threaten to withdraw from events and parliamentary sessions. Some people within the ruling presidential majority alliance have questioned this tactic, wondering whether the MLC deputies would accept pay cuts for what amounts to costly paid leaves-of-absence (those MPs have outrageous salaries and perks). At any rate, if François Mwamba thought Belgian King Albert II would cancel his participation at the Cinquantenaire, someone should tell him: “Think again!”

This past weekend, we are told, Vice-admiral Pierre Narnauts, head of the Royal protocol department, and Pierre Emmanuel De Bauw, the King’s press advisor and spokesperson were seen in Kinshasa, no doubt as “location scouts” for the King. The Royal scouting team will stay in Kinshasa till Thursday, June 10.


3) Attorney General Flory Kabange Numbi: Suspended Top Cop John Numbi NOT arrested:

Flory Kabange Numbi

DRC Attorney General

No relation to suspended Gen John Numbi

(Credits)

On Monday, June 7, Flory Kabange Numbi, the “Procureur Général de la République” (PGR) or Attorney General, quashed rumors alleging that suspended Gen John Numbi (no relation to the former) was under house arrest.

PGR Flory Kabange Numbi is a grumpy and quibbling legal scholar. In his press conference, he had tough words on what he called “unreasonable gossip” and “extraordinary rumor peddling.”

He bristled at the queries of journos who wanted to know whether his namesake, Gen John Numbi, was under house arrest for an “infraction” in the unfolding murder case:

“The General Inspector of the Congolese National Police was suspended from his functions as a precautionary measure, this is simply at the administrative level, he’s not under house arrest. What do you mean by being charged with an infraction? He was suspended because he’s the chief of police who must enforce security.”

Journos also wanted to know whether some senior police officers had confessed to the murder, a claim that also angered the Attorney General:

“They’d have confessed where? Those opinions only bind radio stations broadcasting them. We are at the stage of gleaning data. We’re in the process of garnering all the elements susceptible to allow us to identify the culprits of this criminal act.”

And I do believe PGR Flory Kabange Numbi. Had anyone confessed, the body of Fidèle Bazana Edadi, the missing driver, would have already been located by now!

4) The Dutch Ambassador Ellen Berends-Vergunst imposes a 4-member forensic team for autopsy (June 11):

Ellen Berends-Vergunst

Dutch Ambassador in Kinshasa

(Credits)

Don’t be fooled by the homeyness of this woman. And take with a grain of salt her claim that “being a female diplomat in the DRC is an advantage rather than a disadvantage as the Congolese tend to be ladies’ men.” Whom is Ambassador Berends-Vergunst kidding? She’s a tough cookie who’s seen it all: Moscow, Hanoi, Cape Town, Kiev… And throughout her tenure ever since she happened upon Kinshasa in 2007, she’s been a major headache to Congolese authorities when it comes to human rights, ready, in so many soft words, to dangle above their heads the perilous prospect of cutting off aid whenever it somehow leaps out on her that she’s being taken for granted.

This time around, she’s turned into her personal crusade the independent and transparent investigation of this murder—especially as she personally knew the murder victim. Besides, the following persons are lobbying tooth and nail for the participation of Dutch forensic experts (and they were promised full official cooperation by the Raïs himself): the widow, Anne-Marie Mangbenga Nzinga; the older brother of the murder victim, Fidèle Chebeya Namugwabiza; and the deputy of Flori Chebeya.

Ambassador Ellen Berends-Vergunst has been bearing down heavily on Congolese authorities. And it seems that something gave way under her intense and relentless pressure of the last few days. While the DRC authorities are still reluctantly considering the FBI forensic assistance extended by the U.S., they made a sudden turnabout yesterday, even contradicting other Congolese authorities who’d claimed on the same day that the investigation would solely be domestic:

“The Democratic Republic of Congo has agreed for Dutch forensics experts to take part in the autopsy of murdered rights activist Floribert Chebeya, an interior ministry source said Tuesday.

In a letter dated Monday addressed to the ambassador of the Netherlands, of which AFP has obtained a copy, Congolese Interior Minister Adolphe Lumanu gave his "accord" to a Dutch request to send four specialists to Kinshasa.
[…]
The Dutch team will be led by Dr Franklin [Ragnar Willem] Van de Groot, who will arrive in Kinshasa on Thursday evening with his [3] assistants [Ronald Robert Otsen, Pim Christiaan Volkers and Sylvain Carl Arne Roos] and carry out the autopsy on Friday, the Dutch embassy said.

"He will take samples and the laboratory analysis will be carried out in the Netherlands," an embassy source told AFP.”

The forensic team will do the autopsy on Friday, June 11, and leave that very same evening for the Netherlands where the samples will be analyzed.

In the meantime, the Raïs, who’s on his way to Johannesburg for the opening ceremony of the Mundial, arrived yesterday in Goma, coming from Bukavu. In Bukavu, a demonstration called for Monday, June 7, by local human rights groups for the speedy trial of Flori Chebeya’s murderers was canceled by provincial authorities for lack of proper “security context.” Incidentally, Flori Chebeya, a member of the Shi ethnic group of South-Kivu province, was born in Bukavu on September 13, 1963…

Floribert “Flori” Chebeya

(Credits)

Read More

DRC: New top cop General Charles Bisengimana is an “Individual Perpetrator of Massacres” (Canadian Commission)

General Charles Bisengimana (left) and Governor Julien Paluku of North Kivu

(Credits)

One of the fallouts of the assassination of Floribert “Flori” Chebeya is the suspension of top cop General John Numbi and the promotion of his deputy, General Charles Bisengimana. Divisional Inspector Charles Bisengimana is a Tutsi who was part of the Rwandan-propped rebellion of Laurent Kabila that dismantled the Mobutu regime and later on joined the RCD rebellion. He was promoted general in 2003 at the outset of the Transition that saw the integration of rebel forces into the Congolese army and police.

I’m not going to dwell here on the issue of overrepresentation of the ethnic Tutsi in the high spheres of command of the army and police that is regularly raised not only by the Congolese “rejectionist” opposition in the Diaspora but also by the domestic mainstream press.

I have serious concerns, however, over the promotion of General Charles Bisengimana as an individual to the position where the incumbent is supposed to protect civilians. In an ideal, informed, and civilized country, this appointment would have been met with outcry, mass protests and universal calls to rescind it. Then again, it’s “hell’s system,” isn’t it?

The Canadian Rights and Democracy (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development) released in June 1999 a report titled “International Non-governmental Commission of Inquiry into the Massive Violations of Human Rights Committed in the Democratic Republic of Congo - Former Zaïre - 1996-1997” (the French version of that report appeared in January 1999).

In a nutshell, the report is comprehensive and considers all parties involved in the war that ravaged the DRC (especially eastern Congo) in the wake of the Rwandan genocide. It’s different from the stalled attempts by the UN at which the inquiry was heavily lobbied by Rwanda to broaden its scope to as far back as 1993 in order to include crimes committed both by the Mobutu regime and the ex-FAR (Rwandan Armed Forces) and their allies, the Interahamwe genocidal maniacs. Rwanda insisted on broadening the scope to 1993 so as to mitigate its own war crimes or of its allies’ perpetrated in the RDC in the short period between 1996 and 1997.

It’s important to consider the main goal of the inquiry which was carried out before the creation of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to which the DRC is now a signatory, though it still lets war criminals roam the country:

“Our principal aim in this initiative is to fight against a culture of impunity which is prevalent in this region Africa and which is a long-term obstacle to all international peace-building and peace-keeping efforts in the region. If crimes related to international criminal law took place in Congo, the truth should be known and impartially presented. Afterwards, an international campaign will be necessary in order to generate the necessary political will to request that the suspects responsible for these crimes be prosecuted in due course by the international justice system, in a forum such as the proposed International Criminal Court. While awaiting the creation of such a court, the suspects should be castigated by the international community and their own national community.”

Well, General Charles Bisengimana is one of those “suspects” to be “castigated” and, again, in an ideal and civilized world, to be criminally prosecuted now that the ICC has finally been established. The report also duly notes that, the crimes involved being crimes against humanity, “the allegations of these crimes […] are not subject to prescription.”

19 chilling crimes were identified by the commission: “1) Murders, assassinations, massacres, drowning; 2) Burning of villages and crops, destruction of property; 3) Torture and inhuman treatment, mutilation; 4) Rape; 5) Disappearances; 6) Systematic looting; 7) Obstruction of humanitarian aid; 8) Incitement of hatred; 9) Theft of livestock and property; 10) Hostage-taking; 11) Kidnapping of children and medical patients; 12) Recruitment of minors; 13) Non-assistance to people in danger; 14) Arrest and arbitrary detention; 15) Conviction and execution without recourse to a legally constituted tribunal;16) Crime of aggression; 17) Forced expulsion of Tutsis (Masisi, Kinshasa, Katanga, Kisangani); 18) Forced repatriation of refugees; 19) Racial, ethnic or political persecution.”

The inquiry also identifies “Individual Perpetrators of the Massacres” whom it defines as “persons who actually commanded the operations or were identified as being at the site of the perpetration of the massacres.” Adding: “the Non-governmental Commission has decided to release names which one may consider here only as primary suspects, for whom an appropriate judicial investigation will help establish without any doubt the indictment for war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide - crimes for which a synthesis of events has been conducted by the Commission” (emphasis in original).

The new DRC is therefore a “primary suspect” for “war crimes, crimes against humanity and acts of genocide.”

The Commission further identifies 7 sites of massacres in North Kivu alone, where General Charles Bisengimana is placed in the 7th site, Mugunga.

The Commission asserts that:

“The massacres in North Kivu were perpetrated in an environment riven from the outset with ethnic tensions between the indigenous populations and the Kinyarwanda speakers. Superimposed on this was the exported Rwandese Hutu-Tutsi conflict, due to the influx of refugees and the ethnic cleansing they carried out against the Tutsi in 1995-1996. It was in North Kivu that the largest massacres of refugees occurred, and also that the largest number of mass graves have been unearthed. The massacres in this zone were accompanied by the burning of Rwandese Hutu, and to a lesser extent, Zairian villages and property.”

Here’s the section of the report that cites the DRC new top cop:

“7. Mugunga

The following persons were in command of the units at the time of the events: Shabugabo Ngendayo, Habineza Dieudonné (commander at Ursayo),Hanyurwinfura Tonton-mao (lieutenant 24 BGED), Innocent Kamanzi, Gumiriza Ribanze, Charles Bisengimana (currently chief inspector of police at Goma),Rwabuzisoni Ngirumwami, Maryongo Musimuzi, Kitchuku Ngendayo,Janjanringwe Janvier, Karisa (commander), Macho (commander).

Two civilian facilitators allegedly took part in all the operations: Sengiyumva-Ngendayo and Bizimana Mutarambirwa.

In North Kivu (…) the ADFL troops indiscriminately are alleged to have targeted the local populations in order to eliminate Rwandese and Zairian Hutu militiamen who were well established in the area. The systematic campaign led to the death of Hutus and also produced many mass graves.”

Well, there’s no other way I can put this: the DRC police is now under the control of a mass murderer!

 Gen Charles Bisengimana

(Credits)

Read More

Hell’s System in Flux: General John Numbi finally arrested and Presidential Guard on Red Alert

General Jean de Dieu Oleko

Kinshasa Police commissioner 

"The body of Chebeya bore no visible sign of violence"

(Credits)

The stream of narratives of the grisly murder of Floribert “Flori” Chebeya Bahizire I’m reading calls to mind the epigraph of Jason Stearns’s blog Congo Siasa; epigraph taken from the lyrics of a song by Koffi Olomide that purports to describe the DRC: “This is hell's system. The fire is raging but we don't get burned.”

Talking of Stearns, I also recall his hypothesis, clearly proven beyond any doubt in the ongoing tragedy, of the “Logic of Disorder in Kinshasa”:

“Despite Kabila’s rhetoric, his preferred modus operandi is to operate outside the strictures of the Constitution. For instance: it’s not the Minister of Defense who primarily deals with the Armed Forces, it’s someone else in Kabila’s own personal military cabinet who deals with them; it’s not the Minister of Interior who deals with issues regarding the police and internal law and order, it’s someone in the inner circle of Kabila. He thus maintains a ‘strong parallel chain of command.’”

Well, it seems that the concentric circles of power around the Raïs have been colliding these past few days and hours—and the jangle of the collision is deafening.

Item: the latest RFI update:

“[A]ccording to a source close to the investigation, [General John Numbi] might have been finally arrested. He is suspected of being involved in the assassination of Floribert Chebeya. One of his men, [the head of the police intelligence unit DRGSS] Colonel Daniel Mukalay, might have directly implicated him. According to a person familiar with the case, the colonel has confessed to the assassination of Floribert Chebeya, without the intent of killing him.

[…]

He might have said to have acted on the order of General Numbi. Now, according to one source, John Numbi feared being accused in an investigation of the president [Chebeya] of the [human rights group] Voix des Sans-Voix [Voice of the Voiceless].

Several other officers of the [DRGSS] were arrested alongside Colonel Mukalay. Among them was also a major of the Presidential Guard. The Presidential Guard was placed on red alert today.”

Then again, while the celerity of the murder investigation is to be commended, we once more come full circle to Jason Stearns’s damning hypothesis: what’s this “strong parallel chain of command” under which this swift investigation is being carried out?

While it’s a relief that Numbi has been finally arrested, what about Kinshasa police commissioner, General Jean de Dieu Oleko, who uttered dreadful misleading statements in the wake of the discovery of the body?

General Jean de Dieu Oleko claimed “on several radio stations of the capital that [Chebeya] was a friend of the police whose ‘pertinent advice was very solicited and listened to.” Adding: “We often solicit him to listen to him give us lots of advice.”

General Jean de Dieu Oleko also issued a statement claiming that police officers who went on the scene of the murder “found […] the corpse of a man without any visible sign of violence, whose pants fly zipper was open and beside whom were two condoms already used and one unused tree-condom pack; a box of the [Indian-made erectile] stimulant Davigra containing a bubble pack of two tablets already used; two artificial nails and a few women’s artificial hair extensions.”

Did this man actually see the body of the deceased?

Those who were allowed a glance at the deceased at the morgue of Mama Yemo Hospital saw “visible signs of violence” on his body:

“Collaborators of Floribert Chebeya, as well as one UN official, who were able to see his remains at the morgue […] noticed that his face was swollen. On the other hand, they weren’t allowed to lift the shroud covering the remainder of the body.”

And this scatterbrain of a general would be allowed to continue making the rounds of radio and TV stations to mock the deceased and the whole Congolese nation?

If the Raïs wants to be serious about the murder investigation, General Jean de Dieu Oleko has, at best, to resign, or, at worst, to be arrested! And what’s this joke reported by some newswires of General John Numbi being placed under house arrest?

What’s even more terrible is that the Congolese government now seems to resist the idea floated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of an independent international probe of the murder!

Hell’s system indeed…

Read More

Villainous Murder and Corpse Desecration in Kinshasa: My Heartfelt apologies for my earlier doubts

It’s now clear that foul play occurred in the death of veteran human rights activist Floribert “Flori” Chebeya Bahizire.

I therefore apologize for doubting in my previous posts the likelihood of murder in the case—especially for dismissing the RFI report I translated earlier today.

What’s more damning is that the so-called senior police officers who are alleged to have perpetrated the villainous murder also desecrated the victim by planting by his body various sex paraphernalia and unzipping his pants.

I was at least right in the same post on what now turns out to be the staging by these murderous bastards of the crime scene: the scene described by the earlier accounts of the police was eerily reminiscent of a Radio-Trottoir narrative I heard in Kinshasa in 2006.

Here’s what I wrote in my previous post without putting two and two together:

“I once heard on Kinshasa Radio-Trottoir [Sidewalk Radio] about the death by Viagra overdose of a peacekeeper at the Grand Hôtel! The prostitute who’d spent the night with the blue helmet was arrested on suspicion of murder. She was later released when it was determined that the cause of death was a heart attack caused in all likelihood by Viagra overdose. I was never able to confirm this rumor...”

It seems that Colonel Daniel Mukalay, who is alleged to have masterminded the murder, shamelessly and callously plagiarized the Radio-Trottoir narrative in this real-life grisly murder!... It's way past time Mukalay account for the missing driver of Flori Chebeya, Fidèle Bazana Edadi—the plea of his wife last evening on Kinshasa TV was heart-wrenching!

Furthermore, as all the alleged murderers belong to the “Direction des Renseignements Généraux et des Services Spéciaux” (DRGSS), the very unit that abducted and tortured Flori Chebeya last year, this nest of bloodthirsty bandits has to be disbanded! NOW!...

Once again, my heartfelt apologies for giving these cannibals the benefit of the doubt!

Read More