used to shoot and wound one of his murderers)
***
It was a sad today in Kinshasa for those of us, alumni of the 10th
Promition of the then Belgian-organized Ecole de Formation d'Officers
(EFO), at Kananga, in the Orientale Kasai Province; and the relatives
and friends of Gen. Bikweto "Biki" Tuyinabo, cowardly gunned down on
Christmas Eve.
After laying in state at the proving ground of FARDC Centre Supérieur
Militaire in the Binza Commune of Kinshasa in mid-morning, the remains
of Gen. Bikweto "Biki" Tuyinabo, who was gunned down on Christmas Eve
in the Kinshasa western neighborhood of Jamaïque, were laid to rest at
the Mbeseke-Futi cemetery this afternoon.
(I knew Gen. Bikweto when he was a mere first lieutenant, my Promotion
commander, when I was a cadet at EFO. My former colleagues at the
Academy present in Kinshasa, most of whom have the rank of colonel,
attended the grim pageant.)
In the night of Chistmas Eve, Gen. Bikweto, freshly appointed second
in command of the Kitona Military Base in the Bas-Congo Province, was
having a beer at his regular watering hole, a sidewalk bar some 50
yards from his residence at the western Kinshasa neighborhood of
Jamaïque.
Though in civilian garbs, Gen. Biki was packing heat--a Belgian
military issue Browning GP.
As he was sipping his beer, Gen. Biki was suddenly told by the
bartender that there was a heist in progress nearby. It so happened
that three hoodlums, armed with AK-47s, were mugging neighborhood
money-changers.
A veteran of the two "Shaba Wars" and "Africa World War," Gen. Biki
was no man to shy away from confrontation--bare-handed or armed!
He immediately sprang into action.
According to eyewitnesses, the following was the short exchange Gen.
Biki had with the bandits before shots rang out in the night.
"Hey you!" Biki yelled as he approached the gangsters. "What the fuck
you think you're doing?"
"And who the fuck are you?" one of the bandits shot back.
"I'm an army general, asshole, and I am gonna--"
As he was pulling his handgun from his waistband, one of the bandits
shot Biki in the leg.
As he fell down, Biki was nonetheless able to pull out his handgun and
discharge it at the assailants--hitting one of them in the upper leg.
Then all hell broke loose....
By the time Biki's bodyguards arrived on the scene, the bandits had
fled after carjacking a vehicle and the general lay dead of multiple
gunshot wounds on the pavement.
When investigators of the Détection Militaire des Activitês
Anti-Patrie (DEMIAP)--the Congolese military intelligence--arrived at
the crime scene, it quickly emerged that one of the perpretators had
been badly wounded by the general.
DEMIAP then sent word to all Kinshasa hospitals to report any gunshot wound.
Two days later, the three perps brought to the "Sanatorium" Hospital
of Selembao Commune their buddy whose wound by that time was
festering.
The physicians admitted the wounded patient and wrote a very long
prescription of medicines in order to send the accomplices on a fool's
errand.
Sana Hospital physicians then phoned DEMIAP whose agents swiftly came
to nab the three murderers.
It turns out that the three bandits are rogue FARDC soldiers of
Kinshasa corps of military engineers.
"We didn't know the guy was a general!" the wounded bandit was heard
whimpering in the military ambulance that was taking him to custody...
***
PHOTO CREDITS: Wikipedia
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