Bill on sexual practices against nature rejected

A crazy MP called Evariste Ejiba Yamampya--the scatterbrain also
happens to be an evangelical bishop--introduced a Ugandan-like
anti-gay bill called "Projet de loi sur les pratiques sexuelles
contre-nature" (Bill on sexual practices against nature).

Fortunately, last Friday October 22, the bishop's madness was soundly
rejected by the National Assembly, which deemed it "inadmissible."

The prophet opened his rambling statement by wishing the Lord to bless
the Speaker Evariste Boshab--a wish that was promptly turned down by
the Speaker who reminded the messenger of God that the Congolese state
is secular.

It's worth noting that the bishop MP belongs to the Rwandan-backed RCD
party that was recently described by Kudura Kasongo, the erstwhile
spokesperson of the Raïs, as a "demonic outfit."

***

(Sent via BlackBerry)

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The Bodyguards of Zoé Kabila, one of the Raïs' younger brothers, savagely assault traffic cops in Kinshas

Radio Okapi reports this evening that Presidential Guards detached as
bodyguards to Zoé Kabila, one of the Raïs' younger brothers, savagely
assaulted traffic cops today at the Socimat Circle in downtown
Kinshasa.

There were no much details given about the incident in the Radio Okapi
report. But my guess is that Zoé Kabila, who has the reputation of
being bratty with a distorted sense of entitlement, wanted to go
through the traffic circle without bothering with the nuisance of
traffic rules and was prevented from doing so by highway cops who act
as traffic lights in a city that has virtually none.

The report also featured Jean-Claude Katende, the president of the
human rights group ASADHO, who voiced his outrage over the savage
beating of those traffic cops and the utter impunity of the
Presidential Guards. Katende also mocked the new so-called "Zero
Tolerance" policy of the government that never applies to the regime
stalwarts, dubbing it "Zero-effect Tolerance" policy--whatever that
means.

After the suspicious death last month of political activist Armand
Tungulu while in the custody of the Presidential Guards, this beating
of traffic cops by Zoé Kabila's bodyguards will further reinforce in
the eyes of many the roguish and brutal drift of the Kabila regime.

***

(Sent via BlackBerry)

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Guinean Presidential Electoral Campaign in Kinshasa

Yesterday evening, I couldn't believe it when I saw a campaign flyer
for Guinean presidential candidate Alpha Condé in a shoe store owned
by "Ndingaris"--as all West Africans are called here--at the bustling
neighborhood of Place Victoire in the Kalamu Commune.

There are several Guineans in this neighborhood. And I personally know
a young Guinean kebab maker on Oshwe Avenue I've nicknamed General
Dadis Camara. But I thought all of them were only merchants
uninterested in politics.

Hence, my puzzlement...

As I was pondering whether to walk into the shoe store to ask about
the campaign flyer, I saw a bubu-clad "Ndingari" closing it down for
the night, his wife following hard on his heels. When I was about to
talk to the man, his wife started yelling at him in "Ndingari,"
probably warning her husband not to talk to a Kinois crook!

But the man was secure enough to hear me and to brush off his wife's
frantic warning.

"I'm the one who brought Alpha Condé here," the Ndingari told me. "And
I'm convinced he'll win here!"

"Win here?" I asked. "Do you mean you Guinean exiles are going to vote here?"

"Of course," the Ndingari proudly retorted. "We'll vote at our embassy
on Sunday if the runoff isn't postponed yet again!"

This is one political right the Congolese in the diaspora aren't going
to get anytime soon. I don't think the Congolese government isn't
granting this right to the Congolese living abroad for lack of means.
It's simply because politicians of the Alliance of the Presidential
Majority (AMP) are afraid the Congolese in Europe and elsewhere
overseas would vote en masse for the opposition.

***

(Sent via BlackBerry)

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Gastronomic Interlude: Lituma or pounded plantains

Lituma in itself can justify a trip to the Congo. In fact I may
extend my stint in the Congo this time around just for the gourmet
experience of lituma and other irreplaceable Congolese gastronomic
treats.

Who would blame me? You can't get lituma anywhere else in the world.
Not even in restaurants of the Chaussée d'Ixelles, the Brussels
neighborhood the Congolese diaspora has rechristened Matonge after the
famous Kinshasa neighborhood that saw the rise of Soukous star Papa
Wemba.

Consider the hell on earth my American buddies would live in without
the occasional hamburger--there are also veggie burgers for my
vegetarian friends--and you get an idea of my personal hell in America
where I'd be salivating for years on end on the remote prospect of
eating lituma on my next trip to the Congo!

Lituma is a culinary specialty of the Lokele ethnic group--a tribal
cluster of clans of fishers and fishwives along the Congo River and
its tributaries in the Orientale Province.

That could explain why lituma is usually eaten with fish (fresh or
dried, cooked as stew or baked in leaves)--though it is also eaten
with meat. The late Abeti Masikini, a Soukous singer and Kisangani
native who wasn't a Lokele herself, even immortalized the formula
"samaki na lituma" (Swahili = fish and lituma) in her hit song
"Likayabo" (dried salted fish).

Well, there are other ethnic groups of the upper Congo River that also
have their own ways of making lituma, but none of their versions can
match the texture and the taste of the Lokele lituma.

To come up with the vintage Lokele lituma, you need to mix plantains
that are neither too soft nor too hard. I've seen in American food
markets plantains imported from Latin America: they are green and
hard; and they rot right away when you keep them for a few days on the
kitchen counter to soften them.
While some ethnic groups would also add boiled manioc in the mix or
make lituma with manioc only, the real lituma is made entirely with
plantains.

After peeling off the skin of plantains, you cook them by boiling.
When the plantains are ready, you first separate the harder plantains
from the softer ones. You then lightly break the former with a pestle
in a mortar and let everything cool off. After which, you pound the
plantains to a soft but consistent pulp. A muscled undertaking no
doubt.

Use a thread to cut the pulp into needed morsels. This evening I had
lituma and fish for dinner. Yummy!...

***
(Sent via BlackBerry)

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Kin Roundup: OF rain, HRW call for Gen Jean-Bosco Ntaganda's arrest, reparation for victims of sexual violence, Brussels court order to repatriate Armand Tungulu's body, and Mobutu's Birthday

Raining on Lipopo
(Photo: Alex Engwete)

***

1. Rain at long last

The first downpour of the rainy season started falling on the
Congolese capital yesterday at around 4 pm.

The rain was preceded by heavy black clouds that bore down on the city
from the east. Though it rained cats and dogs, the whole disturbance
was mostly quiet--except for one or two lightnings...

Have the Chinese finally opened the floodgates of Kinshasa skies?

2. In a statement released yesterday, Human Rights Watch asked the
Congolese government to arrest Gen Jean-Bosco Ntaganda, the deputy
coordinator of "Opération Amani Leo."

HRW accuses Ntaganda's men of roaming the North-Kivu Province on
search-and-kill missions targeting Laurent Nkunda's loyalists.

Well, I don't give a damn when insane killers plug one another. But
What really exercised me was the response of DRC Communication
Minister Lambert Mende to the HRW call to the Congolese government for
the arrest of this criminal.

Lambert Mende told Radio Okapi that HRW need to learn the basic notion
of the separation of powers in a democracy. Therefore, HRW call had to
be addressed to the Congolese judiciary, not the government!

Is this guy for real?

According to Lambert Mende's absurd reasoning, a military officer
could kill at will without the government raising a finger to stop the
madman.

What's then the use of the "Auditorat Militaire," the Congolese
military justice?

Mende needs to be reminded that Thomas Lubanga is being held and tried
by the ICC because the Congolese government had arrested him in
Kinshasa. As there's an outstanding arrest warrant issued by the ICC
against Ntaganda, the Congolese ought to arrest him too.

Mende's statement is just another installment in the umpteenth
explanations the Congolese has put forth to explain why it has
tolerated within the ranks of the FARDC, the country's armed forces,
war criminals of the ilk of Jean-Bosco Ntaganda who are actively being
sought by the ICC. The real uptake is that Ntaganda is a free agent
operating in FARDC fatigues. The man is armed and dangerous and the
FARDC are incapable of dislodging him from North-Kivu where he and his
men are entrenched. A fact that Mende's clumsy political cant can't
conceal!

3. A few hours before the launch of the 3rd World March of Women in
Bukavu yesterday, a high-level panel of the UN Human Rights Commission
held a press conference at MONUSCO in Kinshasa. The topic was
"Reparation for victims of sexual violence" (Source: Radio Okapi).

The mission had talked to victims of sexual terrorism at sites of mass
rapes in North- and South-Kivu, Orientale and Equateur Provinces and
presented its major findings at that press conference.

Here are the 5 major findings of the panel:

A. The need for peace and security ranked first in the pleas voiced by
victims of sexual violence to the panel.

B. There's an urgent need for reparation for victims of sexual
violence who have been destroyed physically, psychologically, and
materially. Sadly, despite the relative success of some programs set
up to help out survivors, their needs remain largely unmet, especially
in remote areas. Health care and education (for victims and their
children) were among those urgent needs conveyed repeatedly to the
panel by the victims. Access to microcredits could also help victims
rebuild their lives.

C. The trauma of sexual violence is compounded by the social stigma
that follows hard on the heels of rapes. Rejected by their husbands
and families and ostracized by society at large, survivors of sexual
violence are left to fend for themselves and their children.

D. While the fight against impunity and access to justice were another
priority for survivors, most of those victims couldn't seek justice
by themselves or locate the perpetrators. Hence the need for a
mechanism of reparation for survivors. The reparation could take many
forms to fit the victims' needs. These reparations could be individual
or collective. In one instance, for instance, 2003 victims of mass
rape at Songo-Mbuyu formed a survivors' group which, with the help of
UNIFEM, was able to get a boat for the transport of the survivors'
goods down the river. This is the kind of collective reparation that
can be undertaken by the authorities.

E. In those instances where victims were able to positively identify
perpetrators and when the latter were prosecuted and victims awarded
reparations, these condemnations and reparations were oftentimes
hollow. Perpetrators routinely escape from jail and to date no
reparation have been awarded to victims. This undermines the
survivors' confidence in the ability of the judicial system to deliver
justice for them.

The panel will then prepare a report for the UN High Commissioner for
Human Rights with a set of recommendations to be presented to the DRC
government.

4. According to Radio France Internationale RFI (its FM signal has
finally been restored by Congolese authorities) monitored this
morning, a Brussels court has ordered Kinshasa to "repatriate" Armand
Tungulu's body within 48 hours. After this deadline, the Congolese
government will be facing a €25,000-fine per day! The complaint was
filed by Tungulu's widow and children. Tungulu's lawyer claims the
body might have already been surreptitiously interred by Congolese
authorities.

***

And by the way, TODAY is MOBUTU's BIRTHDAY (he was born this date in
1930 in Lisala, in the Equateur Province). Under his rule, October 14
was Youth Day!

One of Mobutu's sons, Nzanga Mobutu, is one of the DRC Deputy-Prime Ministers.

***

(Sent via BlackBerry)

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DRC Communication Minister Lambert Mende Omelanga rants about UN Mapping Project Report and doubts over Armand Tungulu's Suicid

At midday today, DRC Communication Minister Lambert Mende Omelanga
held a marathon press conference of about an hour and a half.

As per usual, the man rambled on and on, lashing out especially at the
UN Mapping Project Report and at those who questioned the official
version of suicide of Armand Tungulu Kudiandambu, the man who stoned
the Raïs motorcade.

Lambert Mende's performance reminded me of that of the spokeswoman of
the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs who recently came out swinging
against the Nobel Committee which saw it fit to award the Nobel Prize
to a common "criminal" and scofflaw.

Likewise, Lambert Mende had nothing but contempt and wrath for those
who carried out the UN Mapping Project who arbitrarily picked and
chose:

1) the coverage period (1993-2003), instead of going as far back as
the 1991 looting of businesses planned by Mobutu and his foreign
backers or the 1960 theft of the country's assets by the colonial
power (Belgium) and the subsequent assassination of elected officials
(Lumumba and others);

2) to include in the Report events that clearly fall outside the
chosen coverage period, like the repression of the Bundu-dia-Kongo
uprising in the Bas-Congo Province while not mentioning for instance
the criminal behavior by some ex-MONUC elements;

3) to conflate countries that had committed aggression against the
Congo (Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda) with those that had been invited as
allies by the Congolese government (Angola, Zimbabwe, etc);

4) to make the false assumption that the systematic rape of women was
facilitated by the rampant sexism embedded in traditional cultural
constructs of the Congo;

5) to make the outlandish claim that the Congolese judicial system is
so dysfunctional that it only stumbles along when pressured by
international NGOs and the international community; and

6) to contradict their own findings in the body of the report with its
conclusions.

***

Lambert Mende angrily brushed off the suggestion that Armand Tungulu
couldn't possibly have killed himself with a pillow as there are no
pillows in Congolese jails.

How could people who hadn't seen the jail cell in question, Lambert
Mende wondered, know for certain there are no pillows in that jail?

(The joke these days on Radio-Trottoir is that Armand Tungulu choked
to death while dining on a pillow in his jail cell.)

It also turns out that Lambert Mende is a self-made psychiatrist. He
diagnosed the late Armand Tungulu of displaying symptoms of
"cyclothymia" during his incarceration--at times very excited and
other times crestfallen! A cyclothymic individual being unpredictable,
the thesis of suicide seems therefore plausible, though the police are
still deeming the cause of death "suspicious"...

***

To his credit, Lambert Mende commended the upcoming women's
demonstrations due to take place in Bukavu.

(Congo's First Lady Olive Lembe has already touched down in the
provincial capital of South-Kivu for the three-day event.)

***

(Sent via BlackBerry)

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The Reinvention of Kudura Kasongo, former spokesperson of the Raï

Kudura Kasongo as a newscast anchor
(TV screen shot by Alex Engwete)

***

Kudura Kasongo, erstwhile spokesperson of Joseph Kabila, has of late
reinvented himself... He now anchors the newscast of Congo Média
Channel, a TV station he owns.

I should add that it's a reinvention to his previous incarnation:
under Mobutu, Kudura Kasongo worked for a long time as an anchor at
the state-owned "La Voix Zaïre" (Voice of Zaire) before moving on to
other prominent positions in government.

His son, Kudura Kasongo Jr, also works as a journalist at Congo Média Channel.

Kudura Kasongo also regularly appears on the same TV station as a
pundit for a program called "Tout le monde en parle" (Everyone talks
about it).

He takes the opportunity of his appearances in this program to respond
to his political enemies within the AMP (the Alliance of Presidential
Majority) who are wont to cast aspersions on his integrity.

At his last intervention on "Tout le monde en parle," he tackled
head-on a number of sensitive issues, like the innuendos spread on
Radio-Trottoir channels of his embezzlement of funds while working for
the Raïs (see previous post), the proposal to change the
constitutional provision from a proportional representation system to
a majority representation system, and the indefinite suspension from
the AMP of MP Bahati for criticizing the platform.

Kudura Kasongo stated firmly he never embezzled funds but was instead
fired by the former National Security Advisor to the President over
the way he and the presidential communication service he headed were
repeatedly slightly by those around the Raïs. And he challenged them
to a public debate. He further announced that he'd call a press
conference at the opportune moment to clarify the issue.

The story alleging Kudura Kasongo's embezzlement being circulated
through the grapevine shows that, just as under Mobutu, the powers
that be routinely and conveniently leak or "plant" (dis)information
into Radio-Trottoir channels to discredit people.

Kudura Kasongo bluntly attacked the project being floated by some in
the AMP to change the proportional representation system to a majority
system. This kind of ideas, he warned, might end up in a reversal to a
one-party system--a dangerous development in a post-conflict
environment.

As for the "indefinite suspension" of MP Bahati, a permanent thorn on
the side of the AMP for his constant criticism of the lethargy and
sclerosis of the platform, Kudura Kasongo laughed at the idea of
suspending someone indefinitely. He deplored the lack of clear-cut
system of sanctions within the AMP and at the Presidency. He also
warned that curbing self-criticism within an organization could obtain
deleterious tunnel vision.

If anything, Kudura Kasongo has chutzpah by daring to come out this
way against his own platform at a time when AMP stalwarts are
powwowing this weekend around the "moral authority" at Kingakati
Presidential Farm.

***
(Sent via BlackBerry with local SIM card)

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Kingakati Conclave; and the plight of the duo Vital Kamerhe-Kudura Kasongo

Members of the political committee of AMP, the "Alliance de la
Majorité Présidentielle" (Alliance of Presidential Majority), are
holed up at the Raïs' farm at Kingakati, a 2-hour drive east of
Kinshasa, for a weekend-long strategy session billed as the "Kingakati
Conclave."

The meeting is by no means a "distribution of positions" in
government, a senior member of the platform told reporters to allay
the anxiety of the rank and file of the Alliance who may feel left
out.

He added that this weekend conclave is simply a meeting between key
leaders of the platform's political committee and the Alliance's
"moral authority," i.e. the Raïs, to set up a strategy for the
upcoming elections. (The French language allowed him to state this
without clearly mentioning the word "elections," as the expression
"prochaines échéances politiques" perfectly conveyed the idea.)

At the end of the Kingakati Conclave, the leaders of the platform
would then share with their party members the strategy crafted over
the weekend.

As this conclave was being announced with much fanfare on Thursday,
newspapers aligned with the PPRD, the Raïs' party, were launching
coordinates personal attacks against Kudura Kasongo, former spokesman
of the President, and Vital Kamerhe, ex-Speaker of the National
Assembly, who are accused of forming an unholy "union to bring down
Kabila" (a claim made for instance by the newspaper "Le Réseau"). The
two men were derisively dubbed "the duo."

Appearing on TV last night, Kudura Kasongo blasted those reports and
accused people close to the current Speaker and national president of
PPRD, Evariste Boshab, of hatching the "cabal" against Kamerhe and
him.

It is odd to see Kudura Kasongo who not along ago was the darling of
the media close to the ruling majority being thus mercilessly savaged
by the same media he used as prop when he was one of the Raïs' chosen
few.

I still haven't heard or read the official account of Kudura Kasongo's
sudden downfall last year. But according to Radio-Trottoir, he was
dismissed by the Raïs who caught him red-handed in the act of stealing
the President's charitable donation to a Catholic school in
Lubumbashi.

According to this account, Kabila visited the school about two years
ago and wondered why a wing wasn't finished. The priests told him they
had launched a fund-raising drive to get the $100,000 needed to
complete the construction of the wing. The Raïs then pledged the full
amount to the priests.

Shortly afterward the Raïs handed $100,000 to Kudura Kasongo for those
priests. The President's spokesman gave half of the money to the
priests and pocketed the other half! In Congolese political lingo,
this kind of theft or unauthorized apportionment of funds is called
"Opération Retour."

About a year after Kudura Kasongo's theft, the Raïs went again on a
visit to that school where he was surprised to see that the
construction of the wing was still unfinished.

When he voiced his astonishment, the priests told him their
fund-raising was still ongoing as they only got $50,000 pledged by the
Raïs.

Furious, Kabila summoned Kudura Kasongo at the school where he was
confronted by the president in front of the priests.

As Kudura Kasongo was attempting to stammer improbable explanations,
the Raïs contemptuously told him: "I don't want to see you ever
again! Get out of my sight!"

Well... If this account is true, why don't Kudura Kasongo's political
enemies use it in their recent attacks?

(Sent via mobile phone)

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Kin Update: 1) MP Christophe Beyeye's Conspiracy Theory; and 2) Cyberattack at Central Bank

Opposition MP Christophe Beyeye (TV screen shot by Alex Engwete)

***

1) MP Christophe Beyeye's Conspiracy Theory

Yesterday afternoon at the National Assembly, MP Christophe Beyeye
introduced a motion calling for an investigative commission based on
the findings of the recently published UN Mapping Project Report.

The motion was promptly dismissed by Speaker Evariste Boshab for lack
of "terms of reference" and the uncertain constitutionality of using a
report crafted by an international body.

But what was most interesting was the outlandish preface of the motion
by MP Beyeye, erstwhile minister of Mobutu.

MP Beyeye claimed that in 1992 he accompanied Mobutu on a trip abroad
where an unnamed powerful foreign leader told the Zairian dictator
that he could no longer control such a huge country. Nor could that
foreign power control it either. Hence, the need of splitting the
country into 4 smaller and more manageable entities.

As Mobutu didn't mince his words when it came to the territorial
integrity and sovereignty of the Congo, MP Beyeye went on to say, the
exchange with the foreign leader became unpleasantly heated.

Fast forward to 1995. In a security meeting "at the highest level," MP
Beyeye learned about a "balkanization plot" that was being hatched by
countries on the eastern border of the Congo.

MP Beyeye then wrote an "opuscule" titled "Zero Notice, Army Officers"
that he circulated and even sent to the local press.

When the country's enemies read Beyeye's brochure, they delayed their
balkanization plot by one year, that is, till the AFDL/RPA invasion of
the Congo!

Wow!...

The problem with MP Beyeye's claims is that he may have misplaced his
"opuscule."

Beyeye seemed to imply the "opuscule" had vanished soon after
publication and urged his colleagues to check with MP's Kin Kiey and
Modeste Mutinga, owners of local newspapers, who might still have in
their archives the prophetic "opuscule."

2) Cyberattack at Central Bank

The government-run RTNC (Congolese National Radio and Television)
reports today that the computer system of the Central Bank is now up
and running at 60% of its capacity after being crippled by a
cyberattack!

An investigation is underway to unmask the hackers. The report seemed
to allege that it was an inside job.

***
(Post sent via BlackBerry)

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The Chinese have switched off rain in Kinshasa

(Post sent via BlackBerry using local SIM card. Post format could be affected.)
***
Chinese have switched off rain over Kinshasa, says Radio-Trottoir.

"They're nearing the deadline for road constructions in Kinshasa,"
claimed a Kinoise in a taxi-bus today. " So, they just switched off
rain."

Asked how the Chinese did it, the woman said it was with their
"sorcery" that they are warding off rain!

She then went on to say that even in the Congo there are "tribes,"
like the Bakongo, that can switch off rain at will. The Bakongo would
use a pestle and a broom to block rain, she told the captive audience
in the crammed rusty VW bus!

The "elanga" or the relatively chilly dry season ended on September
15, when heavy rains were supposed to usher in the rainy season. But
since then there have only two very short drizzles.

The heat is stifling and the agricultural calendar has already been
disrupted. The price of some foodstuffs has spiked. For instance, the
price of a bunch of cassava leaves--basic vegetable for low-income
households--is normally between 150 to 300 Congolese Francs. But that
price has now jumped to 1,000 Francs (about $1).

It therefore imperative that the Chinese working for the Rais' roads
project stop interfering with the weather!

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Armand Tungulu, who stoned the Rais's car, has committed suicide

(Sorry for any formatting problems: I'm sending this post via BlackBerry.))

The guy who threw 2 stones at the Rais's vehicle in Kinshasa has been
identified.

It was ARMAND TUNGULU, a Brussels resident who was on a family visit
in Kinshasa, radio stations of the Congolese capital reported last
night.

The reports also stated that Armand Tungulu had committed suicide with
a cloth he used as his pillow in his cell. An investigation and an
autopsy have been ordered by the authorities.

If anything, these reports establish the credibility of Radio-Trottoir
which reported the incident while the mainstream media put a lid on
it.

Radio-Trottoir now claims that Tungulu "was suicided" instead.

Be that as it may, adds Radio-Trottoir, you just don't wake up one
morning and go on an impulse stoning of the vehicle of a President of
the Republic. With impunity!

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Kinshasa Abuzz...

The posture of this Kinshasa contortionist showing off his butt is
emblematic of the general attitude of the Kinois toward the UN Mapping
Project due to be released today.

The report documents acts of targeted atrocities in eastern DRC
against Hutu refugees--helpless women, kids, infants and the elderly.
BBC reports this morning that though "toned down," the report retains
the "charge of genocide" perpetrated against Hutu refugees...
A vindication indeed for the claims made by Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza.

I have all along claimed here and elsewhere, based on contemporaneous
press and eyewitness accounts, that there was a systematic "counter-genocide" against Hutu refugees in the DRC... A conclusion widely shared by the Congolese who experienced first-hand the horrific
cruelty of Rwandan and Ugandan troops.

I mentioned the UN report to some Kinois. One of them repeated the
plan dreames by Papa Wemba a few years back of building a long wall
on the border with Rwanda, "just as Israel has done." Another
one told me that if it only depended on him he'd move Rwanda to
Patagonia!

So, if Kinshasa is abuzz today, it's not over the UN Mapping report.
It's all about a freak incident that involved the Rais yesterday in
the Commune of Lingwala, along the avenue re-christened Mulele Pierre
at the fall of Kinshasa to Laurent Kabila's troops, but which the
Kinois stubbornly continue to call "Avenue du 24 Novembre," the date
of Mobutu's infamous coup in 1965.

President Joseph Kabila was driving himself in his SUV as he usually
does when, around the taxi-bus stop called "Rail," a well-dressed
young man (some Kinois claim he just returned from France; others from
the U.S) threw 2 stones at the president's vehicle. One stone landed
on the hood, and the other on the back.

As the crazy guy was being promptly apprehended by the "bana-mura," as
the presidential guards are called by the Kinois, the baffled Rais
stopped and got out of the car to look at the stone-thrower.
Well, the Iraqi shoe-thrower got I think 3 years in jail; this stupid
Kinois scofflaw might have landed himself a long stint at Kinshasa
Makala Prison.

Strangely, though the news of the incident spread yesterday through
the channels of "Radio-Trottoir" (Radio-Sidewalk or Congo's
grapevine), not a single press report has so far mentioned it.

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