Alain Juppé posted today (March 16) on his blog this post on thediplomatic effort spearheaded by France and the UK for the use offorce against Gaddafi's troops in Libya. The post is titled "Notrehonneur," which I translate below.***OUR HONORIt's not enough to proclaim, as have done almost all the greatdemocracies, that "Gaddafi must go." There's a need to be given themeans to efficaciously help those that have taken up arms against hisdictatorship.Juridical and financial sanctions decided by the United Nations andthe European Union are useful....
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
François-Joseph Mobutu's UDEMO party maintains its alliance with theAMP, Joseph Kabila's ruling cartel of political parties.Speaking yesterday to reporters, UDEMO Senator Joseph Masikini saidthat the agreement signed between his party and the AMP in 2006 hasn'tbeen abrogated by the recent firing of Mobutu, UDEMO's leader.Therefore, Masikini asserted, Mobutu's replacement has to come fromwithin the ranks of UDEMO.This replacement of Mobutu by another UDEMO leader could just bewishful thinking. So far, the AMP has kept mum over the issue andthere...
Tuesday, 15 March 2011
After 3 months of parliamentary vacation that followed the contentiouspartisan vote on the constitutional revision allowing a one-roundpresidential election, both lower and higher houses of DRC Parliamentconvened this Tuesday, March 15, to open the March 2011parliamentarysession--the last session of the current legislature.This session is the "mother of all parliamentary sessions" as it willdeal with the electoral law and calendar.The two successive separate formal openings took place at the "Palaisdu Peuple" (the People's Palace), the seat of...
Sunday, 13 March 2011
The immediate fallout of the firing of Deputy Prime MinisterFrançois-Joseph Nzanga Mobutu last Thursday, March 10, was theresignation on Friday, March 11, of the Minister of External Trade,Bernard Biando, a member of Mobutu's UDEMO party.Biando's resignation means the end of the alliance between UDEMO andthe AMP and, hence, a slight weakening of the presidential caucus inthe National Assembly.AMP is a cartel grouping more than 50 political parties with majoralliances with PALU, the Prime Minister's party, and, till the firingof Mobutu, with UDEMO.Friday...
Friday, 11 March 2011
While world leaders kept talking the talk without walking the walk asthousands are being slaughtered by the mentally-unhinged Gaddafifamily members and their supporters, Nicolas Sarkozy took thisThursday the unprecedented step of recognizing the Libyan NationalTransitional Council (NTC) as the sole representative of the people ofLibya after meeting NTC representatives at the Elysée Palace. What'smore, Paris will soon send an ambassador to Bengazi.The Obama administration at first dragged its feet after its muchapplauded leadership during the Egyptian...
Thursday evening, the Raïs' senior legal advisor appeared on thestate-owned RTNC TV to read the presidential decree firing DeputyPremier François-Joseph Nzanga Mobutu (photo above). No reason wasgiven for the dismissal.Nzanga Mobutu, the son of the erstwhile Zairian dictator Joseph-DésiréMobutu Sese-Seko, was in charge of labor and social planningportfolios. He's the leader of the "Union des Démocrates Mobutistes"(UDEMO), a party that is still a...
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Kinshasa radio and tv stations are now broadcasting public serviceannouncements by health and administrative authorities advising thepopulation about an intensive city-wide door-to-door anti-poliovaccination campaign that will take place in Kinshasa from March 20 toMarch 23.The vaccination is to target the entire population, estimated at about11 million people living in the capital city and its suburbs.This unprecedented massive campaign involving all age groups meansthat there's a serious fear of a devastating polio "outbreak."In fact, a polio...
Tuesday, 8 March 2011
The DRC government chartered two flights to evacuate a couple ofhundred Congolese who've been stranded at Tripoli airport since thestart of the Libyan insurgency.The first flight from Tripoli carrying more than one hundred Congoleselanded at Kinshasa N'Djili International Airport two days ago. Thereare still another hundred Congolese stuck at the DRC embassy inTripoli.The repatriated Congolese were shown on TV giving kudos to the Raïsfor his "patriotic and humanitarian action."According to Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, DRC Foreign Affairs Minister,another...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
