1) Raïs to 25 Ambassadors: No postponement of Elections
President Joseph Kabila Kabange aka Raïs
Opening of the annual WB-IMF African Caucus meeting
At the Salon Congo, Grand Hotel, Kinshasa
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
Wednesday August 3. Twenty-five ambassadors accredited to Kinshasa as well as the UN Special Representative and Head of MONUSCO were invited by Joseph Kabila to the Palais de la Nation, the presidential office, in Gombe Commune. In what appeared as a response to the Opposition’s Open Letter of July 30, Kabila said in no uncertain terms that general elections will be held on November 28, as scheduled by the CENI. He added that all the “security conditions” are met for an appeased elections—with the exception of a “few pockets of insecurity” in North and South Kivus, and Orientale provinces. It’s worth noting that Kabila made these remarks in the heels of his address at the opening of the two-day annual meeting of the African Caucus of the World Bank and the IMF held at Kinshasa Grand Hotel.
2) Extraordinary Session of Parliament passes Annex to Electoral Law
MPs
Palais du Peuple
Kinshasa, Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
Tuesday August 9. One single day was enough for the MPs to pass the Annex to the Electoral Law. In a house counting 500 members, a total of 386 deputies participated in the proceedings, with 375 voting in favor of the law, 6 against it, and 5 abstentions. The Senate will in turn examine and likely pass the law this Wednesday. The extraordinary parliamentary session of both houses was called in on Saturday, August 6.
The truancy of Congolese MPs is proverbial, though their absence from this session could be attributed to the challenges of air transportation these days in the Congo after the ban of Heba Bora Airlines from DRC airspace following the air crash of Kisangani on July 8. Additionally, I’m told that some diehard MP oppositionists present in Kinshasa boycotted the session as long as their concerns, contained in their Open Letter to the President, had not been addressed.
But some other dyed-in-the-wool opposition MPs were in attendance, like the stubborn and quarrelsome MP Jean-Lucien Busa (MLC). Before the vote was called on by Speaker Evariste Boshab, MP Busa attempted one of his signature “congolaiseries” that often take the form of procedural legalese. In his last-ditch to derail the passage of the law, Busa introduced a motion requiring that the Annex first transit by the PAJ (Political, Administrative, and Judiciary Commission) where it would be examined in detail before being sent back to the full house. And this is warranted, according to Busa, in order to avoid confusing “speed” and “precipitation.”
Copiously booed by the majority MPs, Busa grimly stood his ground and requested a vote on his motion, as he bemoaned the hijack of the National Assembly by the majority. As the rules of the National Assembly prescribe, Speaker Evariste Boshab called for four MP volunteers to take to the floor—two of them in defense of Busa’s motion; and two others against it.
Taking to the floor to defend Busa’s motion were two vocal opposition leaders: Lajos Bidiu Nkebi (MLC) and the redoubtable orator Gilbert Kiakwama Kia Kiziki aka KG of the Convention des Démocrates Chrétiens (CDC).
MP Lajos Bidiu Nkebi (MLC)
MP Lajos Bidiu gave a variation of Busa’s intervention, at times repeating word for word what his colleague had already said.
MP Gilbert Kiakwama Kia Kiziki aka KG
Convention des Démocrates Chrétiens (CDC)
Strangely, the performance of MP Gilbert Kiakwama, a seasoned orator, was flat and repetitive, though it sparkled when he made an impassioned plea to send the law to the PAJ commission “if we want to be a normal National Assembly, in a normal Parliament, in a normal state.”
The majority MPs lined up two of their vibrant orators: MP Dieudonné Mwenze (PPRD) dwelled on the technical aspects of the Annex, insisting that there was no need of sending it to PAJ as it only pertained to mere “arithmetic” (number of seats by constituencies), the Electoral Law having already being voted. MP Christophe Lutundula Apala, famous for his much debated “Lutundula Commission” on mining contracts and a member of the Mouvement Solidarité pour la Démocratie et le Développement (MSDD), an affiliate of the Presidential Majority (MP), surfed the perilous waves of the constitutionality of the process—and he also spoke about the “summary procedure” warranted by the CENI time constraints, a procedural detail.
MP Christophe Lutundula Apala
Mouvement Solidarité pour la Démocratie et le Développement (MSDD)
The conclusion was foregone: once again, a procedural motion introduced by MP Jean-Lucien Busa was soundly defeated; and the Annex was voted with an overwhelming majority.
MP Jean-Lucien Busa (MLC)
The passage of the Annex to the Electoral Law means that the filing of candidacies, technically opened on August 4 by CENI, will pick up momentum. With more than 400 political parties, this cycle of elections is certainly turning into a free-for-all and no-holds-barred in the crowded “caiman pond” of the Congolese political class.
3) “The Return of the Crazy one”: Tshisekedi’s rally in Kinshasa
Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba aka Ya-Tshitshi aka Lider Maximo aka Sphinx-de-Limete
With wife and longtime political aide Maman Marthe Tshisekedi
Rally at the Stade des Martyrs
Kinshasa, Tuesday August 9, 2011
Photo: John Bompengo
Tuesday August 9. Dubbed “The Crazy One” by operatives of the ruling majority and his political enemies in the opposition for his abrasive temperament, Tshisekedi returned to Kinshasa from his visit to Katanga via Nairobi. It was indeed “The Return of the Crazy One” and thousands of UDPS supporters also went literally crazy with joy in the streets of Kinshasa.
The Kenya Airways flight with Tshisekedi on board touched down at N’Djili International Airport at 10 AM local time. But Tshisekedi’s convoy, mobbed by the human sea of his supporters, only reached the Stade des Martyrs, the venue of his rally, at 5 PM! And at the stadium, it was a near stampede to get in. Fortunately, no one was hurt and the strong but discrete police deployment proved useless: UDPS members had their own security that appealed to partisans to behave for the sake of “Ya-Tshitshi.”
The 80,000-capacity stadium was packed, with hundreds more standing. The Kinshasa daily Le Potentiel, which functions these days in superlative mode, called the event “a veritable demonstration of force,” adding:
“Millions of Kinois welcomed him at N’Djili International Airport and accompanied him on foot along a distance of about 20 kilometers, banners floating in the wind and chanting. There [at Stade des Martyrs], the Sphinx of Limete spoke to the Congolese people.”
This “demonstration of force” must certainly be worrisome to the government authorities who realize that it’d only take a word from Tshisekedi to have the whole electoral process disrupted or to spark major post-electoral protests, at least in Kinshasa.
Though Tshisekedi still conditions his signing of the CENI electoral Code of Conduct to the release of UPDS members held after their nabbed at demonstrations and sit-ins at the headquarters of the independent national electoral commission, his hour-long speech was relatively tame: he didn't call, for example, for the outright boycott of the elections.
Tshisekedi told the crowd that “love” should be the “base of development of the DRC, that is, Congolese must love their country, the DRC, and love one another; we must ban tribalism.”
He claimed (or “revealed” as Le Potentiel has it) that “during my trip to Europe, the USA and in the RSA, I met international leaders. The latter told me they all want to see change in the DRC.”
Addressing the other opposition leaders who attended the event, Tshisekedi said:
“We should set up a platform in which we must discuss our opinions and find together a common program. In order to do so, our discussions won’t be articulated around individuals, but around a common program of governance.”
But just this past Saturday, August 6, as his trip to Katanga was winding down in the mining city of Kolwezi, Tshisekedi held a press conference. Asked by a journalist if he ever considered the possibility of his failure in the November 2011 presidential election, Tshisekedi angrily shot back: “What failure? With what I’ve done in Katanga, I think I’ll win 100% of the votes!”
Asked if he’d consider a united front of the opposition, Tshisekedi exclaimed: “There’s opposition and there's opposition in the Congo. The young should follow the elders. There are also moles among those who claim to belong to the opposition.”
Congolese media speculated that this was a cheap shot at Vital Kamerhe.
In any case, despite the lack of vision of his speech at the Stade des Martyrs, Tshisekedi conclusively demonstrated to his enemies and to observers of the Congolese political scene —including myself—who’ve given up UDPS for dead that the reports of the early demise of his party were greatly exaggerated...
Crowd of UDPS supporters
Stade des Martyrs
Kinshasa, Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
4) News from the freak side: Mgr. Joseph Mokobe of Equateur Province begs government to restore order after violence and insecurity caused by… Bonobos
Mgr. Joseph Mokobe
Bishop of the Diocese of Basankusu
“We call on authorities to protect not only natural resources, but also humans, who should come first.”
Wednesday August 3. The NGO “Friends of Bonobos” operates a Bonobo sanctuary in the outskirts of Kinshasa called Lola Ya Bonobo (Lingala = Heaven of Bonobos), with a primate population of about 80 at peak times. It has since expanded its activities to the natural habitat of the Bonobos in the Congo hinterland of Equateur Province, with another sanctuary at Elonda, 5 km from Basankusu. There, endangered bonobos are rescued, treated, and eventually released into the wild.
But it so happened that in May, Bonobos savagely mauled one of their guardians. The man is still undergoing treatment from that attack.
Claudine André
Founder
Friends of Bonobos
The most recent attack happened on Wednesday, August 3. That morning, as the guardians were accompanying them to their feeding site under the canopy of the rain forest, the Bonobos suddenly set upon them in an apparently coordinated attack, as if the ambush had been planned in advance. Three guardians were grievously wounded in the attack, while 5 others were reported missing after the incident. The faces of the guardians were so badly ravaged that there’s no hope of restoring their facial integrity. They were medivaced to Kinshasa for treatment.
A riot nearly broke out in Basankusu as angry family members of the wounded and denizens of the town threatened to loot and raze to the ground the local offices of “Friends of the Bonobos.” The crowd was particularly exercised by the rumor alleging that the guardians are bound by a contract forbidding them to strike back in self-defense when attacked by the Bonobos! Some local leaders were even heard claiming that Bonobos are so ubiquitous in the region that it was ridiculous to classify them as “endangered”! A claim that could help explain the attack: the Bonobos, reputed for their uncanny intelligence, might have somewhat sensed that some of their guardians were either Bonobo-eaters or were planning to eat some of their relatives!...
Mgr. Joseph Mokobe, the bishop of the diocese, protested the Bonobo attacks and called on government authorities to intervene. The angry Catholic prelate said: “We call on authorities to protect not only natural resources, but also humans who should come first.”
Bonobo Operating Theater
Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary
Kinshasa, Monday, August 8, 2011
Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary
Kinshasa, Monday, August 8, 2011
Extract from the Blog of Friends of Bonobos: "8th August, 2011. Makali, our senior bonobo at Lola (about 30 years old) recently suffered a severe injury to the third finger on his left hand during a violent altercation with a few of the other bonobos. Fanny, our vet, had no choice but to remove the whole finger, it was damaged beyond repair."
By the way, "makali" in Congolese Swahili means three things: 1) the angry one; fierce, cruel, sharp, strong, courageous, etc.; 2) "hot" (adjective) when referring to spice (pepper for instance); or 3) "scorching" as in "scorching sun"... Makali clearly refers to the violent temper of the chimp. Wow! I used to have this romantic idea of Bonobo groups as free-sex-peaceful-hippie communities!
I couldn't find any entry on the blog of Friends of Bonobos about the Bonobo attacks against their guardians at Elonda.
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