Unloading electoral kits from a MONUSCO C-130 Hercules aircraft
September 17, 2011
Bunia airstrip, Orientale Province
Photo: Sylvain Liechti/MONUSCO
MONUSCO press release:
“Kinshasa, 16 September 2011 – Three cargo planes transporting three hundred tons of electoral material landed at N’Djili International Airport, in the Congolese capital, on 14 and 15 September. This first batch of electoral material from China comprised electoral kits intended for elections that are expected to start later this year.
The United Nations Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO), in line with its mandate, started deploying the material to the different regions in the country. Six tons were delivered to the relevant provincial authorities in Equateur Province on 15 September.
MONUSCO will further ship them to sub-hubs from where it will then be the duty of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to distribute them to the smallest communities in Equateur as well in the neighboring Bandundu province. The process will continue until all polling stations are supplied with the necessary equipment before the date of the first elections. More material is expected in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, a ship from Lebanon with 70 containers of additional electoral material docked at the Matadi port on 15 September. According to the INEC authorities, each container comprised 116 800 voting booths.
The delivery of this equipment represents a major step in the electoral process. Other milestones include the submission of presidential and parliamentarian candidacies that concluded on 11 September; the publication on 8 September of a Code of Good Conduct for all political parties taking part in the elections; and the voter registration, which was completed on 17 July. The electoral campaign is slated for 28 October and the presidential election a month later.”
On January 7, 2010, reflecting on three events that had occurred in quick succession in the DRC that saw the crucial logistical participation of the then MONUC in two of those (the eruption of the Nyamuragira Volcano in North Kivu and the Enyele insurrection in Equateur), I published a post here titled “Can the DRC function and survive without MONUC?”
In that post I said, “MONUC should seize the country. For one or two generations, till a new generation of politicians comes of age.”
My assessment still stands today. While the politicians kept squabbling for the better part of the second half of 2010 and of this year over the membership in CENI board, the electoral law and other related matters, they knew perfectly well that time was running out, and that with each passing day the country was inching towards the brink of a constitutional crisis that the postponement of the general elections could automatically trigger. And, as we speak, the ballot papers with the names of the 11 presidential candidates and 7,200 MP candidates have still to be printed out and deployed throughout the country. It’s now clear that Congolese politicians’ recklessness is phony. Deep down, they know they could rely on the Hail Mary pass by MONUSCO.
2) CENI okays access to server, audit of electoral rosters and is poised to publish voters’ registry
MP Jean-Pierre Lisanga Bonganga
Chairman, Convention Chrétienne pour la Démocratie (CCD)
Spokesman of the pro-Tshisekedi opposition “Fatima Wing”
On Monday, September 19, at the conference hall of Kinshasa Memling Hotel, CENI chairman Rev Daniel Ngoy Mulunda and pro-Tshisekedi opposition leaders of the “Fatima Wing”—aka “DTP” (Dynamique Tshisekedi Président)—finally reached an understanding that could pave the way for these holdovers to finally sign the election Code of Conduct.
The contentious issues of access to CENI central server and the audit of the electoral rosters were solved as CENI yielded to the pro-Tshisekedi opposition politicians’ demands. Rev Ngoy Mulunda also said that his organization is poised to publish the complete voters’ registry.
Vocal members of the opposition voiced their satisfaction at the end of the meeting—including pro-Tshisekedi hardliners Martin Fayulu, head of the party Engagement pour la Citoyenneté et le Développement (ECiDé); Hubert Efole, RCD secretary general; MP Jean-Pierre Lisanga Bonganga, leader of the Convention Chrétienne pour la Démocratie (CCD) and spokesman of the Fatima Wing; Joseph Olenghankoy Mukundji, 2006 presidential candidate and leader of Forces novatrices de l’Union sacrée (Fonus); Moïse Moni Della (RCDN); MP Léonard Lumeya Dhu Maleghi, head of parliamentary caucus of Christian-Democrats, and Fortunat Kandanda Muele, leader of the Alliance Nationale des Libéraux du Congo (ANALCO).
Strangely, instead of having IT experts go to the central server of CENI, opposition politicians chose to do this by themselves. CENI rapporteur Mathieu Mpita revealed the names at 3 opposition leaders who would be part of this team: MP Jean-Lucien Busa (MLC), Valentin Mubake (UDPS), and Martin Fayulu (ECiDé).
There were, however, some new demands made by the Fatima Wing. Instead of having both the ruling coalition and the opposition teams audit CENI central server, the opposition wants to do this in the absence of the ruling majority—as MP Jean-Pierre Lisanga Bonganga insisted: “Without the [presence of the] majority, we can work [at the central server] with the help of the international community.”
Furthermore, the opposition tosses in an additional condition: in the event that the audit of CENI voters’ registry obtains major discrepancies, the electoral commission has to scrap its current timeline—in other words: a postponement of the elections, which implies a power sharing transitional mechanism!
Instead of wasting their time in these unending squabbles with CENI, the opposition leaders should heed the advice Rev Ngoy gave them free of charge at Memling Hotel. The central server only serves in collecting data coming from the ground, and cannot perform anything beyond these basic arithmetic operations. Though automated voting is theoretically mentioned in the Electoral Law, the actual voting will be done manually. Additionally, upon completion of voting at a polling station, the votes are counted on the spot in the presence of representatives of parties involved and the results immediately posted. The better way for the opposition to make sure that there’s no foul play is to start training their observers and deploying them to the 62,000 poll counting stations countrywide.
In the meantime, the Fatima Wing has still to sign the Code of Conduct.
At the same meeting, Rev Ngoy announced he was requesting the assistance of Kinshasa Governor André Kimbuta in enforcing in Kinshasa the strict ban on illegal electoral campaigning. According to the official CENI timeline, electoral campaigns run from October 28 to November 26.
3) Outbreak of “Balkanization Conspiracy Theory”
Presidential candidate Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi and Paul Kagame
Undated Photo
The “Balkanization Conspiracy Theory” decried by the US Kinshasa Embassy in 2010 has flared up anew in the Congolese capital--and with a vengeance this time. In its September 19 issue, Le Palmares published a long-winded article titled “Balkanization of Congo—2011 presidential election: the danger looming over the horizon is taking shape.”
In a jocular comment on the article, the Brussels-based CongoForum notes that it “opened with an apocalyptic description borrowing its images
As a matter-of-fact, the article is a series of bad metaphors run amok:
“Never before has the Democratic Republic of Congo been as fragile as it is at the present moment. The presidential election of November 28 turns into an issue around which all the impossibilities attempted yesterday seem suddenly able to find an outlet. For those who can closely examine these developments, the lineup of protagonists in this [electoral] rendezvous obtains geopolitical arithmetic that sends chills down the spine.
The big entities previously stable are subjected at this moment to the unbearable pressure of swell waves [ground swell]. The slide of tectonic plates is already being felt. Well-informed political seismologists have no illusions about the (…) outcome of the process that started with the implementation of CENI board. We are truly far from 2006 when the provision of a second round allowed quelling a dangerous volcano…”
And at one point the author of this metaphor-riddled article comes to almost naming one of the forces causing these tectonic shifts:
“Let’s note that among the presidential candidates in contention, there are those who had tasted the vainglory of ruling a micro-state within the Congolese state. They had as their sponsor a reconciled aggressor. (…)
If something had to give after December 6 [publication of provisional results of the presidential election], strategists plan to break up the DRC into four “républiquettes” [tiny republics]. Count the number of viable presidential candidates among the eleven ones retained by CENI.”
This is clearly a diatribe against presidential candidate and former minister Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi who was a leader of RCD-K-ML during Africa’s World War with a small territory bordering Uganda under his control. The “reconciled aggressor” is Rwanda. The 4 “viable candidates” the article alludes to may be: 1) Kabila, 2) Kengo; 3) Kamerhe; and 4) Nyamwisi.
Should I follow the twisted logic of this article and attempt to map out the four “républiquettes”? Well, let me try... Kabila would have Katanga, Maniema, Orientale and the Kasai; Kengo Equateur; Kamerhe South Kivu; and Nyamwisi North Kivu! What about Bas-Congo and Bandundu? This stupid episode could have been laughable if it didn’t involve a blatant attempt at intimidation of presidential candidates—including Vital Kamerhe (see next section). It’s also a lame attempt at putting some distance between Kabila and his cumbersome ally Paul Kagame in an electorate still enflamed against Rwanda.
4) Grim Reaper sightings: Plot-Fatwa to assassinate Kabila
Grim Reaper Tattoo Design
DRC Radio-Trottoir [Sidewalk Radio, grapevine] has been reporting sightings of the Grim Reaper lately. Last week, rumors were rife that Etienne Tshisekedi met his early demise on arrival in Belgium: that’s why Belgian police whisked his dead body from Zaventem Airport! UDPS members accused pro-Kabila militants of spreading the rumor, calling them “prophets of doom” “bent on discouraging millions of Congolese who found their hope in the Sphinx of Limete.” The “Sphinx of Limete” is one of several monikers of Tshisekedi, who lives in the Limete quarter of Kingabwa Commune. (Incidentally, a new rumor spread today by L'Avenir claims that the entirety of the war chest of Tshisekedi has allegedly been stolen by some of his closest associates and relatives--a rumor vigorously denied by Albert Moleka, his chief of staff.)
Not to be outdone by pro-Tshisekedi activists, pro-Kabila militants came up with the improbable narratives of an implosion of the country (see previous section) and the nefarious plot that has been hatched to assassinate Joseph Kabila. An article, published in the pro-Kabila news portal DigitalCongo, and reprised as headline by Africa News in its August 20 issue, was titled “Hotbed: A Plot-Fatwa against Joseph Kabila in progress”—whatever that confused title means.
Citing unnamed “sources [who] report that contacts were taken by [some] opposition [members] in order to have the country plunge into violence, [by] planning, in a fateful schema of chaos, an attempt at the physical integrity of the head of state,” the article, on its tangled autopilot course, adds:
“Some sources report that contacts might have already been taken (…) with neighboring countries generally involved in this kind of plot. This scheme would consist in triggering chaos by the [assassination] of the current head of state, chaos that would activate the constitutional provision relating to the vacancy at the Presidency of the Republic. For the advocates of this option, the path [to power] by the ballot box would seem no longer reassuring.
As of today, everything may already be set in motion to have the electoral process flounder, as were evinced (…) by different troubles sparked off here and there, including those of September 5 and 6, 2011.
With the situation that would thus be created [the death of Kabila], the plan would be to garner the conditions [needed] for power sharing among the plotters. The premiership would be given to a defector of MLC, [a party] known as a beggar of that position. The charges of the speakership of the “transitional” National Assembly and of Foreign Ministry would be given to two political personalities coming from the former constituency of the head of state. Which would explain the recent defections (…) within the ruling majority and the repositioning of plotters into the opposition.”
The most important thing to look at in the quote above is the systematic conditional mode of the verbs used, a defining characteristic of rumors.
Worse, the Africa News article is also headlined as “Plan B of the trio Kamerhe-Mbusa-Kamitatu”! In May 2010, the pro-Kabila media unleashed similar attacks against four politicians of the presidential cartel they then called the “Gang of Four.” The four politicians were: 1) Olivier Kamitatu Etsu, Minister of Planning; 2) José Endundo, Minister of Environment; 3) Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi, then Minister of Decentralization; and 4) independent MP Modeste Bahati Lukwebo. The four politicians had dared to voice concerns over the governance of Prime minister Adolphe Muzito and attempted to create their own wing within the ex-AMP called the “Liberal and Patriotic Center” (CLP), a move that was quickly squashed by Kabila at his Kingakati farm where the four culprits were summoned. This time around, the defamation campaign takes on an ominous characteristic as the accusations leveled are nothing less than an assassination attempt on the person of Joseph Kabila.
One would hope that this crazy narrative of the Grim Reaper sightings is only confined in the mind of some pro-Kabila kooks on the fringes of the media. Uunfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case. Major pro-Kabila Kinshasa newsprints ran the story in chorus, including the daily Forum des As, already at the forefront of the 2010 attacks against the “Gang of Four,” which meekly stated that “where there’s smoke there’s fire,” as if to acknowledge that it had nothing to substantiate its horrendous assassination plot accusations. Incredible... So, what do these people expect the General Prosecutor of the Republic to do: arrest presidential candidates Vital Kamerhe and Antipas Mbusa Nyamwisi and Planning Minister Olivier Kamitatu for plotting to assassinate Kabila? Are they joking? This whole media cabal stinks to high heavens!
Olivier Kamitatu Etsu
Planning Minister
As the Grim Reaper
5) French anti-racism lobby SOS RACISME denounces attacks of Rwandan expats by Bana-Congo during Kagame Paris visit
SOS Racisme logo
“Touche pas à mon pote” [Don’t touch my pal]
The French anti-racism lobby SOS Racisme issued a press release denouncing alleged attacks of Rwandan expats by Bana-Congo during Kagame’s visit in Paris on September 12. What’s funny about the press release is that instead of using the verb “perpetrate” it mistakenly uses the verb “perpetuate.” Not once, but twice: in the title and in the body of the press release.
The title reads: “SOS Racisme denounces the racist attacks perpetuated [sic] against Rwandans in connection with Paul Kagame’s visit.”
Then the second paragraph of the press release states:
“The attacks perpetuated [sic] by groups, in all likelihood issued from the DRC, targeted isolated individuals, who were insulted, assaulted and beaten up on public transportation systems or in the streets.”Now, I watched these protests on television, on YouTube and read online reports on them—including the blow-by-blow account given by Vincent Harris of the blog Colored Opinions here and here. And nowhere did I come across anything resembling the account given by SOS Racism. On the contrary, I saw Congolese and Rwandan expats united in their wrath against Kagame.
Update: Vincent Harris has a new post on the reaction of Paris Congolese expats, who went to the SOS Racisme headquarters in hopes to confront Sopo, the head of the anti-racism lobby, over this press release (with a video).
Firefighters put out fire at a burning car set ablaze by Congolese anti-Kagame protesters
Paris, September 12, 2011
Photo: Fabianna Lévy/LP
6) Jaynet Kabila, Joseph Kabila’s twin sister, to chair UNESCO Regional Research and Documentation Center for Women, Gender and Peace-building in the Great Lakes
Jaynet Kabila and North Kivu Gov. Julien Paluku
Goma, March 7, 2010
On Sunday, September 19, at the close of a two-day meeting held at the Faden House Hotel in downtown Kinshasa, ministerial delegates from Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia chose Jaynet Kabila, DRC president’s twin sister, as the chairwoman of the newly created UNESCO Regional Research and Documentation Center for Women, Gender and Peace-building in the Great Lakes, which will be headquartered in Kinshasa.
This follows the agreement signed on January 14 by UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and Joseph Kabila.
According to UNESCO,
“The creation of the Centre is part of UNESCO’s programme in favour of promoting the human rights of women living in the Great Lakes Region through policy-oriented research, consultations, networking, capacity building and the promotion of sustainable peace in this region.”
The project for this center dates back to 2005. Janet Kabila, who was pushed for the job by the DRC government, is also the chairwoman of the Foundation Mzee Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
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