One UDPS demonstrator is subdued after being pepper-sprayed by riot cops
Kinshasa, Boulevard du 30 Juin, September 1, 2011
Photo: John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
Responding to Shabani’s call, thousands of UDPS supporters demonstrated on
In Kinshasa, UDPS party members started their march at around 10:30 AM from the 10th Street of Limete, in front of the party's headquarters (Tshisekedi’s residence is also located in the same neighborhood). By early afternoon, the demonstrators had reached the Boulevard du 30 Juin, in the Gombe commune in downtown Kinshasa. But they were blocked by the Police d’Intervention Rapide and the city’s efficient riot police, nicknamed “robots” for their bionic-looking anti-riot gears. Frustrated, UDPS members then lobbed stones and projectiles at riot police, and set ablaze a few cars nearby. Riot cops responded with tear gas and gunshots in the air.
After UDPS members were thus heavy-handedly dispersed, Shabani, who, of late, has turned into some kind of a loony bin with his lurid exaggerations dispensed to the media, bemoaned the police-state methods utilized to stifle political opposition, and concluded:
“Here in Kinshasa we have just witnessed a scene we haven’t experienced since more than 20 years. Even Mobutu had at one point resolved to no longer do that. The police fired live bullets.”
But according to the Kinshasa correspondent of Radio France Internationale (RFI) present at the scene of the demonstration, Kinshasa riot police were equipped with “crowd-control equipment in accordance with [international] norms, that is, without lethal weapons.”
UDPS had nonetheless been issued a city permit to demonstrate and the previous day its officials even met with Kinshasa police officials to determine the path of the demonstration, according to General Jean-de-Dieu Oleko, Kinshasa Police Provincial commissioner: “After consultation yesterday [Wednesday, August
Gen Oleko added: “Two vehicles were set on fire by cocktail Molotov. Five vehicles of the municipal road system have no longer windshields.”
In Mbuji-Mayi, the provincial capital of Kasai Oriental and stronghold of UDPS leader Etienne Tshisekedi, the demonstration was a non-starter as party officials didn’t secure a demo permit. But this didn’t prevent UDPS members from attempting to demonstrate. This quickly lead to clashes between them and the riot police backed by a unit of FARDC. Cops and troops fired in the air and more than a dozen UDPS demonstrators were arrested for disorderly conduct. Arrests of UDPS members were also reported in Goma, in North Kivu Province.
In Lubumbashi, however, UDPS demonstrators were allowed to march peacefully to the local CENI headquarters where they delivered their memorandum.
The UDPS is stubbornly sticking to the wrong-headed strategy of torpedoing the elections with its urban guerrilla campaign of mass protests launched since early July… UDPS leaders already have called for another mass action in Kinshasa on Thursday, September 8.
UDPS demonstrators marching towards CENI headquarters
Kinshasa, Boulevard du 30 Juin, September 1, 2011
Photo : John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
Dr. François Nicéphore Kakese Malela
Chairman of URDC (Union pour le Réveil et le Développement du Congo)
Kinshasa, Salle du Zoo, Gombe Commune
August 31, 2011
Photo : John Bompengo/Radio Okapi
A former high-level official of the South-African Department of Agriculture, Dr. Kakese is also a successful businessman: his consultancy company—ACF Agro-Vet. International—has a global reach. Despite his impressive resume and business credentials, Dr. Kakese doesn’t stand a chance as a presidential candidate. A native of the Bandundu Province, he could have done well as a candidate for National Assembly—either as an independent or as a member of PALU, which dominates the province. That being said, Dr. Kakese may still win over some voters from a section of disgruntled PALU members who are angry at the decision made by their party chairman, Antoine Gizenga, of not throwing a presidential candidate into the fray this time around.
3) WikiLeaks: Le Potentiel runs my translation of the US Kinshasa Embassy cable on “Balkanization conspiracy theory”
Le Potentiel cartoon illustrating my WikiLeaks translation
Cartoon by Thembo Muhindo Kashauri aka Kash
(Credits)
Le Potentiel graced the WikiLeaks story with a cartoon by internationally renowned Congolese cartoonist Thembo Muhindo Kashauri aka Kash.
The 2 balloons read:
1) “They’re definitely not stupid!... They’ve understood everything!... [in English] Fucking internet!”
2) “We’ve got to counter this fucking theory… [in English] Shit! Shit!”
Thembo Muhindo Kashauri aka Kash
Kash drawing a street scene
Video screen capture: Alex Engwete
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