1) Vital Kamerhe and François-Joseph Nzanga Mobutu file to run for president
Kinshasa, Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Photos: Lievine Mbuinga and Tshimi/ Radio Okapi
Vital Kamerhe and François-Joseph Nzanga Mobutu filed to run for president on Wednesday, September 7. Coincidentally, the submission of the candidacy Nzanga Mobutu coincided with the 14th anniversary of the death of his father, Mobutu Sese Seko, who died in Rabat, Morocco, on September 7, 1997.
Their candidacies come on the heels of those already filed by Jean Andeka Djamba and Etienne Tshisekedi.
In a statement he made afterward, Kamerhe said he was still open to talks with Tshisekedi and other leaders of the opposition to craft a common opposition program.
But Kamerhe took digs at Kabila, promising that, if elected and with a comfortable majority in the National Assembly, the first thing he would do will be to reverse the constitutional change made this year to the current system of one-round presidential election:
“It is to be feared that this situation [one-round presidential election] would seriously damage the leadership of the next President of the Republic, make him appear as the president of a partisan faction, or of a fraction of the territory, and ultimately render the country ungovernable.”
Commenting on the recent violence in Kinshasa, Kamerhe said:
“You are rightly wondering if democratic elections must always be an occasion for violence, aggressions and other acts of vandalism with injuries, destruction of property, and other serious infringements of fundamental liberties and human rights. Fears (…) for a democracy ensnared by cheating, falsification, lies, crackling of gunfire, use of knives; a democracy bereaved by killings, suspected of abuse of power…”
2) UDPS and PPRD cancel demo and counter-demo scheduled for September 8
Earlier, UDPS Jacquemain Shabani made one of his outlandish statements on Radio France Internationale (RFI), claiming that PPRD operatives ransacked their own office so as to blame UDPS. He then added: “Everybody knows that Joseph Kabila’s PPRD is setting up an armed militia” in Kinshasa!
On his part, Kinshasa Governor André Kimbuta, who is a PPRD member, banned all political rallies till Sunday, September 11.
In an op-ed published in the sarcastic section “Apostrophe” of the daily Le Potentiel, Ben-Clet blasted politicians from both sides for the violence:
“Look! These anarchists of politicos are attempting, for their exclusive alimentary interests, to put Kinshasa to fire and sword. In less than ten days, they have instrumentalized or let loose delinquents who, assured of impunity, have set fire first on the hut of Joseph Kabila’s party. In retaliation, the hut of Tshisekedi’s party has burned with, in its wake, the television studio of an opposition operative. Ow! the politics of the poor."
3) Bana-Congo hit DRC Paris embassy with Molotov cocktails
DRC Paris Embassy
Bana-Congo attacked the DRC Paris embassy in the night of September 6/7. The attack took place at around 5 AM local time. According to the television channel Europe 1, which broke the news, “a dozen [incendiary] devices were thrown against the façade of the building, located in the 8th arrondissement.”
A source at the criminal police brigade of Paris investigating the arson told the Belgian newspaper Le Soir that the “reception hall of the building sustained damage.”
Strangely, in a post just this past week, I was describing the Bana-Congo, detailing their M.O. in Europe. And I said that their “third method is attacks at the residences of Congolese ambassadors and diplomats (one attempt thus far, at the residence of Kinshasa ambassador in London).” This is their first terrorist attack on a Congolese diplomatic mission.
0 comments:
Post a Comment