General Jean de Dieu Oleko
Kinshasa Police commissioner
"The body of Chebeya bore no visible sign of violence"
The stream of narratives of the grisly murder of Floribert “Flori” Chebeya Bahizire I’m reading calls to mind the epigraph of Jason Stearns’s blog Congo Siasa; epigraph taken from the lyrics of a song by Koffi Olomide that purports to describe the DRC: “This is hell's system. The fire is raging but we don't get burned.”
Talking of Stearns, I also recall his hypothesis, clearly proven beyond any doubt in the ongoing tragedy, of the “Logic of Disorder in Kinshasa”:
“Despite Kabila’s rhetoric, his preferred modus operandi is to operate outside the strictures of the Constitution. For instance: it’s not the Minister of Defense who primarily deals with the Armed Forces, it’s someone else in Kabila’s own personal military cabinet who deals with them; it’s not the Minister of Interior who deals with issues regarding the police and internal law and order, it’s someone in the inner circle of Kabila. He thus maintains a ‘strong parallel chain of command.’”
Well, it seems that the concentric circles of power around the Raïs have been colliding these past few days and hours—and the jangle of the collision is deafening.
Item: the latest RFI update:
“[A]ccording to a source close to the investigation, [General John Numbi] might have been finally arrested. He is suspected of being involved in the assassination of Floribert Chebeya. One of his men, [the head of the police intelligence unit DRGSS] Colonel Daniel Mukalay, might have directly implicated him. According to a person familiar with the case, the colonel has confessed to the assassination of Floribert Chebeya, without the intent of killing him.
[…]
He might have said to have acted on the order of General Numbi. Now, according to one source, John Numbi feared being accused in an investigation of the president [Chebeya] of the [human rights group] Voix des Sans-Voix [Voice of the Voiceless].
Several other officers of the [DRGSS] were arrested alongside Colonel Mukalay. Among them was also a major of the Presidential Guard. The Presidential Guard was placed on red alert today.”
Then again, while the celerity of the murder investigation is to be commended, we once more come full circle to Jason Stearns’s damning hypothesis: what’s this “strong parallel chain of command” under which this swift investigation is being carried out?
While it’s a relief that Numbi has been finally arrested, what about Kinshasa police commissioner, General Jean de Dieu Oleko, who uttered dreadful misleading statements in the wake of the discovery of the body?
General Jean de Dieu Oleko claimed “on several radio stations of the capital that [Chebeya] was a friend of the police whose ‘pertinent advice was very solicited and listened to.” Adding: “We often solicit him to listen to him give us lots of advice.”
General Jean de Dieu Oleko also issued a statement claiming that police officers who went on the scene of the murder “found […] the corpse of a man without any visible sign of violence, whose pants fly zipper was open and beside whom were two condoms already used and one unused tree-condom pack; a box of the [Indian-made erectile] stimulant Davigra containing a bubble pack of two tablets already used; two artificial nails and a few women’s artificial hair extensions.”
Did this man actually see the body of the deceased?
Those who were allowed a glance at the deceased at the morgue of Mama Yemo Hospital saw “visible signs of violence” on his body:
“Collaborators of Floribert Chebeya, as well as one UN official, who were able to see his remains at the morgue […] noticed that his face was swollen. On the other hand, they weren’t allowed to lift the shroud covering the remainder of the body.”
And this scatterbrain of a general would be allowed to continue making the rounds of radio and TV stations to mock the deceased and the whole Congolese nation?
If the Raïs wants to be serious about the murder investigation, General Jean de Dieu Oleko has, at best, to resign, or, at worst, to be arrested! And what’s this joke reported by some newswires of General John Numbi being placed under house arrest?
What’s even more terrible is that the Congolese government now seems to resist the idea floated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of an independent international probe of the murder!
Hell’s system indeed…
