Raïs fires Deputy Prime Minister François-Joseph Nzanga Mobutu

Thursday evening, the Raïs' senior legal advisor appeared on the
state-owned RTNC TV to read the presidential decree firing Deputy
Premier François-Joseph Nzanga Mobutu (photo above). No reason was
given for the dismissal.

Nzanga Mobutu, the son of the erstwhile Zairian dictator Joseph-Désiré
Mobutu Sese-Seko, was in charge of labor and social planning
portfolios. He's the leader of the "Union des Démocrates Mobutistes"
(UDEMO), a party that is still a member of the ruling Alliance of the
Presidential Majority (AMP) whose MPs in the National Assembly also
voted for the constitutional revision promulgated last January by the
Raïs. No one knows yet whether this dismissal would trigger the
withdrawal of UDEMO from AMP.

Some pundits read the fact that it was Kabila's senior legal advisor
who read the presidential decree instead of the Communication Minister
as giving the full measure of the ever widening rift between the prez
and the son of the "great leopard."

However, this formal dismissal of Nzanga Mobutu came as no major
surprise to the Congolese. Nzanga Mobutu has been absent from the
country since last November when he left for The Vatican to attend the
ceremonies of the making of Kinshasa Archbishop Monsengwo a cardinal
by Pope Benedict XVI. Thus, he might have silently resigned months ago
without having the common courtesy to write a letter of resignation to
his boss.

During his absence from the country, Nzanga Mobutu has given
interviews to Congolese journalists in which he's been claiming that
the DRC government is a powerless and meaningless entity in the face
of the formidable presidential power.

Be that as it might, all that glitters is not gold, as the saying
goes. Nzanga Mobutu, despite his reputation of a technocrat, has been
conspicuously incompetent since making his entry into Joseph Kabila's
government in 2006.

He was first appointed a deputy premier in charge of the important
ministry of agriculture and fisheries, where, for more than two years
he failed to come up with original ideas to revitalize that critical
sector. Then, at the helm of the labor and social planning--a de facto
demotion--he turned into just a figurehead, at the very most tolerated
by the Raïs for the sake of preserving the unity of the AMP.

It's not yet clear if Nzanga Mobutu will run again for president this
year as he did in 2006.

Incidentally, Nzanga Mobutu is married to the younger sister of
warlord and former DRC Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba, who's being
tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against
humanity perpetrated by his troops in the Central African Republic
(CAR).

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Polio scare in Kinshasa: Entire city population to be vaccinated this month

Kinshasa radio and tv stations are now broadcasting public service
announcements by health and administrative authorities advising the
population about an intensive city-wide door-to-door anti-polio
vaccination campaign that will take place in Kinshasa from March 20 to
March 23.

The vaccination is to target the entire population, estimated at about
11 million people living in the capital city and its suburbs.

This unprecedented massive campaign involving all age groups means
that there's a serious fear of a devastating polio "outbreak."

In fact, a polio epidemic of sorts has been quietly and slowly
spreading in southwestern Congo since this past year--crippling adults
and children; and raising alarm among local and international health
authorities. The epicenter of the outbreak is rural areas of the
Bandundu Province where scores of people have been affected. In that
province, people have aptly dubbed in Lingala this nasty polio strain
"buka-buka" (break-break) as it's been "breaking" its victims' lower
limbs almost overnight.

About a month or so ago, a similar massive anti-polio campaign was
also carried out in the southeastern region of the neighboring
Congo-Brazzaville near the border with Congo-Kinshasa. But a Kinshasa
health official speculated that there was no link between the strains
festering in both countries.

Many Kinois seem unawares of the silent epidemic... I even overheard
today in the street two young men who, mistakenly believing that polio
is only a kids' disease, were planning on skipping the upcoming
vaccination. I had to break--uninvited--into the conversation to tell
them about FDR! I doubt if my spiel changed their mind...

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DRC government evacuates Congolese stuck at Tripoli airport

The DRC government chartered two flights to evacuate a couple of
hundred Congolese who've been stranded at Tripoli airport since the
start of the Libyan insurgency.

The first flight from Tripoli carrying more than one hundred Congolese
landed at Kinshasa N'Djili International Airport two days ago. There
are still another hundred Congolese stuck at the DRC embassy in
Tripoli.

The repatriated Congolese were shown on TV giving kudos to the Raïs
for his "patriotic and humanitarian action."

According to Alexis Thambwe Mwamba, DRC Foreign Affairs Minister,
another chartered plane is due to be flown to the Libyan capital in a
couple of days to evacuate the Congolese expats squatting the embassy.

The criminally-insane Ghaddafi was a "friend" of the Raïs to whom he'd
even given as a gift a huge Bedouin desert tent! The Raïs uses that
tent whenever he visits his stronghold of Kisangani, the provincial
capital of Orientale Province, where it is usually set on the small
stadium of St. Joseph Catholic parish in the Tshopo Commune. People in
Kinshasa speculate that the Raïs will no longer use that tent as it'd
henceforth be teeming with the ghosts of the victims of Ghaddafi's
killing spree.

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A heavily-armed commando attempts to storm the Raïs's residence

Scants details are thus far transpiring on the attack this Sunday
afternoon by heavily-armed assailants of the Raïs's residence in the
GLM neighborhood of downtown Kinshasa, by the Grand Hôtel.

According to Communication Minister Lambert Mende, the assailants were
repulsed by the outer protection ring of the Presidential Guard
billeted around the residence of the Raïs, who was on tour in the
Bas-Congo Province. The President has since returned to Kinshasa.

Mende put the death toll at 6 assailants killed during the clash.
Other sources claim that 2 presidential guards also died. Some of the
attackers were captured and an unknown number of them are on the run,
Mende added.

Tanks are still locking down the area and some troops were deployed
along the periphery of Kokolo army barracks where the fugitives might
be hiding and where heavy gunfire was also heard in the course of the
afternoon.

Five years ago, two other such attempts against Kabila were repulsed:
one, by disgruntled ex-Mobutu's elite troops exiled in Brazzaville on
the right bank of the Congo River; and the other, by one Major Eric
Lenge, erstwhile comrade of the Raïs.

While some shops closed down in some neighborhoods, the situation
remains calm throughout the city.

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Creative state plunder: "Tontine" with city funds in Kisangani

Congolese households often resort to two expedients to make ends meet:
1) get a loan from a "Banque Lambert," that is, a neighborhood loan
shark; or 2) join a "tontine," or a circuit of contributors who by
turns give each contributing member a predetermined amount of money on
a daily, weekly, or more commonly, monthly basis.

Tontines by women traders are proven to be sustainable and some
microcredit schemes are even based on their model. But tontine
circuits by underpaid civil servants usually disband abruptly when one
of the "shareholders" is unwilling or unable to pay other contributors
at the falling due.

Unbelievably, the mayor of Kisangani denounced this week the
million-plus-dollar "tontine" being systematically carried out by the
burgomasters of the city's 5 communes (Lubunga, Kabondo, Kisangani,
Makiso, and Mangobo). A Tontine set up with the money issuing from the
40% "retroceded" tax funds to communes as "decentralized entities" by
the city of Kisangani--a "retrocession" mandatory by law.

Radio-Kinshasa reports today that these 5 burgomasters have gone on
impulse buying sprees whenever they'd cash in their tontine: cars,
real estate, and even, second or third spouses!

While the mayor of Kisangani can certainly be commended for denouncing
these tontine-prone burgomasters, he didn't however spell out any
punishment that could be meted out against these "ventriotes"--a
Congolese pun with the words "patriot" and "ventre" (belly) to refer
to those who go into politics with the sole motive of plundering the
state.

At any rate, if these creative "ventriotes" aren't quickly impeached
by the provincial assembly, they might soon diversify into "Banques
Lambert" with city funds and enlist the help of corrupt local law
enforcement agents as their debt collectors!

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Étienne Tshisekedi as a "despotic buffoon"

Ever since the constitutional revision voted by the bloc of the
Alliance of the Presidential Majority (AMP) in Congolese Parliament
(in the absence of opposition MPs who boycotted the debate) and
promulgated by the Raïs this year--a constitutional revision that
allows among other things a one-round presidential election--the
opposition has been striving to build a unified front with one sole
presidential candidate in the elections slated for November of this
year.

Opposition leaders Jean-Claude Mvuemba and Frank Dionge have just
been trying to have the whole of the opposition back Étienne
Tshisekedi's presidential bid. But some other leaders were instead
pushing for US-style primaries at which one leader would be elected as
the opposition standard bearer.

Meanwhile MP François Muamba, the President of the MLC bloc in
Parliament, was sending mixed signals all along. For Muamba, the MLC
wouldn't be committing itself before the party's congress in April,
when MLC party members also expect Jean-Pierre Bemba to be freed by
the International Criminal Court (ICC)! Where they got this notion of
a "not-guilty" verdict for Bemba is anybody's guess...

Muamba was also saying that the MLC is the strongest opposition force
in Parliament. Besides, its candidate--Bemba--got 42% of the votes in
the second round of the 2006 presidential election, whereas the
strength of Étienne Tshisekedi's UDPS can't be clearly ascertained as
this party chose at that time not to participate in the presidential
and legislative elections. What's more, Muamba insists that in this
day and age political leaders aren't chosen for their charisma but on
the strength of their political program.

Then, this week, in an interview with Radio France Internationale
(RFI), Tshisekedi stated: "I didn't fight for 30 years only to give my
place to someone else." He then added that whatever the opposition
decides he'll stand as a presidential candidate in November.

This shattering statement means that the "sacred union" contemplated
by the opposition in November is yet another pipe dream and, if
anything, it confirms the charge of autocratic tendencies leveled at
Tshisekedi aka Lider Maximo from within his own already splintered
party. Even more damning, opposition leaders now consider Tshisekedi
as a "despotic buffoon"--an expression René Lemarchand used to
describe Mzee Laurent-Désiré Kabila.

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Chebeya Murder Case: Court against the background of still life

The military court trying the murder case of Flori Chebeya convenes
within the premises of Kinshasa Makala Prison. The court convenes
every Monday and Thursday. I was taken to watch the court proceedings
on Thursday, February 3, by an acquaintance who is a junior officer of
the military justice detailed to the court.

As could be seen (not clearly, unfortunately) in the above picture I
snapped with my mobile phone, the military court sits against the
background of a huge still life painted on the wall. I couldn't tell
whether this is a copy of a great master or an original painted by a
Congolese artist.

Well, I'd assume it's a copy as a pot of flower, a water pitcher,
books, a half-filled glass of red wine, and fruits are items neither
usually found in Kinshasa households nor are they likely to inspire
local artists. This painting might therefore be an order based on a
photo of an actual painting by a European master. An order no doubt
placed by a cultured judge... Strangely, the wall of the adjoining
small lobby has a more appropriate huge mural: a court in session,
with a lawyer addressing a dignified court.

At first I thought this was an improvised courtroom. Then I saw
written in capital blue: "NOUS JUGEONS NOS SEMBLABLES" (We try our
fellow men) and above the windows on the left the grim Roman maxim of
the Law: "Dura lex sed lex."

I think my mind pondered at length over the inappropriate interior
design of the courtroom because that particular session delved into
phone records. A representative of one of the cell phone carriers was
giving the court the date, time, lengths of calls, etc, of a mobile
phone. As I walked in when the proceedings were well underway, I
couldn't tell whose phone records the court was poring over. As I set
through the boring proceedings (hopefully wishing for a Perry Mason
moment), I regretted to have missed the dramatic appearance of Gen
John Numbi, about a week or so earlier.

Though Numbi defended himself forcefully, distancing himself from the
alleged murderers and providing credible alibis, Radio-Trottoir and
Flori Chebeya's family and friends still hold him as the number-one
murder suspect. Radio-Trottoir claims that Flori Chebeya was about to
question Numbi on the latter's alleged participation in the ethnic
cleansing in the Katanga Province in the waning years of the Mobutu
regime! Motive enough for Numbi to do Chebeya in!

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