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Kabila’s first three years. Is this Mobutu’s revenge?
When journalists used to ask the late President Joseph Désiré Mobutu: «Who’se going to take over from you?», Mobutu was apt to say: «Whoever does, it’ll cost him a lot!» In other words, the «old leopard» didn’t consider the idea of an eventual successor as part of his plans for the future! In no way was he going to hand over. Could he already visualise what was going to happen to «his» Zaire once he’d disappeared from the scene? People from Mobutu’s time still remember another of his «sayings», referring to his former Rwandan allies at the hight of Kabila’s rebellion: «I’ve been stabbed in the back. They’ll do to you what you’ve done to me today».» Marshal Mobutu was at this point in time already in the twilight of his powers, eaten up by cancer, and was speaking about the Rwandan Tutsis whom he’d generally pampered and cared for, for many years, against popular opinion. He was also referring back to the Americans who had been accused by Kinshasa of having been behind the well-known «Banyamulenge rebellion.»
On 16 May 1997, Mobutu felt that death was not far off, and he left Kinshasa on a torturous journey from which he would never return. The following day, Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo (AFDL) soldiers entered Kinshasa in a victory parade described (and indeed wanted) by Bill Richardson, the American Ambassador to the United Nations as a «soft landing.» People were overjoyed to see Mobutu’s back and welcomed Kabila. Three years have now passed and today’s Congolese are taking stock of how things are since Kabila’s victorious entry into Kinshasa in May 1997. They’re now asking themselves if there weren’t some elements of truth in Mobutu’s warnings and predictions.
Without pomp and circumstance
The victory anniversary was celebrated quietly on 17 May 2000. Of course, the traditional military parade took place in front of the President of the Republic, but that did not prevent the Congolese from scrutinising Kabila’s administration with a fine-tooth comb. The march-past lasted five hours, with elements from the various branches of Kabila’s People-Power Committees (CPP) (a semi-revolutionary-political structure) well to the fore. Well in advance, Congo’s official media had come up with explanations as to why the country’s economic situation is so appalling. The Media also took care to accentuate the administration’s rare positive points.
When the present government came to power, it had made a number of what are proving to be empty promises. Laurent Désiré Kabila, then an unknown entity, (at least to the general public), took care to proclaim to all and sundry during his inauguration as President: «We’re going to get rid of unemployment». The Congolese still remember that occasion in the very noisy Martyrs Stadium. Present were the simply curious who’d come to see this resistance fighter known only by name; also the sceptics and those who dreamed back to Mobutu’s days who’d come to challenge Kabila and protest against the presence of Rwandans and Ugandans in the national army. Present also with Kabila on the podium were those Heads of State who’d helped drive out Mobutu — President Eduardo dos Santos (Angola); President Frederick Chiluba (Zambia); plus Presidents Pierre Buyoya (Burundi), Pastor Bizimungu (Rwanda), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda). It should be noted that the Presidents of Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda are now ranged up against Kabila.
Kabila’s inauguration speech was loudly applauded, and a good number of Congolese haven’t forgotten what he’d promised. The fact is, unemployment far from being driven out, is firmly entrenched. The Civil Service, like most public and private enterprises, are laying-off their staff, right, left and centre. The national currency, the Congolese franc (CF), has fallen from 1.5 to the US dollar to nearly 50 CF today on the «parallel» market.
You can’t blame everything on the war
Kabila’s government is feeling rather uncomfortable as it does its best to blame all its present evils on the on-going war. To counter the Opposition’s criticism, Kabila and members of his government are fond of repeating over and over again: «We were in the full swing of Congo’s reconstruction, when what happened? Uganda and Rwanda who are responsible for the present war, are now doing their best to sabotage our efforts». But one Opposition supporter puts it very succinctly: «You can’t blame everything on the war».
It’s true that the war has ruined Congo’s economy and destroyed all the government’s plans for economic adjustment. The three-year plan which foresaw a network of highways criss-crossing the country, remains just an idea. The 38,000 kms of asphalted roads trumpeted around, still remain in the drawers of the Highways and Byways Office. The «Friends of Congo,» who had proclaimed the wonders of their country in Brussels (obviously with the intention of getting substantial grants-in-aid), now remain noticeably silent. Instead, the Congolese have inherited a new war absolutely identical to the previous one. Rebels from the present uprising or from the various anti-Kabila rebellions which have taken place, now occupy practically half the country, thus depriving it of all the resources needed for its economic reconstruction. The war has cut Kinshasa off from Congo’s rich agricultural provinces of Kivu, thus interrupting the flow of food-produce towards Kinshasa. River traffic between Kinshasa and Kisangani has also been interrupted because of the war. The city of Kinshasa which has almost 6 million inhabitants, is on the verge of famine — something unheard of previously. Kabila’s government can now only count on the diamond-producing province of Eastern Kasai for the necessary wherewithal to run the country — or rather, to finance Kabila’s war against his former allies.
On the political level, Kabila’s regime can in no way be considered a model in good governance. The fact that the alliance with his friends who had supported him in the war against Marshal Mobutu, has been broken-off, is the most tangible proof of this. In fact, less than two months after his installation in Kinshasa, Laurent Désiré Kabila was already the target of a Rwandan-Ugandan plot to oust him from power. On the 17 May 1998, while Kabila was waiting for his usual guests to celebrate the first anniversary of his accession and to seal a regional solidarity pact with them, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda’s Paul Kagamé were putting the final touches to a plan to invade the east of the country, a plan which was put into effect on 2 August 1998. His other allies, Ethiopia and Eritrea, had for their part, just declared an atrocious fratricidal war which still goes on. «Kabila could have got out of his own war if he’d known how to handle relations with his neighbours,» says the journalist, Amisi Kilosho. «Kabila’s war is a consequence of the broken promises Kabila made with the mining multinationals who intervened in his favour during the war against Mobutu.»
It’s strange, but all the Heads of State who fitted in with Washington’s mould of being today’s «born leaders», are presently all entangled in never-ending and extremely complicated neighbourhood wars. Meles Zenawi (Ethiopia) is calling for Isaias Afeworki’s (Eritrea) scalp. Nearer home, Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagamé have never hidden their intentions concerning Laurent Désiré Kabila. Finally, what is even more incomprehensible, Ugandan and Rwandan troops have clashed three times in Kisangani, Congo RDC, while both countries have amassed other troops along their common border. Madeleine Albright, the American Secretary-of-State, has rightly described the Great Lakes crisis as «the first African world war.» Is this what former President Mobutu really wanted?
The home front
Kabila’s bad handling of relations with his immediate neighbours, former allies in the war against Mobutu, has also had repercussions at home with the country’s traditional political parties.
Ever since the AFDL marched into Kinshasa, Kabila has said «no» to political parties. The charismatic leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), Mr Etienne Tshisekedi, who was expected to work with those who toppled Mobutu’s regime, was the object of harassment and aggravation by Congo’s new leaders, even to the point of being arrested and exiled to his own village in Western Kasaï. Etienne Tshisekedi had made the unfortunate mistake of questioning the high-profile presence of Rwandan troops around President Kabila. «Let these foreigners present us with the bill for the help they’ve given us and we’ll repay it, just so long as they allow us Congolese to run our own country», said Tshisekedi. At a later date, Kabila himself was to part company with his Rwandan and Ugandan allies.
Other political figures have also experienced Kabila’s heavy hand. In particular, Arthur Z’Ahidi Ngoma (Forces for the Future) and Joseph Olengankoy (New Forces of the Sacred Union) who were thrown into prison and led off to Buluwo High Security Facility, Katanga province. To this day, Congo’s traditional political parties continue to resist, and refuse to bow to the demands of the presidential decree insisting that they request new authorization to operate as recently established political groups.
Many Congolese political analysts are of the opinion that Mr Kabila had better do something about rethinking his blueprint for running the country, if he want’s to win greater popular support. It’s hard to understand, but somehow his honeymoon period with the people still seems to exist, but its extremely difficult to judge the population’s mood. At the end of the National Consultation organised by Congo’s various religious leaders in March, it was recommended to the Head of State that he should reshuffle his governmental team for greater efficacy, since the current team were considered to be incompetent. Kabila, with a gesture of contempt, dismissed these recommendations. The first three years of Kabila’s administration were supposed to have been devoted to getting things in shape for good government. It must be said, however, that so far, we’ve not seen any will for positive progress in that direction.
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