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Congo RDC |
PEACE
The announcement of a football match provokes a stir that is quickly calmed
The African Football Confederation (FAC)’s announcement of a football match between the Congolese team, Union Sportive Kenya from Lubumbashi, and the Rwandan Patriotic Army (APR)’s team, provoked fears of potentially lethal incidents. But nobody was hurt because matters quickly calmed (strange as it may seem!) Katanga’s footballers are now ready to welcome the Rwandans to Lubumbashi in mid-April, in the true spirit of sport.
First reactions
«I think the news that a team of Rwandan soldiers are to come and play a football match in Lubumbashi in April against our Kenya team, is an early April Fool’s joke. It’s a deliberate attempt at provocation by the CAF‘s chairman, Issa Hayatou (Cameroon). If there’s anybody in Africa who should know what the Rwandans have done and are still doing within this country since 1998, it’s Issa Hayatou. He should not go as far as humiliating us!»
Thousands of sportsmen from Lubumbashi (south-east Congo) reacted similarly to the CAF‘s news, issued from its headquarters in Cairo, Egypt. The match is scheduled for April (first leg) and May (second leg), as part of the CAF‘s Cupwinner’s Cup championship.
In bars and restaurants, university lecture halls, markets and buses, some sports’ fans went much further, however. Take the case of the soldier who was even prepared to risk the death penalty should the Rwandans come and play in Lubumbashi. He said: «Rwandan soldiers exterminated my whole family in Kalemie in March 1999. I swear on my mother’s grave: if these soldiers come to play here, I’ll have my revenge, even if the military court sends me to the firing squad».
Pierre Feruzi was displaced after the war. He now lives in an emergency camp in a community centre in the Kenya municipality and he’s warned the CAF and the Congolese Football Federation in Kinshasa: «It’s high time to change the programme of matches for the Cupwinner’s Cup. Give us a game against a team from Morocco, Swaziland or Côte d’Ivoire. If there are deaths as a result of this first leg of the match to be held in Lubumbashi, Issa Hayatou must shoulder the blame. Do you think FIFA‘s going to organise a football match in Baghdad right now between an American team from New York and an Iraqi team?»
Calming the situation
In the face of the level of unrest caused by this prospective sporting fixture, football managers and journalists in Katanga moved quickly to calm the heated arguments. The chairman of the Lubumbashi Football Association (EFLU), Vianney Kazad Mwin Tshizal, toured Lubumbashi in a motor caravan fitted with loudspeakers and broadcast this message: «Sporting friends of Katanga and Lubumbashi. It wasn’t Issa Hayatou who made the decision that Congo and Rwanda should meet in the championship. It was the luck of the draw last January in Egypt. Don’t forget that football unites people often divided by politicians. When the Rwandans are here, we should not see them as soldiers at war, but ambassadors on a peace mission. Every sports fan present in the stadium for the match who behaves properly, is going to receive a present. I’m a business man. You all know me well, and I’ve never gone back on a promise».
Similarly, the sports journalist, Etienne Lufulwabo Tshimankinda, from Congo RDC‘s state-run radio station, made a series of radio and television broadcasts, in which he repeated the message: «My friends, a sportsman is not a xenophobe, nor a revanchist. On «D-day», don’t spoil the party. This football match is a unique opportunity for us to mix with the Rwandans after war divided us. You must set a good example by your behaviour. Remember that throwing a stone on the pitch or insulting a Rwandan player could cost us dear. FIFA and the CAF would not hesitate to suspend Congo from all African competitions. And Union Sportive-Kenya, representing our country for the first time in this African competition, would be disqualified».
And to prove to everyone that all sports can unite countries, even those at war, Union Sportive-Kenya’s chairman, Georges Psarommatis, displayed the following message everywhere, in Lubumbashi, Likasi, Kolwezi and Kamina: «Congo RDC‘s national volley-ball team went to Rwanda on 5 February 2003 in Kigali to play a Rwandan team in the qualifying stages of the African Games, taking place next October in Nigeria. The government did not forbid the team to play in Rwanda because it knows sports are a unifying factor among peoples. And the Rwandan sportsmen made our national team very welcome in Kigali. We should therefore match the sportsmanship of the Rwandan people».
The local authorities who supported this awareness campaign were delighted that it bore fruit. For example, in a radio/TV broadcast, the soldier ready to face a firing squad, asked the forgiveness of all Congolese and Rwandan sportsmen and women. he said: «I withdraw my threat of vengeance against the Rwandan players. I was touched by the message from Kazad Mwin Tshizal and the pastor of my Methodist Church. I will be there at the stadium on the day, with no bottles, stones or knife that I could use to cause a fatal injury to a Rwandan player».
The latest news is that the first leg of the match between the two teams, Congo and Rwanda, could take place in Kinshasa. The CAF took this decision, since the pitch at the Kenya stadium in Lubumbashi no longer complies with international standards. The chairman of the EFLU therefore sent the following message to the Congolese Football Federation in Kinshasa for general distribution: «I know Kinshasa’s citizens have terrible memories of the Rwandan military who led the assault on Kinshasa at the end of August 1998. But you let our national volley-ball team leave for Rwanda in peace, acting on the principle that sport can promote peace. Please do the same when the Rwandan football team arrives in Kinshasa. Long live football, may it remain apolitical».
- Bethuel Kasamwa-Tuseko, Congo RDC, Feb. 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgmen
Editor's note - The match was played on 12 April, and US Kenya won 2-1 against APR Rwanda