'Kabila wants to kill me' - Pierre Bemba

Mar 25, 2007

AN uneasy calm hangs over Kinshasa after the Congolese army regained control of the city following two days of fighting. At least 150 people have been killed in gun battles between government troops and militiamen of former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, according to the BBC.

ANALYSIS

By Emmy Allio


AN uneasy calm hangs over Kinshasa after the Congolese army regained control of the city following two days of fighting. At least 150 people have been killed in gun battles between government troops and militiamen of former vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba, according to the BBC.

A doctor for the NGO Caritas also said 80 severely injured people were being treated in hospital.

Many of the rebellious guards of Bemba either surrendered to the UN peacekeepers (MONUC) or have gone into hiding after discarding their uniforms.

“Bemba committed treason in using the armed forces for his own ends,” said Congolese government spokesman Toussaint Tshilombo.

Bemba remains holed up in the South African embassy from where he repeatedly appealed for a ceasefire and talks with the government on one of his radio stations.
He denied trying to oust President Joseph Kabila and said his house had been attacked four times.

“I feel they want to kill me,” he told BBC. He has called for negotiations with the government about his security arrangements.

A deadline for the security of Bemba and another former vice-president, Azarias Ruberwa, to disarm expired on March 15. They had 200 and 150 military guards respectively. Under a presidential decree, both men are supposed to have their guards replaced by 15 policemen.

MONUC accused

Bemba’s supporters accuse MONUC and some countries of consistently condoning actions of the government aimed at killing Bemba or forcing him to flee into exile.

Under another agreement, signed ahead of the second round of elections in October last year, the winner of the presidential elections is supposed to guarantee the loser’s security. Bemba wanted further discussions with the government on the issue.

But Congo’s information minister said since the government was democratically elected last year, there was no reason for new talks.
Kabila won 58% of the votes, compared to Bemba’s 42%, in an election run-off in October.

In an interview with The New Vision, one of Bemba’s aides, Jean-Pierre Singa, said the Congolese government had plans to kill his master.

He claimed that whereas no effort had been made to disarm Ruberwa, whose house is adjacent to Bemba’s, excessive means had been used to disarm Bemba’s guards.

“If the issue was disarming the guards, the same action should have been taken against Ruberwa who has still refused to disarm,” he said. “We feel that Kabila is still on a war path and wants to kill Bemba. MONUC was mediating the issue of the guards when government soldiers deployed around Bemba’s house in Gombe.

“We all know that Congo’s policemen are not trained and are undisciplined. They are just watchmen. Entrusting Bemba’s security to these watchmen tantamounts to committing suicide.”

He stressed that the fighting ended because Bemba told them to stop it. “Many of Bemba’s guards are surrendering to MONUC but many others have gone into hiding. Bemba’s supporters cannot trust Kabila after what he did during the elections.”

Singa said MONUC condoned Kabila’s government when it wanted to kill Bemba in front of ambassadors and UN officials last year.
“His house was attacked and he was saved when UN soldiers deployed to guard him.”

He also accused MONUC of condoning the incident in October last year when Kabila’s forces destroyed Bemba’s helicopter, television and radio stations “in order to deny him a chance to favourably campaign and compete with Kabila.

“So long as that incident is not explained and the culprits apprehended, we have reasons not to trust Kabila with Bemba’s security.”

Angolan ‘invasion’

Another Bemba supporter, Claude Mavinga, said the attack was an attempt to divert attention from reports about an invasion by Angola.

“It is a cover-up. Bemba’s MLC party is asking the government to explain whether Kabila sold part of Congo to Angola.”
People in Kinshasa have been concerned over recent reports that Angola invaded the diamond-rich Banound Kahemba city in Bandundu province.
Angolan soldiers allegedly expelled Congolese miners and deployed as far as 7km inside Congo.

Angola is a close ally of Kabila. The Congolese army has not intervened. Angola claims that part of Congo is its territory.
The opposition, led by MLC, accused Kabila of a secret deal to surrender part of the mineral-rich Bandundu province to Angola President Jose Eduard dos Santos.

At first internal affairs minister Denis Kalume Numbi denied the reports.
But a few days later, foreign affairs minister Mbusa Nyamwisi declared that Angola had invaded Congo. Members of parliament and the senate are seeking an explanation from the government.

Uneasy truce

Despite his displeasure with the electoral process, Bemba took the advice of President Yoweri Museveni not to violently contest the results. Subsequently, he was elected a senator.

Diplomats hailed Bemba for agreeing to participate in the democratic process as head of the opposition. “If he chose the path of war, his action would have ignited the militias in eastern Congo who still control large parts of the country, especially the countryside,” one diplomat said.
The incident in Kinshasa, if badly handled, may trigger off another war. Special attention should be paid to Ituri district, North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

Although the Congolese government engaged in a dialogue with warlord Laurent Nkunda, the talks in Kigali did not yield a lot of results. Nkunda insists that forces loyal to him should not be integrated into the Congolese army but instead form part of joint teams to fight the Rwandan Hutu rebels in North Kivu and South Kivu provinces.

In Minembwe, Banyamulenge militias under Col. Bisogo are still resisting the Congolese army. They control large parts of that region.
Former vice-president Ruberwa is allied to both Nkunda and Bisogo.

In Ituri, Lendu militias led by Cobra Matata and Peter Karim Udaga control large territories. They insist that they will only surrender if there is an amnesty law in place.

Unruly army
Kabila’s pride is the 10,000 strong Republican Guards, also known as Presidential guards. It is this army that he firmly controls and which clashed with Bemba’s guards.

The estimated 200,000 Congolese army is a junk of all trade, comprising of forces of at least six former rebel groups. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch described it as the biggest abuser of human rights.

Seen by the population as their enemy, the army is poorly disciplined and accused of raping, looting and killing the very people they are supposed to protect. If MONUC pulls out of Congo, the population will be wary of the Congolese army. Similarly, Kabila will be very insecure without MONUC.

The international community should stop handling the Kabila regime with kid gloves and be more assertive in emphasizing dialogue and reconciliation. The victorious attitude portrayed by the Kabila camp is misplaced.

Bemba should also be reminded that he is now a senator. He is no longer a warlord who once controlled about a quarter of Congo and contributed to almost 30% of the country’s army.

There are better options for both sides than resorting to violence.

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