Violence Mars Run-up to Congo Vote
Opposition groups question the parentage of the incumbent president
Email Article  Print Article Amin George Forji (amingeorge)    
The Democratic Republic of Congo is heading for a historic vote on Sunday to elect the president and members of the new parliament, the first in the vast, mineral-rich nation since independence from Belgium in 1960. The election is hoped to bring lasting peace to this central African giant country, which had been taken hostage by rebel groups since the overthrow of its long-time dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled the country for four decades with an iron fist, making it his personal empire. There has been uneasy tension across the country from the very day that campaigns were launched. As the day draws closer, opposing camps have been so tense that the electoral campaigns are continually characterized by violent clashes.

Trouble started a fortnight ago when opposition groups went on the offensive, tearing off campaign posters and advertisements of the incumbent president, Joseph Kabila. This move angered riot police, who responded by indiscriminately firing tear gas at the protesters. Opposition groups justify their action on the grounds that the Kabila family has taken the country hostage for too long and must not be given another chance to plunge the country into calamity.

Angry youngsters who burned Kabila's posters in the streets of Kinshasa sang anti-Kabila slogans and some carried placards that identified their current president as a disciple of poverty. They claimed that Kabila is unfit to govern the new Congo because he is a puppet of the West, selling all the country's wealth at give-away rates to the white man. Clashes have now become a daily occurrence between the protesters and riot police.

Although Kabila is widely considered the favorite of the 33 candidates running for the presidency, recent clashes have gone a long way to demonstrate that the victory will be a very expensive one. In fact, the opposition parties have used defamation as a key campaign tool against the incumbent. They have circulated stories that Joseph is not really the son of Laurent Kabila, and that he is in fact an adopted Rwandese. Laurent Kabila is the army General who led a rebel movement to overthrow the former Zaire's longtime dictator, Mobutu Sese Seko. Joseph replaced his father after he was assassinated in 2002 by his own personal bodyguard.

Joseph Kabila, who grew up with his father in exile in Tanzania, speaks French with an English accent, and does not speak the national dialect, Lingala. His mother is originally from Rwanda, but since the whole family was unknown in the former Zaire before the 1997 revolution that chased away Mobutu, coupled with the fact that data and archives are generally very poorly kept in Congo, it is very easy to frame a fictional story about his biography. His detractors therefore argue that it will be very illogical to look to a "foreigner" to pilot the new-born Congo. They have called for the elections to be delayed so that Kabila's background can be thoroughly investigated.

But most Congolese are really not that interested about Kabila's parentage. What they are thinking most is how to get out of poverty, and with his overwhelming backing from the West, they believe they have a duty to support Kabila in order to achieve prosperity.

With close to a decade of unrest since the Kabila, Sr. rebellion, this country is gradually turning into a humanitarian disaster zone. As Felix Bamezon, the WFP's Congo country representative sees it:
"The historic elections are attracting the world's attention but whatever the outcome, the need for food assistance will remain."
The U.N. has deployed the largest peacekeeping force in its history, comprising 17,000 soldiers, to oversee the elections.
The article will also appear on my blog.

2006/07/26 오전 9:56
© 2006 Ohmynews
◀ Return to Article