Painting by Cheri Samba

Lokuta eyaka na ascenseur, kasi vérité eyei na escalier mpe ekomi. Lies come up in the elevator; the truth takes the stairs but gets here eventually. - Koffi Olomide

Ésthetique eboma vélo. Aesthetics will kill a bicycle. - Felix Wazekwa

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

CNDP, Tshisekedi and mining in the Kivus

News round-up:
  • The CNDP officially announced that it was joining the AMP ruling coalition. Critics suggest that this is a way for the AMP to secure votes in the territory occupied by CNDP troops - anywhere between 300,000 to a million people live in and around CNDP-controlled areas in the Kivus. Nonetheless, it seems strange to forge an alliance with an armed group that is so unpopular.
  • The Rwandan government is looking forward to an increase in mineral  exports due to the ban on exports from the Kivus, according to the mining minister. Hmmm...I wonder how that works? Perhaps because minerals from the Congo are smuggled into Rwanda and then exported? The minister hinted at that: "But we know that investors can get the minerals they were getting from Congo here in Rwanda." Minerals make up 30% of exports from Rwanda; while the country has its own tantalum and tin mines, a fair share of the exports are suspected to be from the Kivus.
  • Tshisekedi said that dissidents from his party, including former leaders such as Maitre Mukendi wa Mulumba and Francoi-Xavier Beltchika, can join the party again - but they have to do it from the bottom up, through participation in local UDPS cells. This was seen as another way of telling them they are free to leave the party. 
  • Vital Kamerhe just finished his much-anticipated announcement at the GB complex in Kinshasa - instead of announcing the members of his party, he just made official his resignation from the PPRD.
  • Rwandan dissidents Gen. Kayumba Nyamwasa and Col. Patrick Karegeya, along with Theogene Rudasingwa and Gerald Gahima, launched the Rwandan National Congress, an umbrella group under which they hope to organize against the ruling RPF party. Some critics suggest that they have failed to rally more heavyweights to their cause, as the names of some signatories on the document are not well known. You can read it here.
  • Nzanga Mobutu announced that he would be running for the presidency in 2011. He was 4th in the 2006 elections with only a few percent of the national vote. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes minerals are smuggled into Rwanda from Congo, and then exported by "Rwanda", has been going on for over a decade now at least...so much for reform on the mining sector and the DRC benefitting from its' minerals as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for when she visited eh?

As for CNDP's announcement, this is not surprising for what is known as CNDP today is comprised of a political leadership created by Kigali when the RPF allied themselves with Kabila in late 2008, therefore it is expected that the "CNDP" will follow where Kigali leads. The question is what or whom exactly does the CNDP represent today in the DRC?

Kashala, Tshisekedi, Nzanga Mobutu, Kamerhe...the list is getting longer by the day. The Congolese Opposition showed in 2006 that it was capable of uniting (and according to many Congolese and the Congolese Catholic Church at the time, win); will they do so again?
Again the big question here is are we looking at another electoral mascarade like President Obama denounced in Accra, with the outgoing organising unfair elections because he holds all the security, financial and media power, or does the DRC have a remote chance of avoiding the strengthening of a new dictatorship and experiencing democratic alternance?
Frankly, the candidates are many but does any one of them, or even the combination, come close to having the financial means of an outgoing who has access to all official and unoffical sources of funding in the country...someone should do an analysis on the finances of the 2011 elections - because it's looking like a lot of davids up against a financial goliath.

Unknown said...

CNDP is very much like AFDL or RCD,Its military branch is composed of ex FPR.
Like you said it MASSIVEJEAN, IN 2006 the opposition jointed force and won despite H. KANAMBE aka J.KABILA massive spending and having control to all sources of founding in the country and the medias. The challenge for the opposition in 2011 will be how to organize themselves. They will need one nationally well known leader ( tshiskedi; my suggestion ) and get people out to vote. As you know, in 2006 no one campaigned in second round but people knew who to vote for.
H. KANAMBE aka J.KABILA can not win a fair and democratic election in DRC.He has become very unpopular in the east part of the country as well with his managing of the situation there(nothing has changed for the last 4 years,some said it getting even worse),with V.KAMERE jumping off the AMP boat and the recent CNDP's announcement can only make it even worse. The west never really adopted him, the triumphal TSHISEKEDI's return can only reinforce their position

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