Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
04KINSHASA2127
2004-11-19 14:54:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kinshasa
Cable title:  

KATANGA POLITICAL UPDATE

Tags:  PGOV PINS PREL CG 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 002127 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2014
TAGS: PGOV PINS PREL CG
SUBJECT: KATANGA POLITICAL UPDATE

Classified By: Poloff Edward Bestic for Reasons 1.5 B and D

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 002127

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2014
TAGS: PGOV PINS PREL CG
SUBJECT: KATANGA POLITICAL UPDATE

Classified By: Poloff Edward Bestic for Reasons 1.5 B and D


1. (C) SUMMARY: President Kabila's PPRD party is the leading
"national" contender in Katanga province, and benefits from
local government control and preferential media access. PPRD
efforts are nonetheless somewhat in disarray, and face local
players such as former governor Kyungu, whose tribalist
approach runs counter to the PPRD's own efforts to build a
multi-ethnic base. Kabila has the advantage in Katanga over
Kyungu and presidential rivals such as Jean-Pierre Bemba and
Etienne Tshisekedi, but he will have to work harder in order
to count the province a secure electoral win. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) Poloff visited Lubumbashi and Kalemie in DRC's Katanga
province from Nov. 7-13 and met with local civil and military
officials, diplomats, U.N. and international NGO workers, and
members of civil society. This is the second in a series of
short cables on the trip.


Governor, Vice-Governor Frustrated at Lack of Support?
-------------- --------------

3. (C) The recently-appointed provincial governor, Dr. Urbain
Kisula Ngoy, met briefly with a delegation led by USAID
country director on November 8. He came across as relaxed
and articulate, and did not employ local journalists to
publicize the meeting. According to one well-informed
western source who frequently meets with the governor, Kisula
is frustrated because Kinshasa has given him little support
or resources with which to both reunify the province (the
northernmost portion was and is still controlled by RCD-G
appointed authorities) and to conduct an electoral campaign
on behalf of President Kabila. The same source said that one
of the two vice-governors, Chikez Diemu (formerly
secretary-general of President Kabila's political party, the

SIPDIS
PPRD),is also frustrated because the governor does not
delegate well and runs the province in an amateurish way.
(Comment: Although Kisula is supposedly a Mai-Mai, as a
pediatrician and former president of the provincial
legislature he is anything but a bush fighter. Both he and
Chikez are PPRD men. Their alleged frustration with
Kinshasa's unwillingness to adequately support them rings

true. While most people accuse the ex-belligerent groups of
using state funds to fund their respective political
campaigns, we think the problem is more that those with
access to such funds prefer to line their own pockets first,
finance the party second. End Comment.)


Local PPRD in Some Disarray
--------------

4. (C) Richard Muyej, head of the PPRD's party structure for
Katanga, told poloff November 8 he spent most of the past two
months in South Africa for medical reasons, and while he was
gone, his colleagues did virtually nothing to advance the
party's cause. Muyej denied the rumor that the presidency
had stripped PPRD secretary-general Vital Kamerhe's authority
over party finances. There is popular misperception, because
there are in effect two parallel campaigns: the first,
involving the PPRD's formal party structure, targets the
masses; the second consists of individual presidential
advisers, who are targeting local kingmakers. Muyej
explained President Kabila's failure to openly declare his
candidacy and party affiliation as, first, a desire to remain
above the political fray, and second, his status as a
military officer which prevents him from running for civilian
office. In the next breath, however he admitted that Kabila
"will need to declare soon, because we're running out of
time." Finally, when asked about the issue of amnesty for
individuals convicted in the much-criticized Laurent Kabila
assassination trial, Muyej initially said it was not
relevant, then added that locals at the village level in
southern Katanga had asked him about it. (Comment: Poloff
has heard previously that this is indeed an important issue
to the Lunda, because several of the individuals convicted
during the trial are fellow tribesmen. Muyej, a Lunda
himself, undoubtedly finds it awkward to defend the PPRD's
position of denying amnesty to these individuals. End
Comment.)


MLC, UDPS, RCD-Goma Absent?
--------------

5. (C) Poloff heard relatively little about Jean-Pierre
Bemba's MLC party ("they're marginal here," according to one
western diplomat) and saw no MLC banners, t-shirts, or other
advertising, despite the fact that one of the two
vice-governors and the military region commander are MLC men.
A MONUC source speculated that Bemba might try to forge a
political alliance with Kyungu and air force commander Gen.
John Numbi, both Luba Katanga tribesmen. (Comment: Bemba
has probably had contact with Kyungu and Numbi--the latter
perhaps more for common "business" interests--but we have
heard nothing to indicate a political partnership. A
Bemba-Kyungu alliance would severely damage Bemba's chances
of teaming up with Etienne Tshisekedi's UDPS party, whose
mainly Luba Kasai supporters were on the receiving end of
Kyungu's ethnic-cleansing campaign in the early 90s. End
Comment.)


6. (C) The only mention of opposition figure Tshisekedi
during poloff's visit was by a South African diplomat, who
commented that the UDPS seriously considered but decided
against creating an armed wing in 2002-3. Poloff saw no UDPS
or RCD-Goma signs, t-shirts or other publicity. On November
11 representatives from a smaller, UDPS-allied party
complained to poloff that they lack campaign funds and fair
access to public media, two areas where provincial
authorities and the PPRD have a great advantage. (Comment:
Compared to Kinshasa, authorities in Katanga also maintain a
much tighter grip on freedom of speech, as witnessed by the
recent arrest and two months' detention of pastor Albert
Lukusa. Lukusa publicly described the transitional
government as infantile and suggested that Kabila and two of
the vice-presidents are not of 100% Congolese parentage. End
Comment.)


Other Local Players
--------------

7. (C) Muyej and other observers confirmed that former
governor Gabriel Kyungu wa Kamwanza, who lobbied hard to get
his old job back but "lost" to Kisula, now says he is on
Kabila's side--after threatening publicly in May to campaign
against him. (Note: Kyungu, a Luba Katanga, leads a
strictly Katangan party called the UNAFEC. End Note.) He
"has no scruples, no ideals," said Muyej, who knows from
personal experience, having served as an adviser to Kyungu
when the latter was governor during the early 1990s. (Note:
During this period, Kyungu presided over a massive
ethnic-cleansing campaign, whereby militants from his
political party--mostly of the Luba Katanga
tribe--essentially drove out hundreds of thousands of
Kasains, or "non-native" Katangans. End Note.) According to
a MONUC source in Kalemie, Kyungu visited that town recently
and is attempting to recruit Congolese into the youth wing of
his political party, the UNAFEC. Candidates must be under
25, able to march three days without eating, and will be
called "Zulus" (for men) and "Amazons" (women).


8. (C) Moise Katumbi, younger brother of Raphael Soriano
Katebe Katoto, is also in the PPRD camp, claimed Muyej, but
the party "needs to manage him carefully." (Comment:
Virtually all sides in the Congolese political arena have
courted the wealthy Katebe Katoto, who never filled his
senator's seat for the RCD-Goma and reportedly still fears
arrest on murder charges if he sets foot in the DRC. End
Comment.) According to western observers, Katumbi did not
himself lobby to become governor, but instead supported
Jean-Claude Muyambo, a prominent Lubumbashi-based lawyer.
Muyambo, a former human-rights activist who is from one of
the smaller tribes in Katanga, is president of "Solidarite
Katangaise," a local NGO that preaches unity and peace among
Katangans. (Comment: The pro-Kabila newspaper "L'Avenir"
recently gave full-page coverage to a "Solidarite Katangaise"
event in Lubumbashi, which was attended by pastor Ngoy
Mulunda--an unofficial advisor to and emissary of Kabila.
End Comment.) Kyungu reportedly heads a similar, though less
well-funded group, "Fondation Katangaise," that advances his
nativist, Katanga-for-the-real-Katangans view. Another
"candidate" for the governorship was Christian Mwando Simba,
whose father Charles Mwando Simba currently chairs a key
National Assembly committee and was governor of Kivu province
under Mobutu. One source explained that the Mwando Simbas
are Tabwas, the same ethnicity as President Kabila's national
security adviser, Guillaume Samba Kaputo--who also served as
chief of staff to then-governor Charles Mwando Simba.


COMMENT
--------------

9. (C) Kabila certainly has the advantage in Katanga, but he
cannot count the province as a secure electoral win.
Although they adored his father, the Luba Katanga are less
supportive of Joseph Kabila, and the president has done
little so far to build an effective machine or patronage
system with which to gain the support of other Katangans.
The PPRD's current attempt to appeal to all ethnic groups in
Katanga does not resonate with the dominant Luba Katanga
tribe as well as Kyungu's nativist message does. END COMMENT.
MEECE