REFUGEE REFERRAL FOR EMMANUEL MARIE DINDA

C O N F I D E N T I A L ACCRA 000651 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/19/2017 TAGS: PREF PHUM GH CO SUBJECT: REFUGEE REFERRAL FOR EMMANUEL MARIE DINDA REF: 03 STATE 326486 Classified By: RefCoord Nate Bluhm for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) ¶1. (C) Summary: Embassy Accra hereby refers Emmanuel Marie Dinda (DOB: 16 October 1966, POB: Mbuji-Mayi, DRC) to the U.S. resettlement program. Dinda took refuge in Ghana in February 2005. He previously served as Administrator of Presidential Affairs from 1993 to 1997 under former Congolese President Mobutu. An attempt on his life was made in Congo and he was allegedly attacked in Ghana by a Congolese military person. He lives in hiding, under constant fear and has no means of supporting himself. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (C) Dinda formerly worked as a Roman Catholic priest and as such met Mr. Michael Bowcutt in 1986/87, who worked as Communications Program Officer at the American Embassy in Kinshasa. Mr. Bowcutt had submitted a request to President Mobutu to open an Mormon church and President Mobutu asked Dinda to look into the matter. (Embassy Kinshasa has confirmed that Mr. Bowcutt worked in said position from 1984-1988). In 1991, Dinda resigned from the priesthood. ¶3. (C) From 1993 to 1997, Dinda held the position of Administrator of Presidential Affairs until Kabila came to power. In May 1997 he went into hiding in a house in Kinshasa together with his parents and older brother. In September 1997, his parents and older brother were allegedly killed by Kabila's forces because of his association with former President Mobutu. Dinda was able to escape and went into hiding in Bukavu at his farm until November 2004, at which time the military allegedly came to the farm. ransacking and destroying his property while Dinda was visiting his cousin Adolphine. Dinda then left to hide in Walikale. ¶4. (C) On January 27, 2005 Dinda returned to Bukavu to see his cousin, and claims he was arrested around 6pm, blind-folded and tortured. Dinda claims his captors wanted to know where Mobutu had hidden his fortunes. He was thrown into Lake Kivu to drown, but was able to escape. Again he went to his cousin Adolphine, who gave him $1,000 and introduced him to a Malian who gave him Malian clothes and identity papers, and brought him to Brazzaville on January 29, 2005. In February he flew from Brazzaville to Lagos, and then drove from Lagos to Accra. On February 14, 2005, he registered with UNHCR Ghana as a refugee. ¶5. (C) Five months after his arrival in Ghana, Dinda claims he was attacked by Efefe Bakombela-Nkoy, a Congolese military official. Dinda claims that Bakombela tried to kill him. He reported the attack to the police and Bakombela was arrested and put in Jamestown prison. (Post was able to confirm the report and Bakombela's subsequent arrest. Charges were dropped when Dinda could not be contacted to appear in court.) In September 2005, three robbers in a car attacked him near Nima police station in Accra and stole his backpack with all his papers; Mr. Dinda later reported the attack. Dinda claims that he was told on February 13, 2007 that Mr. Tshimbola (a representative of Kabila's party in Ghana) was SIPDIS planning on poisoning him. ¶6. (C) Post has had intermittent contact with Mr. Dinda over the past 18 months, including various meetings following the incidents described in aragraph 5. ¶7. (C) Embassy Kinshasa has clearedthis telegram, althoughit was not able to co nfim the refugee's biographical data. BRIDGEWATER