KABILA DISMISSES MINISTER OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000844 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/17/2010 TAGS: PGOV ENRG EMIN KDEM CG SUBJECT: KABILA DISMISSES MINISTER OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH REF: A. KINSHASA 798 ¶B. KINSHASA 282 Classified By: PolCouns DBrown, reasons 1.4 b/d ¶1. (C) Summary. President Kabila fired Minister Sylvanus Mushi July 12 for "improper conduct." Speculation as to the reason for the action has centered on corruption. Kinshasa newspapers have focused on dealings involving a company owned by Mushi's family and OFIDA, the state customs and excise office. Mushi has denied any improprieties in the case, and has alleged influence-peddling by the head of the customs office. Mushi's past would make him an easy target for investigation, and the government's failure to bring charges is curious. End summary. ¶2. (U) Minister of Scientific Research Sylvanus Mushi Bonane was dismissed by order of President Kabila July 12. The precise grounds for his dismissal remain unknown, although excerpts of the decree published in the Kinshasa press include language such as "harming the credibility of the government" and "improper conduct" regarding implementation of a court decision involving a corporation called Estagri SPRL (controlled by members of Mushi's family),the Customs and Excise Office OFIDA, and Citigroup. Kinshasa newspapers are speculating that Mushi was dismissed for corruption. The pro-Kabila Kinshasa daily L'Avenir trumpeted Mushi's firing as a triumph for good government. ¶3. (U) The news was announced at 8 p.m. July 12 on the government network RTNC. Mushi told us July 14 it had taken him by surprise. He said he had been informed by Kabila's chief of staff Raymond Tshibanda at 5 p.m. on the 12th, but had had no prior discussion of the matter with either Kabila or Prime Minister Gizenga. ¶4. (U) Senior Gizenga adviser Minister Godefroid Mayobo claimed in a July 13 interview with Radio Okapi that Estagri had taken USD 700,000 from OFIDA while Mushi was minister. The independent daily La Reference Plus, citing anonymous sources, claimed in its July 13 edition that Estagri, had pocketed some USD 600-800,000 from a contract for services it had failed to fully provide to OFIDA. The National Assembly voted July 16 to create a commission of inquiry into the affair. ¶5. (C) Mushi, a lawyer and former police inspector from South Kivu, denied these charges in an interview he requested with PolCouns July 14. He claimed that OFIDA and Citigroup, where OFIDA maintains an account, had been ordered to pay Estagri as the result of a legal judgment. He said he was Estagri's lawyer, not its owner, although he and members of his family own shares in the firm, which was formed in 1958 as a family enterprise and converted to a private corporation in 1993. He said the case pre-dated his nomination as minister. He presented a copy of a letter dated April 6, 2007 to the finance minister in which another lawyer representing Estagri complained that a Kinshasa court had ordered OFIDA to pay Estagri USD 654, 076 plus damages and accumulated interest in a decision of February 14, 2005, but it had failed to do so. Mushi said the case was initially filed in 2002; the document claims OFIDA owed Estagri nearly USD 1.4m at time of the decision. ¶6. (C) Mushi did not say so directly, but his comments indicate Estagri may have subsequently received at least some of the funds it was owed. He said Gizenga had ordered a review of the case by the justice minister, who determined that a certain sum was owed to OFIDA, which Mushi said was then paid. ¶7. (C) Mushi also said Kabila chief of staff Raymond Tshibanda called him regarding the case June 21 at the office SIPDIS of the public lands minister. Mushi said Tshibanda told him to return money from Estagri to OFIDA. At one point in the conversation with PolCouns, Mushi claimed that Tshibanda had referred only to the sum cited by the minister of justice. At another point, he said he replied that as its lawyer he had no power to force the company to return funds to OFIDA, and indicated that Tshibanda's request was improper under article 151 of the constitution, which forbids involvement of the executive or legislative branches in the determination or implementation of judicial decisions. Mushi said Tshibanda replied, "Je prends acte" ("So noted"). Four days later, Mushi was the subject of a long and laudatory article on his tenure as minister on digitalcongo.com, a news site owned by the Kabila family. KINSHASA 00000844 002 OF 002 ¶8. (C) Mushi presented a copy of a letter to Kabila dated July 16, 2006 in which Mushi alleged that obstruction by the Presidency had prevented Estagri from gaining access to the funds owed to it in the case. The letter also cites article ¶151. Mushi said he had subsequently received a letter from Leonard She Okitundu, Kabila's chief of staff at the time, telling him there was nothing he could do. Mushi alleged that the source of the obstruction was the head of OFIDA, Deo Rugwisa. He claimed July 14 that Rugwisa, whom he asserted is in fact Rwandan, was the father of a longtime mistress of Joseph Kabila. He alleged Rugwisa had appealed to Kabila to annul the court decision in favor of Estagri, but Kabila could not do so because of the constitutional restrictions. ¶9. (SBU) No charges have been brought against Mushi, nor -- unlike the treason investigation targeting Jean-Pierre Bemba -- has the government made statements that he is under investigation. However, Mushi said Mayobo had told him he probably could not leave the country. He has kept a relatively low profile since his dismissal and the international press appears to have taken little interest in the affair. ¶10. (C) A phone interview with Agence France-Presse during his meeting with PolCouns may be Mushi's only public statement on the matter to date. He denied the charges in the OFIDA case; said they had nothing to do with his conduct as minister; and said his work for it involved no illegal activities. He did not, however, make the allegation of influence-peddling against Rugwisa. ¶11. (C) Mushi told us he had last seen Gizenga July 10, when he signed travel orders for Mushi to travel to London for a ceremony to commemorate a just-concluded framework agreement for a joint venture between the government and the UK firm Brinkley Mining on uranium and fissionable materials. Unnamed sources in the La Reference Plus account alleged a link between Mushi's dismissal and his decision to annul a 2006 uranium mining agreement with two entities which may or may not have been associated with Brinkley (ref B). We will examine this issue septel. ¶12. (C) Comment. Mushi is no angel, and would be an easy target for anyone who cared to investigate his past. However, Kabila and his government opted for innuendo and unsubstantiated allegations rather than pressing charges. We are not in a position to judge the merits of the OFIDA case, but a day in court for the government and Mushi would go a long way toward dispelling questions it has raised. It will be interesting to see how the National Assembly commission, essentially a political body, chooses to approach the issue. End comment. MEECE