EX-MOBUTUISTS HELP KABILA COALITION TAKE MAJORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KINSHASA 000089 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM CG ELECTIONS SUBJECT: EX-MOBUTUISTS HELP KABILA COALITION TAKE MAJORITY OF SENATE SEATS IN BEMBA'S EQUATEUR ¶1. (U) The pro-Kabila Alliance for the Presidential Majority (AMP) won a slight majority in the senatorial delegation from Jean-Pierre Bemba's home province of Equateur. AMP-aligned candidates, including three who ran as independents, took eleven of 20 national Senate seats, with one apiece for the PPRD, the RADESO party, Nzanga Mobutu's UDEMO, and Azarias Ruberwa's RCD, plus four seats for Jose Endundo's Christian Democrat Party (PDC). Bemba's Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) won six seats, while two others allied with Bemba's Union for the Nation (UN) coalition also won. One other independent candidate, whose affiliation is yet unknown, was also elected. ¶2. (U) The number of AMP candidates elected to the Senate from Equateur is on the surface something of a surprise, given that the area voted overwhelmingly for Bemba in the 2006 presidential elections. Bemba's UN coalition holds the majority of seats in the 100-member provincial assembly, including 37 by the MLC alone. Endundo's PDC and the PPRD together, however, control another 24 seats in the assembly, mainly in the southeast and northwest corners of the province. ¶3. (U) The AMP coalition, which formed an alliance with the RCD on the provincial level, won as many seats as it did because voting by provincial assembly deputies was conducted based on Equateur's five regional sub-provinces, a level on which the AMP-UDEMO-RCD coalition has slight majorities or near-parity with Bemba's UN. (Note: Equateur Province is eventually to be divided into five separate provinces according to the DRC's decentralization plan. While Senators will represent the entire province for the time being, they will represent their smaller constituencies if and when decentralization occurs. End note.) ¶4. (U) The list of Senators from Equateur reads as a "Who's Who" from the Mobutu era. Among the prominent figures elected are Mobutu's intelligence chief Edouard Mokolo wa Mpombo (an independent aligned with Kabila),former Deputy Interior Minister for Internal Security Pius Isoyongo Lofete Loyangu (an independent also aligned with Kabila),Mobutu's chief of staff Michel Bongongo Ikoli Ndombo (MLC),former Prime Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo (independent aligned with Bemba),Bemba's father Jeanot Bemba Saolona (MLC),and former Minister of Interior Leon Engulu Baangampongo (UNADEC, a member of the AMP). ¶5. (SBU) Biographical information: Pius Isoyongo Lofete Loyangu (independent, allied with Kabila/AMP) Isoyongo, 52, served as National Assembly deputy during the Transitional Government and headed the chamber's foreign relations committee. He was the leader of Mbusa Nyamwisi's RCD-K/ML component in the Assembly. A career security agent with the National Documentation Agency (AND) and National Service for Intelligence and Protection (SNIP) during the Mobutu regime, he later served as deputy Interior Minister for Internal Security in the final Mobutu government from April-May 1997. He has a degree in politics and administration. Born November 23, 1954. Michel Bongongo Ikoli Ndombo (MLC) Bongongo, 56, was most recently a senior professor at the school of social, political and administrative sciences at the National Pedagogic Institute in Kinshasa. He was the first vice president of Kinshasa's regional assembly from 1985-1989 and its president from 1989-1990. He concurrently served as Mobutu's national security adviser from 1986-1990 and was lahis chief of staff in 1993. Bongongo was also President and Director-General of the Commercial and Integrated Development business group SOCODI, as well as counselor to the Ministries of Higher Education and Foreign Affairs. A born-again Christian, he holds a doctorate in philosophy from Catholic University of Louvain. Born November 5, 1950. Edouard Mokolo wa Mpombo (independent, allied with Kabila/AMP) Mokolo, 62, has been described as "Mobutu's Foccart." A former student activist, he was a central player during the early Mobutu years as the founder and head of the intelligence services. He later served as Foreign Minister KINSHASA 00000089 002 OF 004 from 1985-1986 after postings as ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire in 1976 and France in 1980. A native of the provincial capital Mbandaka, he was named senator from the political opposition during the Transitional Government, and chaired the Senate's exterior relations committee. The father of pop musician Kaysha, he holds a degree in politics and administration from Lovanium University (now known as the University of Kinshasa). Born May 31, 1944. Henri Thomas Lokondo Yoka (UCL, allied with Kabila/AMP) Lokondo, 51, is the president of the Congolese Union for Liberty (UCL) and an adviser to President Kabila. Appointed to the Transitional National Assembly by Kabila, he lost his race for a National Assembly seat in the July 2006 elections. A former security agent for Mobutu's AND, he was the Mobutuist deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kengo wa Dondo's 1996-1997 Zairian crisis government. Born July 27, ¶1955. Leon Kengo wa Dondo (independent, allied with Bemba/UN) Kengo wa Dondo, 71, was the longest-serving Prime Minister under Mobutu. Born Joseph-Leon Lubicz to a Polish father and Tutsi mother, he was appointed Prime Minister from 1982-1986, and moved to the post of Foreign Minister from 1986-1987. Mobutu again appointed him Prime Minister in 1988, where he served until the creation of the Sovereign National Conference (CNS) in 1990. The transitional parliament after the CNS selected him as Prime Minister in 1994. He remained in the post until the Congo's civil war began in late 1996, when he then headed a crisis cabinet focused on defeating the rebellion of Laurent Kabila. In April 1997 he resigned his position, one month before Kabila's army arrived in Kinshasa, and went into exile in Europe. He returned to the DRC in ¶2005. Born May 22, 1935. Leopold Ndolela Siki Konde (MLC) Ndolela, 70, was a senator in the Transitional Government, the president of the MLC's organization in Equateur, and a member of the MLC's College of Founders. Rector of the University of Lubumbashi from 1983-1985, he was later an adviser to Mobutu who helped craft strategies to sideline the reforms of the CNS. He is the president of the Mbiya Cultural Association, an advocacy group that represents the Ngbandi, Mobutu's ethnic group. Born January 15, 2007. Pierre Nzege Alaziambina (PPRD) Nzege, 59, was a Transitional Government senator from Equateur from the PPRD. After receiving his degree in philosophy in 1974, he held academic positions at the Universities of Lumbumbashi and Kinshasa, and later with the Institute of Higher Education in Mbandaka. He was named Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in 1983, serving until 1990. Born January 15, 1948. Jose Masikini Adongba (UDEMO) Masikini, 45, is one of the youngest senators from Equateur. Elected from the northern district of Nord-Ubangi, he is a relative unknown politically. Born July 21, 1961. Jeanot Bemba Saolona (MLC) Jeanot Bemba, 64, is the father of former vice president and presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. A senator during the Transitional Government, he is one of the richest men in the DRC and was known as "Mobutu's banker." He is the head of multiple enterprises through his Equateur-based holding company SCIBE (Bemba Commercial and Industrial Company), which deals in the import-export, air transport and precious metals sectors. His company owns one of the DRC's largest airlines, Hewa Bora. He was jailed by Laurent Kabila but was later named Minister of Economy by him in 1999. His daughter is married to UDEMO founder and Kabila ally Nzanga Mobutu, son of Mobutu Sese Seko. Born September 3, 1942. Samuel Mbombo Engongo (MLC) Mbombo, 64, is a former senior executive of Congo's Central Bank and the CEO of the river navigation parastatal RVF. He holds a degree in economics from the Lovanium University and first served as an adviser to the Ministry of Transport and KINSHASA 00000089 003 OF 004 Communications in 1969. In 1980 he was named Minister of Portfolio and later served as President of the mining parastatal Gecamines. He became deputy director general of the oil industry parastatal Zaire SEP in 1994. Born October 15, 1942. Thomas Betyna Ngilase Gbeledolo (PDC) Betyna, 58, is the PDC's vice president for doctrine and ideology and served as a member of the Transitional National Assembly. A member of the Mobutu-era parliament from 1977-1982, he holds degrees in literature and economics. He first worked with and NGO in Bwamanda, Equateur before entering politics. Born November 11, 1948. Richard Pendje Demodetdo Yako (RADESO) Pendje, 61, is a former representative to UNESCO and director of the International Organizations department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He holds a history degree from the University of Strasbourg and a Masters from the University of Toulouse. He headed the Ministry of Mines and Energy in 1984. Subsequent positions in the late 1980s were at the Ministries of Culture and Arts, Public Health, and Environment. Born October 24, 1945. Hilaire Mayamba Monga Liwanda (independent, affiliation unknown) Mayamba, 65, ran as an independent candidate from the north-central Equateur district of Mongala. Born January 21, ¶1942. Polycarpe Mongulu T'Apangane (MLC) Mongulu, 61, is a longtime member of the Congolese legal system. He holds a law degree from Kinshasa's Lovanium University. A former prosecutor in Bas-Congo province, he was prosecutor-general to the Kinshasa Court of Appeals and later prosecutor-general under Laurent Kabila. He is a member of the administrative council of Simon Kimbangu University. Born March 3, 1945. Sebastien Adambu Lomalisa (PDC) Adambu, 62, is a member of Endundo's PDC from the north-central Equateur district of Mongala. Born July 12, ¶1944. Leon Mondole Esso Libanza (RCD) Mondole, 43, was a deputy in the Transitional National Assembly. He is a member of the RCD's College of Founders. Born March 8, 1963. Jacques Djoli Eseng'ekeli (MLC) Djoli, 48, was deputy and later chief of staff to Transitional Minister of Foreign Affairs Raymond Ramazani. A former major in the army, he holds law degrees from the University of Kinshasa and the Sorbonne. He is also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Kinshasa and at the Protestant University of the Congo. Born October 26, 1958. Toussaint Ekombe Mpetsi (PDC) Ekombe, 49, is a former MLC deputy from the Transitional National Assembly who switched parties in 2006 to join Endundo's PDC. He served as a member of the Lutundula Commission mission to Eastern and Western Kasais. Born November 1, 1957. Denis Engunda Litumba (PDC) Engunda, 52, was defeated in his race for a National Assembly seat in the Befale district of central Equateur. Born November 10, 1954. Leon Engulu Baangampongo (UNADEC) Engulu, 72, is the president of the National Union of Christian Democrats (UNADEC) and served as a senator for the MLC during the Transitional Government. A member of the 1960 Political Roundtable in Brussels that led to Congolese KINSHASA 00000089 004 OF 004 independence, he is nicknamed the "Baron of Equateur." From 1962-1968 he served as governor of Equateur, Kivu, and Katanga, and Cuvette Central. Under Mobutu he held several positions, including Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Public Works, and Minister of Interior. A member of Mobutu's Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR) political bureau, he served on MPR's central committee from 1980-1990. Born April 1, 1934. MEECE