SPECIAL POLICE FORCES ASSAULT BDK COMPOUND IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 000243

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/10/2018
TAGS: PGOV MOPS PHUM SOCI ASEC CG AO
SUBJECT: SPECIAL POLICE FORCES ASSAULT BDK COMPOUND IN
BAS-CONGO PROVINCIAL CAPITAL

REF: KINSHASA 218

Classified By: PolCouns D. Brown, reasons 1.4 (b/d)


1. (C) Summary: Congolese special police forces assaulted
the compound of the separatist movement Bundu dia Kongo (BDK)
March 8 in the Bas-Congo capital of Matadi, partially
destroying it, killing several people and robbing a number of
nearby residents. Details of the operation remain sketchy,
but the situation in Matadi is now calm. Press reporting
cites similar incidents in villages in rural areas north of
Matadi. MONUC issued a statement of concern, and is sending
two investigative teams to the province this week. The EU is
also considering issuing a statement. MONUC estimates at
least 60 people have died since the beginning of police
operations against BDK February 28, but cautions that little
on-the-ground information is currently available. End
summary.


2. (U) Special Congolese police units firing tear gas and
rifles assaulted the compound of the Bundu dia Kongo (BDK)
movement March 8 in the Bas-Congo capital of Matadi in what
appears to have been part of a concerted move against the
separatist politico-religious movement in the western part of
the province. Vice governor Deogratias Nkusa told state
broadcaster RTNC two people were killed in the operation,
five wounded, including a police officer, and seven arrested;
other reports vary. We have received no reports that any
Americans were harmed in the incident.


3. (C) Senior analysts at MONUC's Joint Mission Analysis Cell
(JMAC) told us the assault involved elite units of the Rapid
Intervention Police (PIR) organized by Police Inspector
General John Numbi late last year. These include the Simba
Battalion, an all-Katangan force drawn from Numbi's personal
guard and trained in special operations by the Angolan
military. JMAC has concluded some 5-600 PIR are currently
deployed in the province. PIR now appear to be engaged in a
mopping up exercise north and west of Matadi. MONUC's Radio
Okapi reported clashes between PIR and BDK March 10 in the
town of Patu on the Lemba-Lukula.


4. (SBU) MONUC issued a statement the same day expressing
strong concern about the events in Matadi. Ambassadors of EU
member states in Kinshasa have transmitted to Brussels the
text of a proposed statement calling for calm, proportionate
use force and a dialogue between government authorities and
BDK political leaders.


5. (U) Details of the Matadi operation remain sketchy, but it
began at around 2 p.m. and was over by late afternoon. The
BDK compound, located in the impoverished Momo district on
hills above downtown Matadi, is one of many zikwa -- a
combination meeting hall, prayer center and residence --
maintained by the sect. Reports agree that the police began
the assault with tear gas, then bullets; panic ensued. "The
police arrived. They circled the neighborhood and when they
opened fire everyone began to run," according to an
eyewitness quoted in the French press. Press accounts of the
incident include reports of police looting nearby houses and
robbing residents of cash, cell phones and other valuables.


6. (U) Matadi mayor Jean-Marc Nzeyidio told AFP March 8 he
had not been informed in advance of the operation. He said
that the BDK site was a walled compound that included straw
huts and a small brick house. It had been partially
destroyed and was occupied by police by the time he arrived.
Nzeyidio said he saw the body of a BDK member there (other
reports note that the dead man was wearing a red bandana and
amulettes, apparently in the widely-held BDK belief that they
provide protection from bullets),then visited the city
morgue, where he saw the body of a two-year old, apparently
hit by a stray round. He told the same reporter that calm
had returned by the following day, with people out and about
in the district and going to Sunday church services.


7. (U) MONUC's Radio Okapi broadcast news of similar
operations in the area north of Matadi March 8. It cited
reports that BDK zikwa had been burned in the villages of
Kwakwa, Lukimba, Nsanda and Mvuzi, located some 35 km from
the north bank of the Congo river on the main Matadi-Boma
road. The reports also included claims of looting, robbery,
sexual harassment and rape by police forces. Both Nkusa and
Nzeyidio have been quoted in the press deploring the actions
of "certain agents" of the police.


KINSHASA 00000243 002 OF 002



8. (C) MONUC's Radio Okapi asserted March 9 that unnamed
"political-administrative" authorities had cited a March 5
complaint by the country's largest flour mill, Matadi-based
Midema, as justification for the assault. AFP reported the
same day that Midema had filed a complaint with provincial
police chief General Raus Chalwe March 5 after a company bus
transporting shift workers had been stopped and searched by
BDK militants the night before. Its American manager
confirmed to us March 10 that the incident had taken place,
and expressed concern that its use by authorities as
justification for their action could expose his employees to
retaliation.


9. (C) MONUC is sending two teams -- one humanitarian, one
human rights -- to the province this week for separate
investigations of the recent violence. JMAC has received
credible reports of six people killed in the most recent
violence, and estimates some 60 dead based on credible
reports since operations began February 28 (reftel),
including 36 in one village. Most deaths have been reported
in the area Luozi-Tscha-Seke Banza north and northeast of
Matadi.


10. (U) The government has yet to amend its March 3 official
total of seven dead conveyed to the diplomatic community by
Interior Minister Denis Kalume. Bas-Congo politicians have
given other figures to the press: Governor Floribert-Simon
Mbatshi reported 22 dead at Luozi as of March 3; Jeannot
Balu, chief of Seke Banza, said that two police and one BDK
member were killed there March 3, and about a dozen wounded
by gunshots. None have cited first-hand information from
hospitals.


11. (U) Separately, a March 7 meeting of the Council of
Ministers, presided by Kabila, agreed to prosecute "all the
direct and indirect authors of these troubles."


12. (C) Comment: JMAC's director cautioned March 9 that
there is little on-the-ground information currently
available. Indeed, it is not clear how much information the
interior minister himself has access to. A distraught
National Assembly deputy from Bas-Congo told us March 9 he
had called Kalume three times during the day of the Matadi
operation to complain, but Kalume told him he had yet to
receive a report by 10 p.m. that night. Kalume and Numbi,
whom one report suggests is leading the operation, have been
increasingly at odds since Kabila named Numbi to head the
police in June 2007. End comment.
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