Tag Archives: redistribution

Expulsion des Zaïrois par le Congo-Brazza: Pression d’un Médiateur/ Facilitateur ?


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Un drame à distance ne se conçoit pas à sa hauteur mais elle reste toujours un drame. Imaginez un bon matin sans aucun préalable avis, quelle que soit votre irrégularité, vous vous retrouvez en face des policiers et militaires vous obligeant sans discussion d’emballer vos affaires. C’est vraiment dommage et votre habilité ne vous permettrait même de savoir l’important de ce qui ne l’est pas pendant cet embarquement forcé.

C’est dans ces circonstances que nos compatriotes Zaïrois ont été refoulés du Congo Brazzaville, pays du facilitateur/médiateur/accompagnateur des concertations nationales. Quels que soient les efforts du message non dévoilé du ministre Raymond Tshibanda chez le président congolais Sassou au 18/04/2014, ces expulsions n’ont pas cessé alors qu’on penserait que ce message aurait dû porter le fruit. Des milliers des personnes (plus de 30.000) continuent d’être refoulées sans qu’aucune raison convaincante n’ait été donnée de la part de Brazza. Il sied de rappeler que le président congolais Sassou a été choisi par les organisateurs des concertations nationales comme médiateur ou accompagnateur.

Ces assises appelées « concertations nationales » ont pris fin en octobre 2013 en la présence du président congolais qui était venu rehausser ses cérémonies de clôture. Lors du discours clôturant ces assises, une multitude des promesses ont été données par le président Joseph Kabila, bien qu’elles trainent dans son ensemble. Le gouvernement de cohésion nationale est l’un des cas frappant. A en croire, le choix du président Sassou comme facilitateur portait à croire qu’il est parmi les personnalités de confiance par rapport aux autres qui étaient probables médiateurs. Toutefois, il existe une suspicion entre ces deux pays qui tournerait, ces dernières années, autour des militaires Ex-FAZ qui se sont réfugiés en majorité de l’autre cote du fleuve ainsi que la présence du général dissident Faustin Munene. Malgré cela, ces anciens militaires peuvent ne pas faire partie des expulsés ; ce qui signifierait que la question de ce drame affecte le paisible paysans qui étaient à la recherche de leur survie.

Bizarrement, ces expulsions semblent s’accompagner par des violences latentes qui se caractérisent apparemment par le fait de ne pas aviser ces personnes même s’ils seraient en irrégularité. Il y a aussi ceux qui déclarent avoir été victimes d’autres formes des tortures, mais l’existence des tortures psychologiques est évidente, personne n’en disconviendrait. Ces expulsés seraient-ils victimes de mésententes personnelles entre hommes d’Etat ou un acte pour marquer l’impatience de la part du médiateur/facilitateur ? Par surprise, les représailles se font déjà sentir dans le sens que 500 étudiants brazzavillois ont quitté Kinshasa craignant des formes de vengeance. Il s’agit d’une situation préoccupante dans les relations de pays voisins ; et ces refoulements ne sont pas les premiers malheureusement.

Entre 2009-13, des centaines des milliers des congolais ont été expulsés dans presque les mêmes conditions par l’Angola, un autre voisin. Ces compatriotes sont souvent accusés d’établissement illégal dans ces pays voisins. Des accusations qui peuvent être considérées comme des boucs émissaires car leur établissement avait existé pendant longtemps et dans les mêmes conditions. Le cas de ces étudiants brazzavillois qui vivent à Kinshasa en dit plus car eux aussi suivent régulièrement les études à Kinshasa alors qu’en irrégularité. Ces expulsions d’Angola ont été aussi accompagnées par des tortures physiques et psychologiques au point que des femmes et filles ont été victimes des violences sexuelles.

La réaction de Kinshasa, en rapport avec ces expulsions, est et a été presque la même : la condamnation et la stupéfaction. Toutefois, il faudra comprendre cette sagesse car peut-être constructive et adaptée pour le long terme et le bon voisinage. La position de force peut aussi jouer un rôle déterminant dans la réaction de part et d’autre. Il faudra aussi rappeler que le mois passé 251 personnes ont péri dans le lac Albert lors d’un accident de naufrage. Ces personnes fuyaient possiblement les conditions d’accueil dans les centres des refugies en Uganda. Il s’agit presque des malheurs qui ont certaines similitudes.

Loin de chercher les raisons derrières toutes ces expulsions et malheurs et en avoir un jugement hâtif pour des faits découlant des relations interétatiques, il est important de comprendre pourquoi ces congolais errent-ils. De l’Angola à Brazza, mon humble opinion porte à croire que le délabrement des conditions socio-économiques serait à l’origine de tous ces mouvements. En plus de violence socio-politique de la RDC, les congolais cherchent partout où ils peuvent survivre en sécurité dans le sens large. Ce choix est motivé possiblement par certaines différences sur le plan économique et social caractérisant ce trois pays.

Il est à remarquer que le Produit Intérieur Brut (PIB/Habitat) est autour de 5.000 $/an en Angola, 3.400 $ au Congo-Brazza, alors que celui de la RDC est de 416$. La parité de pouvoir d’achat est respectivement aux alentours de 6.000$ ; 4.500$ et 694$ en Angola, Congo-Brazza ainsi que la RDC. Bien que ces indicateurs économiques ne démontrent pas toute la réalité socio-économique d’un pays, ils expriment largement la base de ce que pourra constituer une différence dans d’autres domaines. En plus de cela, il est à signaler que ces trois pays ont presque en commun des similarités en terme des potentialités économiques et un passé marqué par des violences et des guerres. L’existence des différences de niveau de vie se trouvent dans les raisons que les personnes avisées connaissent mieux.

Par conséquent, les solutions à ces problèmes d’expulsions ainsi que d’autres que nous ne pouvons pas relater dans cet article, doivent trouver inévitablement des solutions par des dirigeants congolais. Toutefois, ces solutions doivent viser le long terme et la stabilité socio-économique des citoyens ordinaires. Il s’agit de mettre en place un environnement propice et attractif dans lequel ce citoyen ordinaire pourra survivre. Les réponses à court terme et immédiates doivent éviter des confrontations entre états, mais plutôt s’orienter dans une logique de bon voisinage. Les plans de distribution et de redistribution des richesses nationales sont imposables et l’accent doit être mis sur l’établissement des infrastructures publiques permettant aux populations de s’épanouir, éradiquer la corruption et l’enrichissement illicite au détriment du peuple ainsi que rendre justice à tous.

Ntanyoma R. Delphin

Compte Twitter @delphino12

Email: rkmbz1973@gmail.com

Blog: www.edrcrdf.wordpress.com

Never add more when dealing with Insatiable Childish: Change the cup to get Consent


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It was very awesome to realize how my grandmother used to deal with my childish ingratitude. As I excessively demanded more milk to accompanying in swallowing “ugali”, potatoes or any other food, she could simply have a move around and change the cup for getting my consent. I had finally found myself so funny during that period when I discussed the matter with her. She explained to me that I regularly requested to get a full cup of milk, despite my capacity to finish it all. My complaint came out when I got a non-full cup. Thus, as she knew my level of satisfaction, she had only to deal with acceptance with the same quantity into a small cup, this time full.

My president was straightforward in his speech[1] delivered in Swahili with of course few words in French; a fact he apologized on. He was meeting opinion leaders in Goma on 1st December 2013. During this event, he expressed his sympathy and compassion with those affected by war in North-Kivu. He reminded the audience about his surprise as did others when the war suddenly erupted in 2012. In a very concise speech, he has been able to explain the three pillars that sustained the defeat of M23: diplomatic, political and military approaches. He further recognized errors made during 2009 agreements between DRC government and CNDP. Implicitly, these mistakes have contributed to break out the new war spearheaded by M23. To my surprise, he called some of those integrated into national army (FARDC) in 2009 as “wa ruga ruga wote ndani ya armée”. I did not capture the meaning of wa ruga ruga. A statement applauded by the public, seemingly the audience got the point as interesting.

President Kabila’s speech warned Goma’s population over discrimination, ethnic rivalries and revenge spirits. He expressed that another war is being planned somewhere as the great lakes region has always been like that. The end of one predicts another to come soon. An occasion for moms to appeal to Jesus name and the president went direct to send a clear message to neighboring countries, manipulating wars in Eastern, that they have to stop. He insisted on the fact of never being “drunk” of victory rather keeping on watching up events so that a new series of wars found them ready. I got skeptical on the sustainable peace being discussed within Medias. Additionally, the speech also covered the forthcoming fight against poverty, development related issues, and peace consolidation.

He ended his message by appreciating local population efforts for having opposed rebels who called themselves as North-Kivu native. He mentioned that population resistance is a strong message toward those working behind the scene by fomenting rebels. Moreover, I got surprised when the president told the audience that he came across people’s complaining, especially in “Grand-Nord: Butembo and Beni), over harassments, injustice and corruption conducted by public officials. President’s appreciation looks unlikely convincing as he will tackle these misconducts by officials permutation in different provinces; a short and medium term solution. My audience then clapped and applauded on the right presidential decision to deal with corruption and injustice. Seemingly, my interpretation was that the president considers corruption, injustice and harassments as local problems to be handled by having officials leaving one office to another. He also referred on how war has exhausted the budget allocated to other development projects and promised them to run in near future.

I expected that the president had to point out these promises by naming them and having a clear timeframe for easing possible evaluation since he requested to get confidence renewed from his people. In addition, his response and understanding of corruption, injustice etc. left me less convinced. Many observers and I believe that governance issues in DRC are widespread beyond local entities. Consequently, a response and understanding has to be found in that scope. Though he mentioned “mentality change”, as a complementary way of dealing with governance issues, myself find it not as primary means of getting things well-done. Strikingly, there have been verifiable stories of top officials acquiring houses in Europe, US, SA…, either wrong or right. I wondered if these houses are part of “war efforts” that have exhausted national budget. If these allegations involving national level are right, my audience has had a cup changed to deal with their demands while the quantity of milk is still unchanged since 2003. Your interpretation can convince me either way.

I am sorry for cutting my story short and forget to tell you that my grandmother passed away in 2005 in Goma. I really loved her innate management principles.

NTANYOMA R. Delphin

Twitter Account @delphino12

Email: rkmbz1973@gmail.com

Blog: http://www.edrcrdf.wordpress.com

Would I have to wait 16 more years to identify who to blame in DRC?


I grew up in a remote village of Itombwe customary chieftaincy (Collectivité d’Itombwe), Mwenga territory in South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The first challenges I had to come across were related to learning things at school that were seemingly as stories, untouchable. Embarrassingly, it may sound as nonsense to figure out that during my earlier age I have been shown where a road in my dad’s crop field had crossed earlier 60s. A story-teller said that there used to be a road built to connect Minembwe – Turambo to a locality called Gipurizo because an unnamed white man planned to have a dairy farmland there. Surprisingly, you don’t have neither to think about why it was like that nor where was my dad’s vehicle. I will simply be unable to finger-pointing exactly who to blame for living an area not connected to road. In a real sense, a health center, hospital, electricity, television, vehicle and any basic socio-economic infrastructures remained stories told by my teachers until my 16s.

At one point, I thought being victim of intercommunity conflicts that had devastated the South-Kivu region, especially Mwenga-Fizi territories since 1960. These intercommunity conflicts have erupted the eve of the DRC independence; hence highlighting the role of colonial rule. Afterward, I came to realize that my view was narrowly right as to some extent the region was quite calm between 1980-1990; and neighboring communities were also living likely the same conditions as I did. While not underestimating the effects of intercommunity conflicts on that stated situation in my area, I guess it would be unfair to putting all these lacking services on the back of community conflicts. It is then late 90s that I tried to look around and search who to blame, as I could be able to consider the role of the state into all these messes. Unfortunately, the Revolutionary Popular Movement (Mouvement Populaire de la Revolution: MPR), through “macho[1] ya MPR”, has had constructed a myth around its intelligence capability to detect everything. The myth could never allow me to even blame the state in my own inside. The myth made my mind to keep Mobutu’s regime as powerful till 17 may 1997 and I have never guessed his ouster.

Then the campaign of AFDL (Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo/Zaïre), for having ousted the Mobutu’s regime, raised an era of hope, despite flaws alongside its progress toward Kinshasa. My expectation was that these are contradictions that would be fixed at any time and I was sticking on the huge achievement of overturning the myth. The new regime established by AFDL leaders had 15 months to break down into 2 to 3 powerful parties fighting over power and resources control. Since 1996, the new mood revived and exacerbated community clashes into armed confrontations. These clashes and confrontations went on to be transformed into ethnic militias, fighting for self-defense each other. The puzzling explanation looks like a paradox and it remains hard to get its answer. Why is everyone seeing himself as self-defending? The puzzling stance could finally end up into extermination of the weak in the name of “self-protection and my community interests”. Oddly, politicians and opportunist local leaders have, for so long time, had deceitfully used these arguments.

The recurring insurgencies and rebellions that followed in Eastern DRC, backed or not by neighboring countries as they used to dismiss, had created another track to finding someone else to blame. It was exactly the one exploiting and manipulating the intercommunity grievances largely for his interests. Specifically, I was feeling that the appropriate approach to help a neighbor (DRC) would be through a constructive and concise advice and let him breathing. Unfortunately, insurgencies never stopped to get propelled; thus fuelling on the existing burning root-seated issues. Therefore, my village and the neighboring territories in general, rather than improving, their situation went worse again and again. Consequently, people have desperately lost courage to get out of this disorderliness.

Later on, I finally realized that the above mentioned individuals bear their responsibility of what had happened in my village/area, but they are not sole responsible. The following description can easily point a finger to another one. Though potentially rich in sources of energy, 9%[2] of DRC population estimated to 75 million can only access to electricity. It means that they are around 6 750 000 privileged individuals accessing electricity when we all know it necessity into daily life. However, 3 07 5000, i.e 45% of these advantageous people live in Kinshasa. Consequently, the remaining 55% are unequally distributed across provinces, each having on average 6%, roughly 412 500 individuals accessing electricity. Nevertheless, while 70% of Congolese population lives in rural areas, the coverage rate of electricity is only 1% (525 000) in these remote areas. If someone distributes the figure on the number of provinces, you get a clear answer why there is no electricity in my village since established 1977. Surprisingly, this is one of the socio-economic indicators of Congolese population, but most of its characteristics are in red. Put it simply that most of rural areas in DRC looks like my village described in paragraph one.

I was 8 years when late president Mobutu had already ruled Zaire over 16 years. Until he gets ousted to power in 1997, there was any significant change in my village and even the territories around. The same is seemingly happening now in my village since 16 years after Mobutu’s overthrow. Then, I tend to conclude that all these socio-economic failures are no longer to be blamed only to King Leopold II, president Mobutu, neighboring countries and their pawns or intercommunity conflicts. Halfway of the president Mobutu’s regime, but nothing has extensively changed besides some individuals accumulating wealth for their own; hence widening simply inequalities. Since liberation campaigns, the general situation in DRC looks going downward, making difficult to predict a better future unless another socio-economic specialized intervention brigade will be formed.

For skeptical reasons and uncertainty of the future, I am being tempted to get convinced that these warlords controlling the eastern part of DRC wouldn’t have done so if they had found an attractive environment allowing them to evolve in other domains. Most of them would have been good business-operators, doctors and nurses, engineers… and opening up large opportunities to their future. So longer as such attractive environment is yet established, it is possible to predict that those who are 8 now will be dealing again with guns as a way of airing their claims. However, the argument doesn’t underestimate the root causes of conflict that require relevant response; rather it is arguing that the state absence contributes in widening these issues. The point does neither calling DRC as “failed” state, rather it is emphasizing on its role for improving its population standard living by implementing hugely into public services.

 

NTANYOMA R. Delphin

Twitter Account @delphino12

E-mail: rkmbz1973@gmail.com

Blog: http://www.edrcrdf.wordpress.com


[1] Macho, a Swahili word literally means eyes, i.e the then ruling party’s eyes