UN
United Nations Peacekeeping
5 Mar
2009
Press Review
The opening of the Parliament's extraordinary session and the decision made by eight RCD-Goma MPs to suspend their participation in the National Assembly are the major issues commented by today's local press in the DRC, which also go back over the cabinet reshuffle.
Convened by President Kabila, the dual extraordinary session of the National Assembly and the Senate, L'Observateur notes ''will address issues relating to amnesty, nationality, defence and armed forces''; the session will also examine and adopt the organic laws on the Institutions to Support the Democracy, amongst others, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission, the National Human Rights Observatory and the High Authority for the media. The session will as well frame the law on adjustment and amendment of Government budget for the financial year 2004, the bill on customs regulations and the draft-bill on the constitution.
Commenting the same subject, L'Avenir considers that the issues relating to amnesty and nationality frighten. Without further details, the paper quotes the chairman of the Lower Chamber, Olivier Kamitatu as recalling that ''those issues are highly delicate and sensitive, since there is need to support the engaged struggle against impunity and for the restoration of the State sovereignty''.
La Référence Plus announces that Bizima Karaha, ''at the head of a group of eight RCD-Goma's Kinyarwanda-speaking MPs'', suspended his participation in the National Assembly. The paper further says that Mr. Bizima submitted to MONUC/Goma yesterday, ''along with his eight other colleagues, a 36-page document denouncing the security situation in the Kivu province and above all the tragedy suffered by members of his community, the Banyamulenge, during the recent clashes in Bukavu''. The paper echoes a statement made by this MP through Radio Okapi declaring,'enough is enough. We refuse to perish like chickens. Banyamulenge are not second-rate Congolese whom they can kill like chickens. We therefore call for an end to this practice and it must stop''.
Le Phare, which received a copy of the letter, adds that those who signed it ''denounce an attempt to disrupt the peace process by nationalists extremists responsible for the demonising, racism, xenophobia and the irrational fear levelled at a community; they sow hatred and death through the media and national palaces in the capital city of Kinshasa; the letter also denounces the presence of Interahamwe and ex-Far in the East''.
To resolve this problem, the paper says, ''Bizima Karaha and his associates are insistent that the eastern populations must first be secured'', and demands ''a sort of a break for an assessment of the peace process''. Reason for which, the paper further says, they have suspended their participation in the National Assembly, simultaneously claiming ''the holding of an RCD congress in Goma, in the shortest possible time, with a view to assessing the Transition''. Le Phare believes that the ''Bizima Kahara and associates' revolt'' is an ''additional episode to the current debates within RCD, where some Congolese now question the Kinyarwanda-speaking members' supremacy '''. It transpires that ''the communautarianism and sectarianism tendencies noted during debates and the tactical withdrawal of the exclusively Kinyarwanda-speaking signatory-members to Goma confer on Bizima Karaha's procedure a particular connotation in a region regularly plagued by tragedies.
In another development, Le Potentiel refers to ''Congolese disappointment'' since the issuance, last Sunday, of the presidential decree on the cabinet reshuffle. For the paper, ''it was just a slight reshuffle'', following which only ''five ministers and seven new deputy-ministers joined the government in replacement of those reassigned to the territorial administration and the president's political party 'PPRD' as secretary-general''. The paper considers that the changes expected by the population did not take place because blackmailing prevailed over Reasons of State. The paper says that ''the announced revelations on nasty dossiers apparently frighten everybody''. So doing, the paper explains, ''no one can virtually claim being clean'', they just made a slight reshuffle. Therefore, ''the disappointed Congolese people witness impotent the cancer proceed forward with its destructive work'', the paper notes.
Through this slight reshuffle, Joseph Kabila has perpetuated Government inefficiency, La Tempête des Tropiques says, highlighting that ''the majority of the Government team proved inefficient and could not therefore be equal to the stakes of Transition's second year, that is, the organisation of free, democratic and transparent elections in serenity''. He remains sceptic regarding ''the capacity of the slightly reshuffled government with the same less competent actors, to take up the challenge of the Transition's year II''.
Le Palmarès, in turn, raises the hidden reasons of Joseph Kabila's absence in Addis-Ababa, where the African Union's summit was held last week. The paper mentions that DRC owes 10 million dollars to the African Union and reports ''the presence of Mr. Patrick Mazhimpaka, former Special Adviser to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, as Deputy to Konare who is the head of the African Union''.
Commenting the same subject, L'Avenir considers that the issues relating to amnesty and nationality frighten. Without further details, the paper quotes the chairman of the Lower Chamber, Olivier Kamitatu as recalling that ''those issues are highly delicate and sensitive, since there is need to support the engaged struggle against impunity and for the restoration of the State sovereignty''.
La Référence Plus announces that Bizima Karaha, ''at the head of a group of eight RCD-Goma's Kinyarwanda-speaking MPs'', suspended his participation in the National Assembly. The paper further says that Mr. Bizima submitted to MONUC/Goma yesterday, ''along with his eight other colleagues, a 36-page document denouncing the security situation in the Kivu province and above all the tragedy suffered by members of his community, the Banyamulenge, during the recent clashes in Bukavu''. The paper echoes a statement made by this MP through Radio Okapi declaring,'enough is enough. We refuse to perish like chickens. Banyamulenge are not second-rate Congolese whom they can kill like chickens. We therefore call for an end to this practice and it must stop''.
Le Phare, which received a copy of the letter, adds that those who signed it ''denounce an attempt to disrupt the peace process by nationalists extremists responsible for the demonising, racism, xenophobia and the irrational fear levelled at a community; they sow hatred and death through the media and national palaces in the capital city of Kinshasa; the letter also denounces the presence of Interahamwe and ex-Far in the East''.
To resolve this problem, the paper says, ''Bizima Karaha and his associates are insistent that the eastern populations must first be secured'', and demands ''a sort of a break for an assessment of the peace process''. Reason for which, the paper further says, they have suspended their participation in the National Assembly, simultaneously claiming ''the holding of an RCD congress in Goma, in the shortest possible time, with a view to assessing the Transition''. Le Phare believes that the ''Bizima Kahara and associates' revolt'' is an ''additional episode to the current debates within RCD, where some Congolese now question the Kinyarwanda-speaking members' supremacy '''. It transpires that ''the communautarianism and sectarianism tendencies noted during debates and the tactical withdrawal of the exclusively Kinyarwanda-speaking signatory-members to Goma confer on Bizima Karaha's procedure a particular connotation in a region regularly plagued by tragedies.
In another development, Le Potentiel refers to ''Congolese disappointment'' since the issuance, last Sunday, of the presidential decree on the cabinet reshuffle. For the paper, ''it was just a slight reshuffle'', following which only ''five ministers and seven new deputy-ministers joined the government in replacement of those reassigned to the territorial administration and the president's political party 'PPRD' as secretary-general''. The paper considers that the changes expected by the population did not take place because blackmailing prevailed over Reasons of State. The paper says that ''the announced revelations on nasty dossiers apparently frighten everybody''. So doing, the paper explains, ''no one can virtually claim being clean'', they just made a slight reshuffle. Therefore, ''the disappointed Congolese people witness impotent the cancer proceed forward with its destructive work'', the paper notes.
Through this slight reshuffle, Joseph Kabila has perpetuated Government inefficiency, La Tempête des Tropiques says, highlighting that ''the majority of the Government team proved inefficient and could not therefore be equal to the stakes of Transition's second year, that is, the organisation of free, democratic and transparent elections in serenity''. He remains sceptic regarding ''the capacity of the slightly reshuffled government with the same less competent actors, to take up the challenge of the Transition's year II''.
Le Palmarès, in turn, raises the hidden reasons of Joseph Kabila's absence in Addis-Ababa, where the African Union's summit was held last week. The paper mentions that DRC owes 10 million dollars to the African Union and reports ''the presence of Mr. Patrick Mazhimpaka, former Special Adviser to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, as Deputy to Konare who is the head of the African Union''.
