MONUC Press Review - 1st February 2007

The main focus of today's Kinshasa press is on the motion raised yesterday at the National Assembly plenary session by opposition MP José Malika from the Union for the Nation coalition calling for "proceedings, according to the law, against all MP's and politico-administrative officials holding dual nationality".

Le Potentiel reports that as the Congolese National Assembly held a plenary session on Tuesday, José Maliki, an MP from the opposition Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) party, "called for an investigation commission to be set up to verify cases, within the National Assembly, of violation of the nationality law [which forbids dual citizenship]". According to this paper, "several MPs hold a foreign nationality and have not renounced it as the law requires them to".

"The Union for the Nation [coalition] calls for an investigation of the nationalities of all the 500 members of the lower house," La Référence Plus writes.

"The notion of Congolity resurfaces," Le Phare observes. And yet, this issue was "addressed in a consensus manner during the electoral campaign ...," according to La Référence Plus. "The issue of nationality [even] appeared to have been relegated to the backburner of the country's political life...," Le Phare writes.

According to La Référence Plus, MP José Malika, who was recently elected governor of Equateur province, may have raised his motion Wednesday "in response to the invalidation of two governor candidates from the Union for the Nation coalition" to which he also belongs. Alex Kanku and Dominique Kanku "were disqualified by the IEC [Independent Electoral Commission] last week, one day before the election day, for their alleged dual citizenship, following a complaint filed by the Presidential Majority Alliance (AMP)."

In other news, "police forces clashed yesterday with members of [the religious sect] Bundi Dia Kongo" in the southwestern port-town of Matadi, Bas-Congo province, Le Potentiel reports. Prior to the incident, "members of the sect had circulated leaflets calling for street demonstrations on Thursday, 1st April to protest against what they called the 'democracy of corruption'" As a result of Wednesday's clashes, "three of the Bundi Dia Kong protesters were killed and several others wounded, and a vehicle belonging to MONUC [ UN Mission] was burned," Le Potentiel reports, citing several unspecified sources.