MONUC Press Review - 4 October 2006

Much of today's Kinshasa press is related to the crash in the DRC capital yesterday (Tuesday) involving an unmanned surveillance aircraft belonging to the European Force (EUFOR). One person was killed and another grievously injured when the drone went down near the Martyrs Stadium.

L'Observateur, which carries eye witness accounts collected at the scene of the accident, writes: "this crash caused one lady's death and left another person seriously wounded." This is the second time that a drone being used by EUFOR soldiers crashed, the first being in July when another unmanned EUFOR aircraft went down, laments L'Observateur, hoping that "[t]he investigations to be undertaken by competent authorities will help enlighten the public on the real cause or causes of this accident."

For the moment, "due to the absence of true information, rumours have taken precedence," L'Avenir notes. The European force should "make sure the public is informed about [the cause] of this crash," says L'Avenir, because Kinshasa is a place "where the truth can become a lie, giving leeway to fanciful rumours that are exploited, if not fomented, by politicians." "EUFOR must justify why this second accident with loss of life" because we're not talking about "grasshoppers" but about "drones which when they fall down on the streets of Kinshasa at this rate are sure to give cause for worry," L'Avenir writes.

For the moment, the European Force in the DRC has offered to "compensate all victims of this new crash," according to Le Phare. Nevertheless, "Residents of Kinshasa are starting to question the reliability of these aircrafts after seeing crash twice in two months. Had it not been for heavy Congolese police presence at the crash site yesterday, "the EUFOR experts, as they arrived on the Boulevard Triumphal, would have been met with a shower of stones from an angry crowd," Le Phare believes.

Le Palmarès reports that a fireworks display organized by the German embassy over an islet on the Congo River "was confused with an attack being launched from [the neighbouring] Congo-Brazzaville." And it was not long before "strings of vehicles were seen driving at breakneck speed [as people] fled the business district of Kinshasa...in a mad rush." Yet, it is true that the Kinshasa governor had released a statement announcing "the organization of this fireworks display," Le Palmarès says.

In other news, L'Observateur reports: "The mandates of 498 out of 500 [newly elected] deputies were validated". The cases of the two remaining deputies were "sent back to a special commission ...for further examination" and those "deputies holding any other office [than that of deputy] were given eight days to resign" that position, according to L'Observateur.

Meanwhile, since Monday, 2 October the Senate has been in session to examine the draft State Budget for 2007. Having announced this, Le Potentiel wonders "who may have produced this draft budget since the outgoing government is supposed to be just disposing of the day-to-day matters". As Le Potentiel sees it, "Both the Transitional Senate Office members and the senators appointed by the components and entities [parties to the Global and All-Inclusive Agreement] want to play imposture."

In performing "this exercise in clinging at all costs to privileges and prerogatives they have enjoyed for more than three years [of transition], these unelected senators are going as far as pretending not to know that there is a process underway to restore [the country] to a classic State where usurpers no longer have any place," writes Le Potentiel, adding that they should "serenely [support] this process instead of engaging in such debasing playacting."