US embassy cable - 04KINSHASA2127

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KINSHASA 002127 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2014 
TAGS: PGOV, PINS, PREL, CG 
SUBJECT: KATANGA POLITICAL UPDATE 
 
Classified By: Poloff Edward Bestic for Reasons 1.5 B and D 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY:  President Kabila's PPRD party is the leading 
"national" contender in Katanga province, and benefits from 
local government control and preferential media access.  PPRD 
efforts are nonetheless somewhat in disarray, and face local 
players such as former governor Kyungu, whose tribalist 
approach runs counter to the PPRD's own efforts to build a 
multi-ethnic base.  Kabila has the advantage in Katanga over 
Kyungu and presidential rivals such as Jean-Pierre Bemba and 
Etienne Tshisekedi, but he will have to work harder in order 
to count the province a secure electoral win.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (U) Poloff visited Lubumbashi and Kalemie in DRC's Katanga 
province from Nov. 7-13 and met with local civil and military 
officials, diplomats, U.N. and international NGO workers, and 
members of civil society.  This is the second in a series of 
short cables on the trip. 
 
 
Governor, Vice-Governor Frustrated at Lack of Support? 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
3. (C) The recently-appointed provincial governor, Dr. Urbain 
Kisula Ngoy, met briefly with a delegation led by USAID 
country director on November 8.  He came across as relaxed 
and articulate, and did not employ local journalists to 
publicize the meeting.  According to one well-informed 
western source who frequently meets with the governor, Kisula 
is frustrated because Kinshasa has given him little support 
or resources with which to both reunify the province (the 
northernmost portion was and is still controlled by RCD-G 
appointed authorities) and to conduct an electoral campaign 
on behalf of President Kabila.  The same source said that one 
of the two vice-governors, Chikez Diemu (formerly 
secretary-general of President Kabila's political party, the 
 
SIPDIS 
PPRD), is also frustrated because the governor does not 
delegate well and runs the province in an amateurish way. 
(Comment:  Although Kisula is supposedly a Mai-Mai, as a 
pediatrician and former president of the provincial 
legislature he is anything but a bush fighter.  Both he and 
Chikez are PPRD men.  Their alleged frustration with 
Kinshasa's unwillingness to adequately support them rings 
true.  While most people accuse the ex-belligerent groups of 
using state funds to fund their respective political 
campaigns, we think the problem is more that those with 
access to such funds prefer to line their own pockets first, 
finance the party second.  End Comment.) 
 
 
Local PPRD in Some Disarray 
--------------------------- 
4. (C) Richard Muyej, head of the PPRD's party structure for 
Katanga, told poloff November 8 he spent most of the past two 
months in South Africa for medical reasons, and while he was 
gone, his colleagues did virtually nothing to advance the 
party's cause.  Muyej denied the rumor that the presidency 
had stripped PPRD secretary-general Vital Kamerhe's authority 
over party finances.  There is popular misperception, because 
there are in effect two parallel campaigns:  the first, 
involving the PPRD's formal party structure, targets the 
masses;  the second consists of individual presidential 
advisers, who are targeting local kingmakers.  Muyej 
explained President Kabila's failure to openly declare his 
candidacy and party affiliation as, first, a desire to remain 
above the political fray, and second, his status as a 
military officer which prevents him from running for civilian 
office.  In the next breath, however he admitted that Kabila 
"will need to declare soon, because we're running out of 
time."  Finally, when asked about the issue of amnesty for 
individuals convicted in the much-criticized Laurent Kabila 
assassination trial, Muyej initially said it was not 
relevant, then added that locals at the village level in 
southern Katanga had asked him about it.  (Comment:  Poloff 
has heard previously that this is indeed an important issue 
to the Lunda, because several of the individuals convicted 
during the trial are fellow tribesmen.  Muyej, a Lunda 
himself, undoubtedly finds it awkward to defend the PPRD's 
position of denying amnesty to these individuals.  End 
Comment.) 
 
 
MLC, UDPS, RCD-Goma Absent? 
--------------------------- 
5. (C) Poloff heard relatively little about Jean-Pierre 
Bemba's MLC party ("they're marginal here," according to one 
western diplomat) and saw no MLC banners, t-shirts, or other 
advertising, despite the fact that one of the two 
vice-governors and the military region commander are MLC men. 
 A MONUC source speculated that Bemba might try to forge a 
political alliance with Kyungu and air force commander Gen. 
John Numbi, both Luba Katanga tribesmen.  (Comment:  Bemba 
has probably had contact with Kyungu and Numbi--the latter 
perhaps more for common "business" interests--but we have 
heard nothing to indicate a political partnership.  A 
Bemba-Kyungu alliance would severely damage Bemba's chances 
of teaming up with Etienne Tshisekedi's UDPS party, whose 
mainly Luba Kasai supporters were on the receiving end of 
Kyungu's ethnic-cleansing campaign in the early 90s.  End 
Comment.) 
 
6. (C) The only mention of opposition figure Tshisekedi 
during poloff's visit was by a South African diplomat, who 
commented that the UDPS seriously considered but decided 
against creating an armed wing in 2002-3.  Poloff saw no UDPS 
or RCD-Goma signs, t-shirts or other publicity.  On November 
11 representatives from a smaller, UDPS-allied party 
complained to poloff that they lack campaign funds and fair 
access to public media, two areas where provincial 
authorities and the PPRD have a great advantage.  (Comment: 
Compared to Kinshasa, authorities in Katanga also maintain a 
much tighter grip on freedom of speech, as witnessed by the 
recent arrest and two months' detention of pastor Albert 
Lukusa.  Lukusa publicly described the transitional 
government as infantile and suggested that Kabila and two of 
the vice-presidents are not of 100% Congolese parentage.  End 
Comment.) 
 
 
Other Local Players 
------------------- 
7. (C) Muyej and other observers confirmed that former 
governor Gabriel Kyungu wa Kamwanza, who lobbied hard to get 
his old job back but "lost" to Kisula, now says he is on 
Kabila's side--after threatening publicly in May to campaign 
against him.  (Note:  Kyungu, a Luba Katanga, leads a 
strictly Katangan party called the UNAFEC.  End Note.)  He 
"has no scruples, no ideals," said Muyej, who knows from 
personal experience, having served as an adviser to Kyungu 
when the latter was governor during the early 1990s.  (Note: 
During this period, Kyungu presided over a massive 
ethnic-cleansing campaign, whereby militants from his 
political party--mostly of the Luba Katanga 
tribe--essentially drove out hundreds of thousands of 
Kasains, or "non-native" Katangans.  End Note.)  According to 
a MONUC source in Kalemie, Kyungu visited that town recently 
and is attempting to recruit Congolese into the youth wing of 
his political party, the UNAFEC.  Candidates must be under 
25, able to march three days without eating, and will be 
called "Zulus" (for men) and "Amazons" (women). 
 
8. (C) Moise Katumbi, younger brother of Raphael Soriano 
Katebe Katoto, is also in the PPRD camp, claimed Muyej, but 
the party "needs to manage him carefully."  (Comment: 
Virtually all sides in the Congolese political arena have 
courted the wealthy Katebe Katoto, who never filled his 
senator's seat for the RCD-Goma and reportedly still fears 
arrest on murder charges if he sets foot in the DRC.  End 
Comment.)  According to western observers, Katumbi did not 
himself lobby to become governor, but instead supported 
Jean-Claude Muyambo, a prominent Lubumbashi-based lawyer. 
Muyambo, a former human-rights activist who is from one of 
the smaller tribes in Katanga, is president of "Solidarite 
Katangaise," a local NGO that preaches unity and peace among 
Katangans.  (Comment:  The pro-Kabila newspaper "L'Avenir" 
recently gave full-page coverage to a "Solidarite Katangaise" 
event in Lubumbashi, which was attended by pastor Ngoy 
Mulunda--an unofficial advisor to and emissary of Kabila. 
End Comment.)  Kyungu reportedly heads a similar, though less 
well-funded group, "Fondation Katangaise," that advances his 
nativist, Katanga-for-the-real-Katangans view.  Another 
"candidate" for the governorship was Christian Mwando Simba, 
whose father Charles Mwando Simba currently chairs a key 
National Assembly committee and was governor of Kivu province 
under Mobutu.  One source explained that the Mwando Simbas 
are Tabwas, the same ethnicity as President Kabila's national 
security adviser, Guillaume Samba Kaputo--who also served as 
chief of staff to then-governor Charles Mwando Simba. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
9. (C) Kabila certainly has the advantage in Katanga, but he 
cannot count the province as a secure electoral win. 
Although they adored his father, the Luba Katanga are less 
supportive of Joseph Kabila, and the president has done 
little so far to build an effective machine or patronage 
system with which to gain the support of other Katangans. 
The PPRD's current attempt to appeal to all ethnic groups in 
Katanga does not resonate with the dominant Luba Katanga 
tribe as well as Kyungu's nativist message does.  END COMMENT. 
MEECE