Under New Congo Regime, Dissenters Increasingly Losing Voice

Clement Tshiaba, a foreign affairs editor at Kinshasa’s Le Phare newspaper, is seeking work with a U.S. publication. It’s not that he wishes to forsake his native Congo; rather, he is desperate for the opportunity to express his views freely, without fear of being arrested.

The government of President Laurent Kabila does not take kindly to dissent. Neither did the regime of the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, which ended when he was overthrown by Kabila in May. But Tshiaba says journalists had more than three decades of Mobutu rule in which to develop a sense of what they could get away with. And because Mobutu and his cronies were busy pillaging the state coffers, much slipped by.

Congolese journalists say they had expected to have far more freedom when Kabila came to power with promises to improve civil rights.

Instead, Tshiaba said, “we feel strangled. They are seeking excuses to arrest journalists and close our newspapers because we are in opposition. They don’t like criticism. They want us only to write good things about them.”

Reporters are only one group among many Congolese--and international observers--questioning the Kabila regime’s commitment to democracy. Arbitrary arrests of journalists and critics of the government, the banning of political party activity, the swarm of allegations that Kabila’s troops slaughtered thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees during the Tutsi-allied rebels’ cross-country crusade to power--all have raised doubts that this nation, formerly known as Zaire, can justify being called the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A 50-page report recently released by U.N. special investigator Roberto Garreton charged that “a climate of terror” prevails in Congo and that Kabila’s regime “has eliminated the civil rights to life, liberty and physical integrity.”

Congolese officials argue that the clampdown on dissent is necessary to create a climate of stability so that they can concentrate on tackling the difficulties of the bankrupt state they inherited. They eagerly point to various noteworthy achievements since they took power.

These include slashing monthly inflation, which at one stage topped 8,000%, to less than 10%; gradually paying back wages to civil servants; and creating a national police force that has helped reduce crime, especially looting, and made city streets much safer. Many Congolese agree that Kabila’s soldiers are less intimidating--and have far more respect for average citizens--than the Mobutu troops who terrorized the population.

“We have managed to create a condition of peace and security here,” Foreign Minister Bizima Karaha contended. “The fear is gone. The phobia of Mobutu is gone.”

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Still, the government’s successes have been overshadowed in recent weeks by its intolerance for nonconformity and by the harsh reprisals against those who attack its principles. Violations of basic freedoms have been numerous, particularly in Kinshasa, the capital--traditionally the country’s hotbed of political opposition.

According to local human rights groups, at least 17 reporters have been threatened or fired and four arbitrarily detained, including Le Phare’s director and managing editor, Polydor Muboyayi Mubanga. He was jailed in September for publishing an article essentially comparing Kabila’s personal security force to Mobutu’s presidential guards. (Like Mobutu, Kabila has reportedly chosen recruits for his guard from his own ethnic group and home region.)

In addition, rights monitors say, all opinion programs on local radio have been suspended. There have been dozens of reports of threats against nongovernmental organizations and human rights activists. And on the political front, Kabila’s governing alliance is the only authorized party in Congo and--as noted in Garreton’s report--is dominated by ethnic Tutsis and former exiles.

University of Kinshasa sociology professor Matthieu Kalele Ka-Bila expounded a view similar to Garreton’s last month. In a pamphlet distributed throughout the capital, he stated that the country was being taken over by Tutsis and people from other Nilotic ethnic groups. He called on citizens to demonstrate, for which he was promptly arrested and jailed.

“The new authority had many opportunities to improve human rights when they first came to power,” said Jean-Joseph Mukendi wa Mulumba, a political advisor to Etienne Tshisekedi, Kabila’s main political opponent. “But they used a policy of exclusion.”

Added one Western official: “The transition to democracy must be a common initiative, shared with others, because other parties--not just Kabila--participated in Mobutu’s fall.”

Some observers note that Kabila announced a timetable in May for elections in 1999 but that solid preparations have not yet begun. Instead, the president seems to be concentrating on shoring up his position. For example, a commission appointed last month to draft a new constitution consists primarily of friends of Kabila and members of the ruling alliance.

This has lost the new leader many points. “He had all the support and credit from the population, but this credibility vanished within 10 days of him coming to power,” said Joseph Olenghankoy, an opposition leader and presidential aspirant, who has been arrested twice by the new regime but was never charged. “The one who was once called ‘liberator’ is now called ‘dictator.’ ”

In a survey conducted recently by Berci, a polling agency based in the capital, 52% of the 1,013 people questioned said they would classify Kabila’s regime as a dictatorship, compared with 22% who considered it democratic. The same poll found that 34% of respondents were not convinced that Kabila would guarantee a democratic electoral process.

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Critics also condemn the government’s seemingly insatiable appetite for settling old scores. Thirty-six Mobutu-era ministers and government personnel have been detained--the majority since June--without trial. Most have not been allowed visitors. But Congolese officials have made it clear that they resent being preached to about Western-style democracy. “There is no prescription to give to someone to achieve democracy, human rights and freedom in this country,” said Karaha, the foreign minister.

He maintains that journalists have so much freedom that they often abuse it. Most of those arrested, Karaha says, are simply tax evaders. And he is adamant that most protesters at rallies are paid by the opposition to attend. Karaha also insists that anyone who wants to stage a rally should simply “apply for permission and give a reason.”

But government opponents say this is all talk--official permission would never be granted. Kabila’s regime is bent on despotism, they contend.

And if the government continues to violate the basic human rights of its citizens, warned Jerome Bonso, president of Linelit, a Kinshasa-based human rights group, “we risk living for still many more years in a dictatorship worse than Mobutu’s.”