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Bemba denounces DR Congo election as ‘parody’ after ban
PARIS, Sept 4, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Former DR Congo warlord Jean-Pierre Bemba
Tuesday denounced a long-delayed December presidential election as a “parody”
after the country’s top court banned him from contesting.
Bemba was one of six presidential hopefuls who was excluded by the election
commission from the December 23 vote.
He had appealed the decision but the Constitutional Court late Monday
upheld the ban saying he was excluded for his conviction by the International
Criminal Court (ICC) for bribing witnesses at his war crimes trial.
“The fact that one is choosing opponents… is very worrying,” Bemba told
France 24 television, adding that the restive nation would witness “a parody
of an election.”
The former Belgian colony has not seen a peaceful transition of power since
1960.
President Joseph Kabila, who has held office since 2001, has finally said
he will not run again after keeping silent on the issue for months and
fuelling tension and deadly unrest in the volatile nation. Kabila’s second
and final term ended two years ago.
Some experts fear the country could spiral into bloodshed.
Bemba had declared his candidacy after making a triumphant return home
from Belgium, with tens of thousands of supporters turning out to greet him
after the ICC based in The Hague acquitted him of war crimes charges.
In June, a sharply divided five-judge ICC bench overturned Bemba’s 2016
conviction and 18-year jail term for war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed by his troops in the neighbouring Central African Republic in 2003.
However, Bemba and five co-accused were convicted on appeal of bribery,
corruption and of coaching 14 defence witnesses in his main trial.
Later this month, the international court will sentence the former vice
president for bribing witnesses.
Kabila who took over in 2001 after his father, Laurent-Desire Kabila, was
assassinated by a bodyguard, is an arch-foe of Bemba.
Kabila’s tenure over the vast mineral-rich country has been marked by a
reputation for corruption, inequality and unrest.
Bemba lost presidential elections to Kabila in 2006 and was later accused
of treason when his bodyguards clashed with the army in Kinshasa.
In 2007, he fled to Belgium, where he had spent part of his youth.
He was then arrested in Europe on an ICC warrant for war crimes committed
by his private army in the Central African Republic from 2002-3, when its
then-president Ange-Felix Patasse sought his help to repel a coup attempt.
– Miniature Mobutu –
Bemba, who became vice president of an interim government from 2003 to
2006, was born on November 4, 1962 in Bogada in the northwest Equateur
province.
His father was a rich businessman close to dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who
ruled from 1965 until he was ousted in 1997.
Young Bemba went on to take over the family businesses, using his
popularity in the capital Kinshasa to build on his wealth and expand into
sectors such as mobile phones, air freight and television.
He left the country in 1997 after Laurent-Desire ousted Mobutu. A war
followed a year later and lasted till 2003 and drew foreign support on rival
sides.
Bemba became leader of the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) rebels, a
1,500-strong force backed by neighbouring Uganda and opposed to the Kabila
regime.
The MLC, now a political party, on Tuesday urged the ICC to give
“precisions” on its ruling, saying Bemba had been unfairly banned by the
Constitutional Court.
After the Congolese war ended in 2003, Bemba laid down his arms and was
awarded one of four vice-presidential posts shared out among wartime rivals
in a transitional government.
The heavy-set magnate, an imposing 1.90 metres (6 foot 3 inches) tall, has
been nicknamed “Chairman” and “Miniature Mobutu” for his headstrong
character.
BSS/AFP/RY/1804 hrs