Riots of Low-Congo of February 2007

January 31st with the February 3rd 2007, in the cities of Matadi, Boma and Muanda, in province of the Low-Congo (south-western of the Democratic republic of Congo), of the bloody confrontations opposed civil demonstrators, members of the movement politico-monk Bundu dia Kongo, with the police force

. The demonstrators protested on the one hand following allegations of corruption at the time of the election of the governor and vice-governor of the province by the provincial deputies, and on the other hand to prevent a searching of the residence of their chief, Muanda Nsemi, and their meeting rooms and worships. The chief of Bundu dia Kongo was candidate vice-governor on the ticket of the losing coalittion of the National union (ONE, opposition). The searchings had been ordered by the authorities with the reason which the movement politico-monk would hold of the weapons of war, with an aim of forming an antigovernment militia. This reason worried the members of Bundu dia Kongo, because it is that which had been used to submit in front of military jurisdictions and to imprison two other leaders of the Ethnie Kongo: Pasteur Kuthino, in prison since semi-2005, and Main Marie-Therese Landu, former candidate with the first turn of the presidential elections of 2006, imprisoned since December 2006.

The assessment of the confrontations was heavy. According to the Minister of Interior Department, the general Denis Kalume Numbi, ten agents of the order (police and soldiers) were killed with the knife by the demonstrators, while seventy-seven members of Bundu dia Kongo perished under the governmental balls. The Mission of UNO in DRC (MONUC), which carried out a survey préliminare shortly after the tragedy, advances a figure of at least cent-trentre-quatre maifestants killed, and condemns the reaction " disproportionnée" police force. As for the movement Bundu dia Kongo, it evokes the " disparition" from seven hundreds - fifty of its members. In all the cases, the business seems a crime of State, and entâche seriously the reputation of the president lately elected, Joseph Kabila Kabange. Doubts rise as for its promises to direct the country in a democratic and peaceful way, different from the strong methods employed by its two predecessors, the Marshal Joseph Désiré Mobutu (president of 1965 to 1997), and his/her own father, Laurent Désiré Kabila (president of 1997 to 2001), both described like tyrants.

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