GOVERNMENT
The Mobutu Era
Within the first year of independence, several events destabilized the country: the army mutinied; the governor of Katanga province attempted secession; a UN peacekeeping force was called in to restore order; Prime Minister Lumumba died under mysterious circumstances; and Col. Joseph Désiré Mobutu (later Mobutu Sese Seko) took over the government and ceded it again to President Kasavubu.
Unrest and rebellion plagued the government until 1965, when Lieutenant General Mobutu, by then commander in chief of the national army, again seized control of the country and declared himself president for 5 years. Mobutu quickly centralized power into his own hands and was elected unopposed as president in 1970. Embarking on a campaign of cultural awareness, Mobutu renamed the country the Republic of Zaire and required citizens to adopt African names. Relative peace and stability prevailed until 1977 and 1978 when Katangan rebels, staged in Angola, launched a series of invasions into the Katanga region. The rebels were driven out with the aid of Belgian paratroopers.
During the 1980s, Mobutu continued to enforce his one-party system of rule. Although Mobutu successfully maintained control during this period, opposition parties, most notably the Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), were active. Mobutu's attempts to quell these groups drew significant international criticism.
As the Cold War came to a close, internal and external pressures on Mobutu increased. In late 1989 and early 1990, Mobutu was weakened by a series of domestic protests, by heightened international criticism of his regime's human rights practices, and by a faltering economy. In April 1990 Mobutu agreed to the principle of a multi-party system with elections and a constitution. As details of a reform package were delayed, soldiers in September 1991 began looting Kinshasa to protest their unpaid wages. Two thousand French and Belgian troops, some of whom were flown in on U.S. Air Force planes, arrived to evacuate the 20,000 endangered foreign nationals in Kinshasa.
In 1992, after previous similar attempts, the long-promised Sovereign National Conference was staged, encompassing more than 2,000 representatives from various political parties. The conference gave itself a legislative mandate and elected Archbishop Laurent Monsengwo as its chairman, along with Etienne Tshisekedi, leader of the UDPS, as prime minister. By the end of the year Mobutu had created a rival government with its own prime minister. The ensuing stalemate produced a compromise merger of the two governments into the High Council of Republic-Parliament of Transition (HCR-PT) in 1994, with Mobutu as head of state and Kengo Wa Dondo as prime minister. Although presidential and legislative elections were scheduled repeatedly over the next 2 years, they never took place.
By 1996, the war and genocide in neighboring Rwanda had spilled over to Zaire. Rwandan Hutu militia forces (Interahamwe), who fled Rwanda following the ascension of a Tutsi-led government, were using Hutu refugee camps in eastern Zaire as bases for incursions against Rwanda.
In October 1996, Rwandan troops (RPA) entered Zaire, simultaneously with the formation of an armed coalition led by Laurent-Désiré Kabila known as the Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaire (AFDL). With the goal of forcibly ousting Mobutu, the AFDL, supported by Rwanda and Uganda, began a military campaign toward Kinshasa. Following failed peace talks between Mobutu and Kabila in May 1997, Mobutu left the country.
From Dictatorship to Disintegration
Laurent-Désiré Kabila marched into Kinshasa on May 17, 1997 and declared himself president. He consolidated power around himself and the AFDL and renamed the country the Democratic Republic of Congo (D.R.C.). Kabila's Army Chief and the Secretary General of the AFDL were Rwandan, and RPA units continued to operate tangentially with the D.R.C.'s military, which was renamed the Forces Armées Congolaises (FAC).
Over the next year, relations between Kabila and his foreign backers
deteriorated. In July 1998, Kabila ordered all foreign troops to leave the
D.R.C. Most refused to leave. On August 2, fighting erupted throughout the
D.R.C. as Rwandan troops in the D.R.C. "mutinied," and fresh Rwandan and Ugandan troops entered the D.R.C. Two days later, Rwandan troops flew to Bas-Congo, with the intention of marching on Kinshasa, ousting Laurent Kabila, and replacing him with the newly formed Rwandan-backed rebel group called the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD). The Rwandan campaign was thwarted at the last minute when Angolan, Zimbabwean, and Namibian troops intervened on behalf of the D.R.C. Government. The Rwandans and the RCD withdrew to eastern D.R.C., where they established de facto control over portions of eastern D.R.C. and continued to fight the Congolese Army and its foreign allies.
In February 1999, Uganda backed the formation of a rebel group called the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC), which drew support from among ex-Mobutuists and ex-FAZ soldiers in Equateur province (Mobutu's home province). Together, Uganda and the MLC established control over the northern third of the D.R.C.
At this stage, the D.R.C. was divided de facto into three segments--one controlled by Laurent Kabila, one controlled by Rwanda, and one controlled by Uganda--and the parties had reached military deadlock. In July 1999, a cease-fire was proposed in Lusaka, Zambia, which all parties signed by the end of August. The Lusaka Accord called for a cease-fire, the deployment of a UN peacekeeping operation, MONUC, the withdrawal of foreign troops, and the launching of an "Inter-Congolese Dialogue" to form a transitional government leading to elections. The parties to the Lusaka Accord failed to fully implement its provisions in 1999 and 2000. Laurent Kabila drew increasing international criticism for blocking full deployment of UN troops, hindering progress toward an Inter-Congolese Dialogue, and suppressing internal political activity.
On January 16, 2001, Laurent Kabila was assassinated. He was succeeded by his son Joseph, who reversed many of his father's negative policies. Over the next year, MONUC deployed throughout the country, and the Inter-Congolese Dialogue proceeded. By the end of 2002, all Angolan, Namibian, and Zimbabwean troops had withdrawn from the D.R.C. Following D.R.C.-Rwanda talks in South Africa that culminated in the Pretoria Accord in July 2002, Rwandan troops officially withdrew from the D.R.C. in October 2002, although there were continued, unconfirmed reports that Rwandan soldiers and military advisers remained integrated with RCD/G forces in eastern D.R.C. Ugandan troops officially withdrew from the D.R.C. in May 2003.
National Dialogue, Transitional Government, and Nascent Democracy
In October 2001, the Inter-Congolese Dialogue began in Addis Ababa under the auspices of Facilitator Ketumile Masire (former president of Botswana). The initial meetings made little progress and were adjourned. On February 25, 2002, the dialogue was reconvened in South Africa. It included representatives from the government, rebel groups, political opposition, civil society, and Mai-Mai (Congolese local defense militias). The talks ended inconclusively on April 19, 2002, when the government and the MLC brokered an agreement that was signed by the majority of delegates at the dialogue but left out the RCD/G and opposition UDPS party, among others.
This partial agreement was never implemented, and negotiations resumed in South Africa in October 2002. This time, the talks led to an all-inclusive agreement, which was signed by delegates in Pretoria on December 17, 2002, and formally ratified by all parties on April 2, 2003.
Following nominations by each of the various signatory groups, President Kabila on June 30, 2003 issued a decree that formally announced the transitional government lineup. The four vice presidents took the oath of office on July 17, 2003, and most incoming ministers assumed their new functions within days thereafter.
During the transitional government period, President Joseph Kabila made
significant progress in liberalizing domestic political activity and undertaking
economic reforms in cooperation with the World Bank and International Monetary
Fund (IMF). However, serious human rights problems remained in the security
services and justice system.
In December 2005, roughly two-thirds of eligible Congolese voters participated
in a referendum that resulted in approval of a new constitution. This
constitution entered into force in February 2006. Extensive executive,
legislative, and military powers are vested in the president. The legislature
does not have the power to overturn the government through a vote of no
confidence. The judiciary is only nominally independent. The president, due to
the absence of the as-yet-unestablished Conseil Supérieur de la Magistrature (supreme judicial council; CSM), has the power to dismiss and appoint judges. The president is head of a cabinet of ministers. The current cabinet, appointed in late 2008, has 37 ministers.
On July 30, 2006 the D.R.C. held its first free, democratic, multi-party
elections in more than 40 years. Over 25 million registered voters cast ballots
for president (from among 33 candidates) and National Assembly deputies (from
among over 9,500 candidates vying for 500 seats). Voter turnout was over 70%,
and despite technical and logistical difficulties as well as isolated incidents
of violence and intimidation, the elections were largely calm and orderly.
International observers also judged them to have been credible. According to the
D.R.C.’s Independent Electoral Commission (CEI) incumbent President Kabila won 44.81% of the vote, compared to 20.3% for Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba, his nearest challenger. Hours after these tallies were released, the Gombe area of central Kinshasa saw clashes between militias loyal to these two candidates. With no one winning a majority, a second round was held on October 29; Kabila beat Bemba by a margin of 58% to 42% and was inaugurated on December 6, 2006, to a five-year term.
The National Assembly elections held simultaneously with the July 2006 first
presidential round resulted in the election of 500 deputies representing 169
electoral districts. Winners in multiple-seat districts (approximately
two-thirds of the total districts) were determined based on a complex formula
involving the percentages of overall votes cast for a given party and
proportional representation using open party lists. Like the president, National
Assembly deputies serve five-year terms. Unlike the president, however, they are
not term-limited. The National Assembly held its first session on September 22,
2006. Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga and his cabinet formally took office the
following February; in May 2007, Kengo wa Dondo was elected Senate President. In
September 2008, Antoine Gizenga resigned for reasons of age and ill health. On
October 10, 2008, President Kabila named Adolphe Muzito to succeed him. Muzito
in turn appointed a new cabinet of ministers with a total of 37 ministerial
positions.
The D.R.C.'s July 2006 elections presented significant organizational
challenges. The presidential and legislative ballots were printed in South
Africa and altogether weighed nearly 1,800 tons, requiring 75 round-trip flights
between the D.R.C. and South Africa. The CEI, greatly supported by the MONUC
peacekeeping mission, ran more than 50,000 polling stations nationwide and
employed some 300,000 poll workers on election day and to oversee the
ballot-counting process.
Eastern Challenges
The Kabila administration identified five areas requiring particular attention: education, health, infrastructure, water/electricity, and job creation. The government has made little progress in these areas, however, due in large part to continuing insecurity and intermittent returns to armed conflict in several eastern provinces, particularly North and South Kivu and the Ituri and Haut-Uélé Districts of Orientale Province. A number of illegal Congolese and foreign militias have operated largely with impunity in these areas since before the overthrow of Mobutu in early 1997. Their relative strength and influence have waxed and waned over time, but two are of particular importance to the current situation: the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), led by individuals involved in perpetrating the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the National Congress for the Defense of the People (CNDP), a Congolese group led until recently by former Congolese army general Laurent Nkunda. These groups--the first predominantly Hutu, the second predominantly Tutsi--have fought each other and the D.R.C. military (FARDC), illegally exploited and exported D.R.C. natural resources to fund their weapons, and committed gross human rights violations (including indiscriminate killings, rapes, and forced child soldier recruitment) in the areas under their control.
On January 23, 2008, the Government of the D.R.C. and over 20 Congolese armed
groups (including the CNDP) signed a peace accord in Goma, North Kivu Province,
under which they agreed on the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities,
the disengagement of troops, improved adherence to human rights standards, and
the creation of UN buffer zones between and among the various factions. Between
January and August 2008, most of the parties worked to implement the Goma
Accords’ provisions, albeit with regular cease-fire violations. In late August 2008, intense fighting began again between the CNDP and the FARDC in the southern part of North Kivu province, also called the “Petit Nord.” Over the next four months, this fighting resulted in the internal displacement of a quarter million residents of North Kivu and led some 40,000 to flee into Uganda. Hundreds of people were killed, and by late October 2008, Nkunda’s CNDP forces--much stronger and better disciplined than the Congolese military--got to within a few miles of Goma before declaring a unilateral cease-fire. During this period, the United States, European Union, and United Nations all worked to develop plans for a lasting peace, and seek adherence to past agreements, but progress was slow.
By January 2009, a dramatic series of events significantly altered the
political-military landscape in the Petit Nord. Infighting within the CNDP
leadership led to a schism in which Nkunda’s military chief of staff staged a de facto internal coup and then signed an agreement with the D.R.C. Government to integrate his forces into the FARDC. A smaller but also dangerous militia group, PARECO, made a similar commitment. Meanwhile, the governments of the D.R.C. and Rwanda, which had been engaged in the gradual pursuit of rapprochement over several months, announced plans for Rwandan forces to enter the D.R.C. and join with the Congolese military in a concerted effort to eliminate the FDLR once and for all. On January 20, 2009, several thousand Rwandan soldiers crossed into the D.R.C. for the third time in 12 years, but this time at the invitation of the Congolese Government in Kinshasa. Two days later, Laurent Nkunda fled into Rwanda, where Rwandan officials took him into custody. Over the following five weeks, the joint Rwandan-Congolese-CNDP-PARECO coalition of forces pressured the FDLR, engaged in a small number of battles with FDLR units, and convinced several hundred FDLR members and their families to return voluntarily to Rwanda. On February 25, 2009, the Rwandan forces left the D.R.C.
Principal
Government Officials
President--Joseph Kabila
Prime Minister--Adolphe Muzito
Foreign Minister--Alexis Thambwe Mwamba
Defense Minister--Charles Mwando Nsimba
Economy Minister--André Philippe Futa
Minister of International and Regional Cooperation--Raymond Tshibanda
Type: Republic; highly centralized with executive power vested in the
president.
Independence: June 30, 1960 (from Belgium).
Constitution: June 24, 1967; amended August 1974; revised February 15, 1978; amended April 1990; transitional constitution promulgated April 1994; Constitutional Act promulgated May 1997; draft constitution proposed but not finalized March 1998; transitional constitution adopted on April 2, 2003. A new constitution was passed by the transitional parliament on May 2005. The D.R.C. held a constitutional referendum on December 18-19, 2005. Official results indicated that 84% of voters approved the constitution. The new constitution was promulgated in a ceremony on February 18, 2006.
Branches: Executive--President is head of state. Cabinet is appointed by the ruling party in the parliament. Prime minister is elected by the parliament. Legislative--The 500-member lower house of parliament was elected in July 30, 2006 national elections. Provincial Assemblies elected the Senate in October 29, 2006 elections. The Senate elected provincial governors. Judicial--Supreme Court (Cour Supreme).
Administrative subdivisions: Ten provinces and the capital city, Kinshasa.
Political parties: President Joseph Kabila's party is Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et le Développement (PPRD). Two main coalitions, the Alliance pour la Majorité Presidentielle (AMP) and the Union pour la Nation (UN), respectively represent President Kabila and former Transitional Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba. Bemba was Kabila’s principal opponent in the 2006 presidential election (see “Government and Political Conditions” section below), and despite his May 2008 arrest by Belgian authorities and transfer to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, is still the official president of the largest single opposition party Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC).
Other opposition parties include Union pour la Démocratie et le Progrès Social (UDPS), Forces du Futur (FDF), Forces Novatrices pour l'Union et la Solidarite (FONUS), Parti Democrate Social Chrétien (PDSC), Mouvement Social Démocratie et Développement (MSDD), Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution--Fait Prive (MPR-FP), Union des Nationalistes et des Fédéralistes Congolais (UNAFEC), and Mouvement National Congolais/ Lumumba (MNC/L). Former rebel movements-turned-political parties include the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie (RCD), Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC), and independent splinter groups of the RCD (RCD/ML, RCD/N, RCD/G).
Suffrage: 18 years of age and universal.
