Ruling party’s election strategy in Katanga is raising ethnic tension

Human rights groups warn that ethnic tension is rising in Katanga province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in part because the ruling party of President Joseph Kabila is attempting to take control of politically and economically important cultural associations in the province, ahead of national elections. "We have seen violence with this kind of strategy before in Katanga," said Hubert Tshiswaka Masoka, executive director of the Katanga-based human rights group Action contre l'impunite pour les droits humains. He was referring to former Congolese president Mobutu Sese Seko’s tactic of ruling by exacerbating tension between various groups. "Ethnic politics foments fear and distrust," Tshiswaka said. "This province has a long history of massacres and ethnic cleansing, and it could happen again." Cultural associations in Katanga are supposed to exist solely to foster the music, dance and other cultural activities of the various ethnic groups they represent. However, Tshiswaka said members more often meet to discuss their private political and economic interests. The DRC’s southernmost province is rich in copper, cobalt and other minerals, many of which are exploited illegally. "The way things work in Katanga," Tshiswaka said, "is that powerbrokers gain political support through the cultural association, and use their political influence to control mines and other utilities." In the last two years, Kabila's party, the Parti du peuple pour la reconstruction et la démocratie (PPRD), has increased the number of its supporters on the governing boards of the associations. The boards then vote in new pro-PPRD association presidents, sometimes before the terms of the old presidents are up. Jean Claude Muyambo, the head of Sempya - a powerful cultural association for the Bemba, Lamba and Lala ethnic groups - was, for example, scheduled to step down in July 2006 but PPRD supporters on the board refused to wait and recently held an unscheduled meeting to vote him out. Muyambo, who a few days before the meeting declared his support for opposition presidential candidate Pierre Pay-Pay wa Syakassighe, said he was refused entry to the meeting. Since then, Semypa has effectively split into two. Members of the board supporting Muyambo said they would not recognise the new head. Richard Muyej Mangeze Mans, the head of PPRD Katanga, said there is nothing wrong with his party's strategy. "Tribes play an important role in Katangan society," he told IRIN in February at his party’s headquarters in Lubumbashi, the province's capital. "So we try to get the tribes to support the party." "We are not dividing the tribes but uniting them, as all of the major cultural associations now support the party," said Mangeze, who trained as a secondary school teacher but became administrator of the largest mining company in Katanga, Gecamines, until it recently went bankrupt. "We are telling people to let go of their old grudges. We are for love and against hate." As human rights activist Tshiswaka saw it, not all cultural associations support the PPRD to the same extent. "And if one or two dared to go against the party, then there might be real problems," he said. In January, the International Crisis Group issued a report warning that the DRC’s election campaigns in Katanga would be “based on ethnicity", adding that this "is likely to provoke violence". It highlighted tensions between the Union Nationale des Fédéralistes Congolais (UNAFEC), a Katanga-based party dominated by the Luba ethnic group from Katanga province, and the Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS) party, the leading opposition party dominated by Luba from Kasai province, many of whom are in Katanga as the descendents of migrants. In 1992 and 1993, UNAFEC's current president, Antoine Gabriel Kyungu wa Kumwanza, incited supporters to kill Kasaians living in Katanga, and forcibly returned 1.35 million of them, according to reports issued by the United Nations and various human rights groups. Freddy Kitoko, a Katangan representative for the nationwide Congolese human rights group ASADO, said violence had also occurred between the two groups after elections in 1960. "If Kasaians win in the parliament this time, there could be violence again," he said. Observers believe that Joseph Kabila is unlikely to lose the presidency in the elections, which are expected to take place before June 2006. His PPRD party appears to be the most popular party nationwide. But other parties are gaining support in particular regions, and it is thought the PPRD might have a tough time winning an absolute majority in parliament. Mangeze said his PPRD-Katanga has money to spend. Besides the US $15,000 to $30,000 it receives each month from PPRD headquarters in Kinshasa, many individuals with stakes in Katangan mines are providing funds, he said, though he would not disclose names or amounts.