Reporting and musing on events and culture in DR Congo since 2004

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

The plot thickens.

According to IRIN and the BBC, 32 "mercenaries" were arrested in Kinshasa.  The reports claim that 19 South Africans, 10 Nigerians, and 3 Americans who came in to DR Congo from Iraq were 'plotting a coup' against the current regime.

A Roman Catholic priest thinks the charge is laughable in a country that has over 16,000 UN troops, which will, incidentally, be augmented with another 1500 from the European Union.  But some think that employment of 16 of these people were employed by a security company in Matadi and several others as interpreters for a mining company  worked as a cover for their real objective. 

From the BBC report:

But Congolese Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba Fundu said the arrested men were military personnel.


"These men, bearing three different passports, were spotted at three strategic sites in the Congolese capital," Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba Fundu was quoted by AFP news agency as saying.


"Apparently they are military personnel, most of whom came from Iraq."


And, there is another concern.  According to IRIN, though perhaps the word 'coincides' should be operative, the charge

coincides with another call by DRC's leading opposition party, the l’Union pour la Democratie et le progres social (the Union for the Democracy and the social progress - UDPS) of Etienne Tshisekedi, for a demonstration on Wednesday.

"We will be in the streets this Wednesday to tell the government that the [political] transition ends 30 June and that it cannot organise elections after this time without dialogue," Raul Nsolwa, the head of the UDPS Youth Wing, said.


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EDIT:  Everyone seems to want in on this story.  I gues that's what happens when you say Mercenary and Coup in one sentence (not to mention 3 Americans). Here are the other versions:
CNN; Yahoo UK; Reuters; Boston Globe; Al Jazeera.

The Boston Globe version of the story also mentions presidential candidate Dr. Kashala, who has lived in the US for the past 20-odd years and works in cancer research. He has decided to run for president, and Omega Risk Solutions security company was involved in finding an operating location for Kashala. Also from the Globe,

Congolese opposition sources denounced the coup plot announcement as a diversionary tactic by Kabila's government.

They said the houses of several opposition figures in Kinshasa were surrounded by police early on Wednesday to stop them holding a planned demonstration.

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