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Africa News afrol News
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Africa News afrol News
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afrol.com / Misanet.com / The Namibian Laurent Desire Kabila, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo who killed in an alleged coup bid Tuesday, was a man who renounced his Marxist beliefs to realise a dream he had harboured for 30 years. In overthrowing the hated Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, Kabila was briefly hailed as one of a new breed of African leader. But the euphoria quickly turned sour when it emerged that his grip on the renamed Democratic Republic of Congo was to be every bit as firm as Mobuto's on Zaire. Within a year, the all-too-familiar charges of bad government, nepotism and corruption were being levelled against him as fighting erupted throughout the country. The ethnic strife which had torn the country apart since 1994 showed no signs of abating as Kabila suspended political parties for a two-year "transition" period and banned public demonstrations. He attributed virtually all powers, executive, legislative and military, to himself pending the adoption of a new constitution, while promising legislative elections by April 1999, which never materialised. A rebel leader for 30 years, 59-year-old Kabila was an enigmatic figure perhaps best known for his often jocular personality and his penchant for Stetson hats. A chubby figure of medium height with close-cropped hair, Kabila's often avuncular exterior masked a stern resolve which saw him set aside his Marxist principles to join in a Tutsi uprising in May 1997, finally helping him achieve the overthrow of Mobutu. Born in Kalemie, on Lake Tanganyika, Kabila drew his inspiration from Patrice Lumumba, the first prime minister of independent Congo and one of the great figures of African decolonisation, who was assassinated in 1961. In 1964, aged 23, Kabila took part in a failed Marxist-inspired rebellion, the Stanleyville uprising -- one of many in Zaire in its first years of independence -- and fled into the hills when Mobuto's forces crushed it. Kabila formed the People's Revolutionary Party, encapsulating his own Marxist views and Pan-African vision, while on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. His guerrilla movement gained support for their cause from Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who had fallen out with long-time comrade Fidel Castro -- then as now Cuba's communist leader. Guevara saw Africa as the springboard of a worldwide Marxist revolution, but left in disillusion a few months later, dismissing Kabila as a mere "tourist." Little is known of Kabila's life between the 1960s and the 1990s, during which time he lived "in the bush," as he put it, but it is known that he took part in several failed uprisings and established an enclave in Uvira, in the far east of the country. He always denied that he profited handsomely from trading in gold and diamonds between eastern Zaire and the Burundian capital Bujumbura, site of an important precious metals market. The Mobutu regime dismissed Kabila as a "puppet" in the hands of Rwanda and Uganda, but it slowly became clear that he was his own man. Kabila refused to give way to demands for elections, insisting that as long as rebels from the Rally for Congolese Democracy continued fighting government forces foreign troops would remain in the country. A July 1999 peace deal, brokered by Kabila's allies in Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia and backed by the rebels supporters in Rwanda and Uganda brought no sign of an end to the uprisings. And an October 2000 summit in Kinshasa met with no greater success, with Kabila's regime denounced by three hitherto neutral countries, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Central African Republic, further undermining his power base. His erratic foreign policy-making and his uncertain progress towards democratic reform left observers puzzled as to how to describe him. A beacon of hope, or just another dictator? Either way, the people of DR Congo would probably have appreciated the chance to express their own views at the ballot box. Source: The Namibian
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"Kabila was briefly hailed as one of a new breed of African leader"
