DRC: Re-Democratisation and the endless transition to the Third Republic

Extracted from: "Democratic Republic of Congo" IN Compendium of Elections in Southern Africa (2002), edited by Tom Lodge, Denis Kadima and David Pottie, EISA, 70-73.

With the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, the subsequent retreat of Cuban troops from Angola, the independence of Namibia and the gradual transformation of the Apartheid regime, Western powers were no longer prepared to maintain their support of Mobutu. This prompted the emergence of the internal opposition. In the early 1990s civil society and political opposition in the then Zaïre became increasingly vocal in their demand for more political rights and the democratisation of the state apparatus. These actions culminated in the announcement of dramatic reforms towards democratisation by Mobutu on 24 April 1990. These included the end of political and trade union monolithism, the introduction of a three party system, the de-politicisation of the army, and the restoration of freedom of press and speech.

However, the top-down approach used by the regime in order to control and delay the democratic transition compelled civil society and the opposition to demand the holding of the Sovereign National Conference (CNS) so that all parties could express themselves on the process of transformation. The CNS was convened on 07 August 1991 and closed its doors on 6 December 1992. Despite the enormous difficulties it faced as a result of the regime's resistance to the introduction of a truly democratic dispensation, the CNS's activities engendered wide public support. It reviewed the history of the country, laid down the fundamental principles of governance, adopted a constitution, and designated transitional authorities, including a Prime Minister, the transitional parliament and its speaker.

Unfortunately, President Mobutu managed to torpedo the whole process, acting as if he were above the law. His actions included the appointment and dismissal of transitional Prime Ministers under questionable legal circumstances, the failure to punish mutineer soldiers responsible for looting and killings in 1991 and 1993, the illegal closing of the national conference and human rights violations against members of pro-democracy movements. Last but not least, in July 1990, Mobutu unilaterally amended the constitution in order to remain in power indefinitely pending elections. This provision allowed him to keep power for additional six years beyond the expiration of his presidential mandate, which was due to end in 1991.

On the other hand, armed conflicts in Angola, Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda, exacerbated by Mobutu's support for rebel groups, compelled these neighbouring countries to intervene militarily in the former Zaïre, capitalising on the internal popular dissatisfaction with the Mobutu regime. They worked extensively with local groups and with them managed to eject the dictator.

General Mobutu's administration ended on May 17th, with the general and his family's departure into exile in Morocco and the triumphant entry into Kinshasa of Laurent Kabila at the head of an Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo Zaire (AFDL). Mobutu died of cancer two months later, by which time his country had been renamed as the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Alliance was a collection of disparate organisations united only by their antipathy to the Second Republic. They included the Alliance Democratiques des Peuples, a group which stood for the interests of the Banyamulenge, descendants of 19th century Tutsi immigrants into the Congo from Rwanda whose citizen rights had been revoked by Mobutu, the Conseil National de la Resistance, the Mouvement Revolutionnaire pour la Liberation du Congo Zaire, Kabila's own group, led chiefly by Katangans, and the Parti de la Revolution Populaire. Kabila himself was a long time adversary of Mobutu, a former aide to Patrice Lumumba, and from the mid 60's the organiser of a desultory guerilla movement in Kivu. The real force, though, behind the invasion, was the Rwandan army. The immediate aim of the Rwandans was to close down the Hutu refugee camps and to disperse the Rwandan exile Hutu lnterhamwe militia who been involved in cross border insurgency since the accession of Paul Kagame's administration in Kigale in the aftermath of the Hutu-led genocide of the Rwandan Tutsis.

Despite the popular acclaim that greeted its accession, Kabila's new government was quick to disappoint any democratic aspirations in the Congo. Shortly after taking office, on 28 May 1997, Kabila signed a new decree which annulled the Transition Act and bestowed on himself monopolies of executive, military and legislative power until the adoption by a constituent assembly of a constitution. All political parties were banned. Kabila then appointed a Constitutional Commission which in May 1998 approved a draft broadly very similar to the earlier document produced by the CNS. The Commission's membership, though, invited scepticism, for it excluded any representation from the main political parties and civil society bodies. And moreover, the Commission approved an appendix to the constitution of a list of political notables who would be prohibited from standing for office in the presidential and parliamentary poll, at that stage projected for April 1999, on the grounds of their complicity in political crimes of participation in Mobutu's economic mismanagement. By this stage, though, most of Kinshasa's most conspicuous politicians were either in detention or under house arrest.