Wanted: one traffic cop

When I returned from holidays this month, the newly sworn-in government was not the only change in Kinshasa. There was a new traffic police stand in the middle of the 5-way intersection I pass through on the way to work. It is not the intersection of major boulevards but it is an artery for mini-buses bringing Congolese into town from la cité. And it does have some nasty blind spots. So the idea of placing a traffic stand in the intersection seems like a good one.

However in the two weeks since I have been back, I have not once seen a traffic cop in the booth directing traffic. And because the intersection is not a major one, the stand itself occupies enough of the available space that all drivers are forced to careen around it, increasing the likelihood of their slamming into another vehicle (which let me tell you is not an uncommon occurrence in Kin).

At this point, it’s still difficult to tell whether the new government’s traffic stand is occupied or vacant. Antoine Gizenga, once Patrice Lumumba’s Deputy Prime Minister and now in his ‘80s, has been named President Kabila’s Prime Minister, taking over the post that many Congolese feel is rightfully his.

Meanwhile our old buddy Jean-Pierre Bemba was back in Kinshasa in time for Cardinal Etsou’s memorial service this past Monday. You may remember the controversial Cardinal’s outspoken opposition to the way the elections were run last year, criticizing the West’s involvement and encouraging Catholics to boycott results if they did not meet his personal standards. Bemba managed to create a scene at the Mass, when his late arrival barred him from entry.

Bemba’s role as opposition leader without a formal position is still amorphous. He has since returned to Equateur, his home province, to campaign for the senatorial elections which will be held tomorrow. I wonder what other resources he is mobilising as he sits in the middle of his own tropical fiefdom of old-growth timber forests.

Meanwhile as the senatorial elections approach and Kinshasa remains quiet, life in the East descends back into what it is known best for: its violence. Soldiers from the national army in Bunia went on a looting and raping spree when the new mechanism to ensure they got paid –namely not giving all their salary money to the generals to distribute trickle down style- failed.

It’s hard to imagine how the national disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programme CONADER will be able to convince militias to demobilise when the national army is not getting paid. But then CONADER seems to have lost both its funding and its governmental mandate as of the end of 2006.

That being said, plans are being put into place to integrate the troops of Laurent Nkunda, the rebel leader who seized Bukavu in 2004 continues to stir up trouble in the Kivus, into the national army. Nkunda himself has agreed to go into exile in exchange for not being pursued for war crimes. While Nkunda is remaining in Congo for the moment to aid in the reintegration of his troops, no one has mentioned where the rebel leader plans to seek his exile or what nation will agree to take the man in. The esoteric battle between the search for justice and the reality of peace-building in a country such as this one does little in terms of reparations for those who have lived through it.

As we wait to see how the new government’s traffic stand will be filled, hopefully the players involved will recognise the novel structure now existing and adjust their actions accordingly to manoeuvre the situation without catastrophe.