On the night of Saturday April 27 to Sunday April 28, the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation of the Democratic Republic of Congo ordered the opening of a judicial investigation into Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu, Metropolitan Archbishop of Kinshasa.
The prosecutor accuses the Cardinal of “deliberately violating consciences and seeming to find pleasure in false noise and other incitements of the population to revolt against established institutions and attacks on human lives”. Indeed, in a notification sent to one of his subordinates in charge of the investigation, he states: “For some time now, the behaviour of Monsignor Fridolin AMBONGO, Metropolitan Catholic Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa, at a time when the country is facing war in its eastern part, has been characterised by a constant stream of seditious remarks made during press briefings, interviews and other sermons, likely to discourage the soldiers of the Republic's armed forces, who are fighting at the front, but also inciting the mistreatment by rebels and other invaders of local populations already battered by so many years of destabilization”. Overall, the Cardinal is criticized for not having his tongue in his pocket when it comes to criticizing President Félix Tshisekedi's regime. In fact, before the Prosecutor General of the Court of Cassation of the Republic of Congo intervened to request the opening of an investigation against the man of God, the spokesman for the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patrick Muyaya, had already taken to the stage on April 3 to ask the Cardinal to explain his remarks made during the Easter mass. During this mass, the Cardinal had declared:
« We realize that our country is now in a comatose state, and we realize that those who come from outside can afford to play games with the Congolese nation, because the main cause of our misfortune, the main cause of the lack of peace in our country, is not people from outside, it's not foreigners, it's not the evil Rwandans, it's first and foremost us Congolese. Our irresponsibility has led us to take actions that are not conducive to peace in our country”. This statement undoubtedly followed the desertion of cadres from the party of Mr. Kabila, ex-president of the Republic of Congo, to join a rebellion wreaking havoc in the east of the country, called the M23, said to be close to Rwanda. One of the ambitions of this rebellion is to conquer the Kinshasa regime by force of arms.
It should be pointed out that the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing almost constant destabilization. Here, several forces are at play, often with the blessing of neighboring countries, with the aim of exploiting the mineral wealth that abounds in this part of the country. These include the M23, backed by Rwanda. The Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), an armed group formed in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in 2000. They defend the interests of Rwandan Hutus who have taken refuge in the DRC since the genocide of 1990. They are opposed to the power of Paul Kagame, current President of Rwanda. The FDLR is suspected of having many genocidaires among its militants and cadres, who fled the advance of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), controlled by Paul Kagame, during the Rwandan genocide of 1990 and the RPF's seizure of power.
« The DRC doesn't have an army.... »
In eastern Congo, there are also troops from the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie RCD Goma. The same applies to the armed men of Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de Libération du Congo (MLC). There are still remnants of forces from military elements under the command of General Laurent Nkunda, who occupied North Kivu for a very long time. In addition to these forces, we note the presence of the ADF (Allied Democratic Forces), an armed group of Ugandan origin, affiliated to the Islamic State organization. The ADF have been present in eastern DRC since the mid-1990s. In this region, they have carried out numerous acts of violence, killing thousands of civilians. At the end of 2021, the Ugandan and Congolese armies launched a joint military operation against them, dubbed “Shujaa”, without so far succeeding in bringing hostilities to a halt.
Faced with the exactions of disparate armed groups scattered across North Kivu, South Kivu, the Beni region, etc., a group of militiamen known as the Wazalendo, which literally means “patriots” in Kiswahili, is today positioning itself alongside the Armed Forces of Beni. A group of militiamen known as the Wazalendo, which literally means “patriots” in Kiswahili, most of whom come from various local militias, are today positioning themselves alongside the DRC Armed Forces (FARDC). They face the M23, an armed movement supported by Rwanda. Alongside these armed groups, there are regional forces sent by states to lend a helping hand to the Congolese people, such as SAMIDRC, the force of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and MONUSCO's blue helmets, recently expelled from the country due to their ineffectiveness in the face of rebel exactions.
Fertile ground for all kinds of interference
Alongside these armed groups and militias, state forces, etc., there are also mercenaries. The presence of mercenaries should also be recognized. Such an accumulation of forces creates wars of positioning on the ground, as well as intensifying struggles for influence over the occupation of territories that are known to be rich in gold, diamonds, lithium, Coltrane, uranium etc. The same can be said of the leadership quarrels that have led to an increase in Shiism.
This invasion of the country by foreign forces saddens the Cardinal, who has revealed the inconvenient truth to the political authorities and therefore to those in charge of security. At the famous Easter Mass, the Metropolitan Archbishop of Kinshasa bitterly declared: “Justice is the first body to trample on the rights of ordinary citizens, and here we are talking as if we were strong. The reality is that the Congo has no army. ».
Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo has been forced to face the country's judicial authorities for having spilled these truths, essential to the country's reconstruction. If he is indeed heard by the judicial authorities of the Democratic Republic of Congo, it would be a first in this country. In the DRC, successive rulers, including Mubutu Sessé Séko, have always had a bone to pick with the Catholic Church's critics, but have never thought of crossing the Rubicon and criminalizing a prelate's remarks.
It must be stressed, however, that the Catholic Church in the Congo is a powerful machine, rich in human and social potential, and that its presence has always shaped political power in one way or another. In other words, the current episode involving the instrumentalization of justice against Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo appears to be no more and no less than a maneuver of intimidation.
TIENTCHEU KAMENI Maurice
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