KINSHASA: The volatile Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faced uncertainty Thursday after the death of Etienne Tshisekedi, the veteran politician who banded the opposition together against the father-son Kabila dynasty heading the vast mineral-rich nation.
Business was slow and some shops closed in the DRC’s usually bustling capital of 10 million people, Kinshasa, where large crowds gathered around Tshisekedi’s home and the headquarters of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party.
Some 2,000 UDPS youngsters roamed the streets, some accusing the West of helping the regime of President Joseph Kabila do away with “the old man,” as he was often known.
Tshisekedi died Wednesday aged 84 in Brussels, where he had been flown for medical treatment on Jan. 24 just as talks were scheduled to end the nation’s months-long political crisis.
“There should be a week of national mourning to pay him homage,” said taxi-driver Adonis Matondo.
The burly politician, who in the 1960s received the country’s first doctorate in law, had been ill for some time and had received treatment in Belgium, the former colonial power. He returned to the DRC after two years there in July, successfully putting together a coalition to force Kabila to hold elections on schedule.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets at the time to welcome him home.
The opposition — headed by the UDPS — is currently supposed to be negotiating the next steps in a New Year’s Eve power-sharing deal to avoid violence after Kabila refused to step down at the end of his mandate in December.
Brokered by the country’s influential Roman Catholic bishops, the deal allows Kabila to stay in office until late 2017 in tandem with a transitional body and a new premier, yet to be agreed.
But the talks to avoid all-out conflict in the country of 71 million people appear to have broken down, with no progress on the way ahead in recent weeks and the negotiations in limbo.
Tshisekedi’s death “comes at the worst time for the establishment of the new transition,” DRC analyst Thierry Vircoulon said.
“Tshisekedi was supposed to have chaired the Transition Council and they will now have to agree on a new opposition figure though there is already disagreement on who should be the premier,” added Vircoulon.
As soon as it was announced on Wednesday evening, Tshisekedi’s demise brought the country’s tensions to the fore, with police firing tear gas on a crowd of his supporters who had gathered to mourn.
“Our leader is dead. We have no other leader, like Tshitshi, who can fight without the need for guns. How could he die in Belgium?” asked UDPS activist, Yves, using Tshisekedi’s nickname.
Voters in the DRC were originally to have chosen a new president in 2016, but the authorities had said the electoral registers must be revised, a huge enterprise in a country almost the size of western Europe.
And in a highly controversial ruling, the constitutional court had said Kabila could remain in office until an election was held.
Kabila, 45, has been in power in one of the least developed countries in the world, since the 2001 assassination of his father Laurent at the height of the Second Congo War.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders described Tshisekedi as a “remarkable political figure.”
His “last fight (...) for the constitution and democracy culminated in the New Year’s Eve agreement,” Reynders said in a statement, adding that “Belgium joins ... the Congolese people in their grief and their desire to see his work bear fruit.”
Business was slow and some shops closed in the DRC’s usually bustling capital of 10 million people, Kinshasa, where large crowds gathered around Tshisekedi’s home and the headquarters of his Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party.
Some 2,000 UDPS youngsters roamed the streets, some accusing the West of helping the regime of President Joseph Kabila do away with “the old man,” as he was often known.
Tshisekedi died Wednesday aged 84 in Brussels, where he had been flown for medical treatment on Jan. 24 just as talks were scheduled to end the nation’s months-long political crisis.
“There should be a week of national mourning to pay him homage,” said taxi-driver Adonis Matondo.
The burly politician, who in the 1960s received the country’s first doctorate in law, had been ill for some time and had received treatment in Belgium, the former colonial power. He returned to the DRC after two years there in July, successfully putting together a coalition to force Kabila to hold elections on schedule.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets at the time to welcome him home.
The opposition — headed by the UDPS — is currently supposed to be negotiating the next steps in a New Year’s Eve power-sharing deal to avoid violence after Kabila refused to step down at the end of his mandate in December.
Brokered by the country’s influential Roman Catholic bishops, the deal allows Kabila to stay in office until late 2017 in tandem with a transitional body and a new premier, yet to be agreed.
But the talks to avoid all-out conflict in the country of 71 million people appear to have broken down, with no progress on the way ahead in recent weeks and the negotiations in limbo.
Tshisekedi’s death “comes at the worst time for the establishment of the new transition,” DRC analyst Thierry Vircoulon said.
“Tshisekedi was supposed to have chaired the Transition Council and they will now have to agree on a new opposition figure though there is already disagreement on who should be the premier,” added Vircoulon.
As soon as it was announced on Wednesday evening, Tshisekedi’s demise brought the country’s tensions to the fore, with police firing tear gas on a crowd of his supporters who had gathered to mourn.
“Our leader is dead. We have no other leader, like Tshitshi, who can fight without the need for guns. How could he die in Belgium?” asked UDPS activist, Yves, using Tshisekedi’s nickname.
Voters in the DRC were originally to have chosen a new president in 2016, but the authorities had said the electoral registers must be revised, a huge enterprise in a country almost the size of western Europe.
And in a highly controversial ruling, the constitutional court had said Kabila could remain in office until an election was held.
Kabila, 45, has been in power in one of the least developed countries in the world, since the 2001 assassination of his father Laurent at the height of the Second Congo War.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders described Tshisekedi as a “remarkable political figure.”
His “last fight (...) for the constitution and democracy culminated in the New Year’s Eve agreement,” Reynders said in a statement, adding that “Belgium joins ... the Congolese people in their grief and their desire to see his work bear fruit.”
