A spokesman for Congolese opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi says the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) faces an institutional legitimacy crisis following the country’s November 28 election.
Albert Moleka, spokesman and director of Cabinet for Mr. Tshisekedi, says the legitimacy problem has made the DRC almost ungovernable.
Moleka’s comments came as the UN Joint Human Rights Office released a report Tuesday accusing Congolese security forces of killing 33 people and wounding at least 83 others during the country’s general election last year.
Moleka said the UN report shows the government of President Joseph Kabila is using various human rights violations to govern.
“You know right now we are in a crisis of institutional legitimacy, and I think that really it’s time that the world put an eye on what’s going on in the DRC, and that the various violations of human rights, including massacre, murders, and illegal detentions are a weapon of governing for the regime of Mr. Kabila,” he said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay called on the Congolese authorities to ensure that the violations of human rights are investigated and perpetrators brought to justice.
Moleka said opposition leader Tshisekedi believes the Congolese courts cannot be trusted to investigate its own security forces, especially when the Supreme Court sided with President Kabila prior to the election.
“I think the whole world saw the behavior of the Supreme Court in the DRC with the different electoral problems that there’s no way a serious inquiry can be done by the Congolese justice. And it’s the position of Mr. Tshisekedi that only an international body of justice can do a serious work,” Moleka said.
He said the UN report proves how the Kabila government uses human rights violations as a way of intimidating its opponents.
Mr. Tshisekedi and President Kabila both declared victories following last November’s presidential election.
Moleka said the report further taints President Kabila’s claim that he was reelected.
He said at present, there has been no dialogue between the two leaders.
“What we can say is that we are in a very serious crisis, and it appears that the other side does not consider that there is a crisis. So you can see that there is a bad start for resolving any kind of problems when both parties don’t have the same evaluation of the gravity of the problem,” Moleka said.
Moleka said there is need for the Congolese people to resolve the legitimacy crisis in the country because it is impossible to rule the country and ensure development for Congolese people.
