 Good afternoon everyone. My name is Jennifer Cook. I'm director of the Africa program here at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. We're delighted to welcome you to today's event, the Road to Presidential Elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is a big year for elections in Africa with more than 15 presidential elections in 2011. I think while the electoral standoff in Cote d'Ivoire, the Sudanese referendum, turmoil in Egypt have taken a lot of attention already in our kind of dominating Africa centered interest. I think it'll be very important in the coming months to focus on the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As you know, this is a country of vast potential and promise, but also one that's been wracked by conflict and crisis for decades. Recently, I think in a positive development, a lot more attention has been spent on the crisis in the east, but I think less on the fundamental issues that underpin that crisis, the issues of governance, which really very much are determined to a large extent within Kinshasa. So these elections coming up are ones that I think the United deserve our scrutiny, our attention and our support. We hope in the course of the coming months here at CSIS to host a series of events focused on the elections, the critical questions and how best the United States and international community can support free, transparent and credible elections. I think as you know, there are troubling signs perhaps already, the constitutional amendment that eliminates a runoff election between presidential contestants is something of an ominous sign. I think it will be incumbent on the opposition, given those circumstances, to have a strategy in place. And for that reason, we're very happy to host today Vitelle Cameré, who is the president and co-founder of the Union pour la Nation Cogoles, the UNC party. As you know, he's a former member of parliament, representing the Bukavu District of Kivu. And as many of you know, he was one time a close ally of President Kabila. He served as secretary general of the ruling People's Party for Reconstruction and Development, PPRD. He was a leader of President Kabila's election campaign and held a number of government positions. Most recently, he was president of the National Assembly, a post from which he resigned in March 2009, after a very public falling out with President Kabila over Rwanda's involvement in eastern DRC, and perhaps more specifically, the role of the legislature and the powers vested in the legislature to be informed and to oversee. So, Mr. Cameré is being a key figure, both in successive peace processes on the east and in the inter Congolese political dialogue. He is today considered among the leading opposition candidates for president in the run-up to the November 2011 elections. So we're delighted to have you here with us. He's joined today by Tadi Wantwadi, who is the personal representative of Mr. Cameré in the U.S. He'll be translating for Mr. Cameré. And also on the panel, we have Mbemba Dizolele, who is a distinguished visiting fellow with a Hoover Institution of Stanford University. Mbemba is a writer, foreign policy analyst, and independent journalist. He's written extensively on Congo. He's currently a visiting scholar at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. And he's the author of a forthcoming, we're looking forward to seeing this too, the forthcoming biography. It's been forthcoming for a while. Mobutu, The Rise of Fall of the Leopard King. I just want to say a note. I know many people have traveled to this event from far away. There's a great deal of passion surrounding the issues in Congo. They say this about Kenyans and Nigerians, but Congolese, you have three Congolese in a room and you've got four different opinions right there. People are very impassioned. I think people are very frustrated with what's happened in the Congo over time. So I know there'll be a lot of discussion. We've gotten a lot of emails in the run-up to this event. I do hope you know, again, this is one of a series that we'll be having on the Democratic Republic of Congo's election course. We do want this to remain kind of a civil. It's not a political rally. This is analysis and discussion. And we hope we all maintain the tone and keep that spirit in mind. We're going to turn to Mr. Kameri first for remarks and then to Mbemba. And we're going to reserve as much time as possible for a question period. So with that, Mr. Kameri, welcome. We're delighted to host you here and we look forward to your remarks. I'd like, first of all, to thank the Center for Strategic and International Studies for the invitations that I have received. On my invitation, they asked me to speak about the political situation in the DRC, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and about also my candidacy as the presidential elections of 2011. Therefore, that takes me to speak about the political power right now and, of course, they're facing up the opposition. The actual power versus facing up the electoral process right now, which will be a diagnosis. We're also going to talk about the attitude of the political opposition facing the electoral process. We'll also be speaking about the attitude of the Congolese opposition vis-à-vis of this electoral process. The civil society also has got some voices. We'll also be speaking about the international community attitude. Since it's hard to speak for oneself, we will finalize our speech with that and then we'll leave it to others to go ahead and just paint whatever they could see out of me. The first point is the review of the constitution in our country. The second point is the modification of the electoral law. The third point is the implementation of the opposition and the civil society. And the fourth point is the politicization of the army, of the police and the security services. Finally, the manipulation of the institution in charge of the elections in our country. About the power actually, the government attitude towards this process. First of all, I'll be speaking about the review or the amendment that they want to bring about the constitution. The modification on the electoral law and of course the attack on the opposition and the fourth one. The politicization of the army and the manipulation of the electoral committee. The review of the constitution surprised a lot of people. First of all, about the timing of it and then the second thing is how it happened. Many are questioning why this is happening in January at this time and the moment that the electoral process has also to begin. They say you don't change the rules of the game during the competition. However, here we've noticed that the rules are being changed during the competition. If the power in these offices had the impression of having a completely open royal voice in front of him, that is to say there was no opposition. From the moment when the power managed, with the complicity of many people, to put Jean-Pierre Bemba in the race, that is to say to put him in the CPI, for the opposition, for the power, the voice of victory was assured. Because at one time the power, those in power, felt that Jean-Pierre Bemba at the CPI, who was the challenger of Cabela, he had 42%. Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was the challenger of Cabela, had 42%. Right now he's at the CPI. For the power, the victory was assured. Many believe that it was all over. He was dead because he was in jail and Chisecati is too old and that's it. It's all over. However, the return of Chisecati back to Kinshasa and the welcome that he received shook up the power in Kinshasa and brought up the attention of those in the ruling class today. At the same time, our ambition is to introduce ourselves to the 2011 presidency, followed by our exit to Goma and Bukavu, where we were welcomed by our people. I believe that this is the second element that has finally convinced the power that it needed to count with a certain opposition in front of the elections that are being prepared. The meeting of December 14th about our own resignation from the parliament and about the trip that we took within the country and that just about started bringing up to them that something may be happening because of what movement has been becoming. By changing the scripted words, by changing the scripted words to detour, to a major turn, we can face an unorganized opposition that is sure to win. And so he instructed the National Assembly to change the constitution. This question was not inscribed to the court of the Senate, although the law asks for it. But we made a strong move and the constitution has been changed. So today, despite all the contestations, the president has promulgated the constitution revised. I have to summarize that. As soon as the president realized what's happening, first of all we have to talk about Mr. Chishikedi coming back and whatever he just said. And secondly, about the position of UNC, he realized that it's time to review and modify the constitution because that's what really could probably give him an opportunity. Therefore it was important for them to do away with the second round for the elections. When he looked at him, he saw that the first round, he could take an advantage on that because he's alone to go there. And knowing that the opposition is seriously divided in pieces and pieces, therefore going that way will give him an opportunity to get more voices. Well, the opposition didn't wait too long and they realized it. Sometimes they say when you have something wrong it could always bring some goodness out of it. Therefore, because of all these moving around the positions of the power, for the first time the opposition came together, come up to find out an agreement to see how they could move forward effectively to go against the position that is being taken by the ruling class. So a media campaign started on television to prevent the opposition, to say, be careful, Camero is not opposing. We send him to you as spies to disorganize you. It didn't discourage the opposition because we went to the second stage. And together we were going to raise the tone at the level of the UN mission to say the leader of the international community who had yet supported and guaranteed the global inclusive agreement that had ended in the war. And we waited for what they could raise the tone. And so we left again, the IDPs, the MLC, all of us together to say no and that we were not happy with the reaction of the international community, shy or absent. Well, this didn't at all discourage the opposition. We stood up and all together went to the United Nations presence in the Congo and took a position on that because we understood that this is to discourage the opposition. Therefore, shaking up the international community to come up to the responsibilities because we felt that there were some weaknesses or some type of not heat on behalf of the international community. Remarkable, the power said victory is not yet reassured. So we have to move on to other things. We have to modify the electoral law. Fortunately, the parliament was in recess. Otherwise, they would have just changed the constitution within an hour. What is the objective? Was it on a target? It's just like taking a decision as when you take a suit, you measure it, you take the case of Mr. Vemba and that suit only fits Mr. Vemba. What are they trying to obtain as objective? First of all, is to just get rid of Mr. Chisakete because they're trying to modify the law bringing the age of presidential candidates to 70, down to 70 because Mr. Chisakete is over 70. And that is an immoral act. Mr. Chisakete is going to suffer at the time to bring the age of 40 to 30 to allow President Kabila who didn't have the age to be elected. Now that this law has served him as a candidate, it's like a tree that we cut. Or the stairs that allowed you to go up, you let the stairs fall. But think about it as you should go down someday. Can you imagine when we were in power, we brought down the age from 40 to 30 and I assume I was next to him, we did it, we brought the age from 40 down to 30 to make sure that Mr. Kabila could pass on through so his candidacy could be accepted when we lowered the age. So what does it mean? Right now things are changing. That's just like knocking down the brains on which you are sitting on a tree. And it was Jean-Pierre Bemba who said, listen, that's okay, we could go ahead and deal with it. They are the Congolese people we understand. If it is for the peace, nevertheless, let's go ahead and bring the age to the age of 30, simple as that. The second target for those in power is to fix up some criteria that will necessarily get rid of Mr. Kameré. On that law, it will say that any political party that has not been around for over five years cannot go ahead to the election. What are they afraid of? What could we say? We really don't have much time. However, we can understand that the purpose of the power is to manipulate the laws, the electoral laws, within this time that are set for the elections. To start reacting with the communication voices or with the ambassadors. So there is a way to prevent that. I am for prevention, I am for vaccines. Let's vaccinate the power instead of this disease that is haunting it and that pushes it all to destroy what we have managed to build after discussions and negotiations with Sanctity. What is happening in Nigeria? It is, as far as I am concerned, I believe in preventing and therefore vaccinating something that is much more better to prevent than wait for it to happen. What is it? The purpose is that reducing offices, enrollment, enrolling offices for elections, where they know that there is a lot of opposition and increasing the number of voting offices where they know that the power has increased. The power has more population. That pushing our people to travel distances such as 40 kilometers to just go and vote. I would like to come back to this question since there is a lot to say about the CIE, as the state is limited. I will go to the issue of the opposition and the civil society as well as the press. I will speak about it and how the opposition is being muscled. What I am saying, we have not the same rights with the presidential political party. What happened to us? Here we were supposed to go to the GB, that's a space which used to belong to Benba's father. When we wanted to go there, they sent a police force to block us to get in. So we decided to go to the Intercontinental Hotel in Kinshasa. So they were able to influence the manager to go ahead and cut down the electricity. So we closed up the room and we had to do a meeting on the hall. However, we did provide our announcement. They are certainly some acts of intimidation and vandalism. You will see that. Recently we went to Goma and what happened was the intimidation, shooting by the police forces. And therefore you will be seeing some videos that we brought. We will distribute them here. We will start with the ladies and whatever remains we can give to the men. There is a great politicization of the army and the police. There is a great politicization of the army and the police. Army and police, instead of securizing the people, taking care of the population, protecting the borders of the country, right now the police and the army have as objectives to intimidate and mistreat the population. There is also justice. There is also the justice aspect, the laws. What happened recently with Diomindongala, one of the candidates who was arrested and judged within an hour and he has got three-year sentence of jail. And also happened with Mukon Kole, who had really not done anything at all. He is an MP, a member of parliament who has been arrested. He was at midnight, five minutes, he was charged and he is taking ten months of... What is opposition doing on that situation? There will be a lot of questions. I'll be very brief to just let me hide so I could talk and respond to your questions. That's what makes democracy a great thing. The opposition reacted quickly, vigorously on that hold-up and rejected that revision of the constitution. We have already started lobbying with the international community and our people to wake up this people through petitions to show their disapproval, but also to prevent, in other words, the electoral law. Since this electoral law, I forgot to say it, we don't just want to move at the presidential level, but at the legislative level to abandon the proportional mode, which assures a large representation of our ethnic groups and sociological and political parties to return to a mode where the strong parties and the great ethnic groups will be represented. This is a drama and a retreat. I don't think you don't mind if I ask him to start going back to some phases. So we probably have to go back a little bit. The opposition rejected the constitutional revision. We started lobbying about the revision of the law, especially on the proportional aspect. Because what's happening is just like in Egypt, the power wants to, not only the presidential power, but they also want to occupy all the positions at the level of the National Assembly. Oppositions are going to start consolidating our unity. You can ask me why, and I will answer. And how? Why? Because we have to get ready for the battle. If we go on a disorder, well, it's going to end up turning against us and then therefore losing everything. What I believe about this union? I'll come back because I only have three minutes. International community? The absence of the international community really surprised us. Because it guaranteed the accord that we signed in San City. However, we're grateful to the late acceptances of the European Union. What are we expecting from the international community when the UN forces will change its mandate? Because you're going to question about it. It's not just a trial. It's not vengeance or anger. We have a vision for the Congo. We have a dream for the Congo, for Africa and the world. We have a program. We're going to store leadership, responsible leadership. We have a plan to get out of crisis, not only on the eastern side of the Congo, but with the Great Lakes. The army aspect of it will come in top of other aspects of things. We first of all begin with the diplomatic aspect, political, and then economic. We have to chase up and find out all these minerals. Because the population that has been removed will have to come back. We have to store a special court, which will chase up and find out all those are raping women and the violence on the women. In our country we always try to set up things by saying that the judges are corrupted. Well I'm not defending those people. The whole system is corrupted. How much is given to the judicial power to operate? We have to reform the executive power. We have to reform it. Our plan also has got a sector for the development. We have demobilized all the young people who were in the rebel groups in the east, but they hid their carnitions. If they are not utilized properly, they're going to go back. The plan also includes regional cooperation. It includes military option. I hope that the questions will be answered. I had to print the text in French and English, but now I see that I have small errors. I will correct them. Tomorrow I will put them in the center to give to all those who are interested in Congo, starting with our compatriots, that I cannot forget to greet the presence of this room. They have come to listen to us. We will thank all the others who have come, who are not Congolese. It shows the interest that our country represents for humanity. I want to thank you once again for the opportunity that you have given me and for taking advantage of this prestigious tribune and talking in front of these auditions. I think we will look forward to our meeting with the questions that will be answered. I'd like to thank you, Mrs. Jennifer, and also the audience here and especially speaking in front of the Congolese audiences, and of course also everybody else who has come here. I have some documents here which we'll distribute eventually later on, because I went through it and saw some things that have to be modified a little bit, but it's really a pleasure to be here. I'm honored to be in front of this think tank. Thank you again. Thank you so much, Mr. Camere. Just to let you know, we're webcasting this event, so it will be available online, and if we have written documents in French and English, we'll also post those along with the video. So those will all be available to the audience here. Let's turn to Invemba for comments and response, and then the way forward. Thank you very much, and welcome Honorable Vital Camere. It's a pleasure to have you in town. I also have to let you know what you already know for sure, just how much passion and excitement you generate these days. When the invitation went out, I got a lot of emails and a lot of voicemails. One particular, somebody called and left a voicemail on my answering machine and said, I'm calling you in all civility, but I have to say that I forcefully disagree with what you're doing. This is the most ridiculous thing you can do to lend your name on a panel with Vital Camere. Did you know that he's a Burundian? So I didn't know what to do. It's kind of a message. So welcome to Washington, D.C. So I would just like to talk a little briefly, I think in the interest of time, so we'll give you more time for your questions. I think more of the meat will come from there. Kind of just a bit of the context of what we're talking about when we talk about the road ahead. In 2006, I had an opportunity to be both a reporter in eastern Congo and throughout the country. I was embedded with you and troops in Ituri, on Lake Albert, where we did a lot of patrol, trying to intercept weapons that were coming from Uganda to the militias, and did a lot of patrol in South Kyve against the Interahamwe and the FDLR with the Pakistani troops there. So I had the sense of that. I also had the chance to visit the Pansy Hospital, actually see this woman who had been raped, get a sense of that calamity that is taking place in our country. I was also able to follow a candidate on the campaign trail in Bakongo, who was running for a deputation as an MP. Later on in the same year, I was back in the second round of the elections as an observer with the Carter Center and was posted in Bandaka and Jean-Pierre Bembas territory. So I had the sense of what's happening from various perspectives, and since then I've been back several times. 2006 was a year of a lot of hope. People used to think it was the first election that Congo had organized, but actually it was not, because the last election were organized in 1965. This was the election that eventually led to the coup that brought movement to power. Those elections were deemed fair in 1965. So this is to say that there is actually a tradition of fair elections even in Congo. From 60 to 65, the Congolese ran their own elections. There were no international observers. When I arrived in 2006 for the observation, I called a friend's father and he asked me, why are you here? I said I'm here to observe the elections. He said, oh, why do you always do this kind of things? You know, it's a moot exercise. I can always tell you what the result will be and what your official statement will be. And he said, if you want, I can tell you now, or you can discuss it after a month when you finish your observation. So just tell me now. He said, well, the Carter Center will say, in spite of all the irregularities, the system was pretty much functional. It worked well. And four weeks later, the frustration actually reflected what he had said. That even as an observer, we spent a lot of time, you know, an observer is like an investigative reporter. So you spend a lot of time, in the case of the DRC, with all the various parties, most of them didn't know what they were doing except just blaming the others. So there's a lot of accusations and allegations that as an investigator, as an observer, you have to go dig out and find. So we end up spending a lot of time in the equatorial forest with the Pygmies because everybody was saying the Pygmies were not registered to vote, you know, just to give you an example. It turned out that was bogus. I remember some accusations and going to investigate the National Police. And when I arrived, my partner was American, so went to the police. They called the general. They told him these observers are here and this is what's happening. And the guy was doing intelligence for the police, spoke in Swahili. So he told the general in Swahili and with my American passport, somehow they thought I couldn't understand what was going on. So we did a lot of bias being narrated. So I kept my mouth shut. We were able to do the report. At the end, these reports never were used. Nevertheless, we had an election that legitimized President Joseph Kabila, who became a president, and there was a lot of hope, particularly in the parliament. So we were able to fold that parliament pretty closely and we were able to follow Vidal Camero as the president very closely. The parliament gave a lot of hope because in the case of the DRC, where there is not a strong history of political parties. There was not a lot of strong history of transparent parliamentary work. The openness with which the National Assembly ran for those few months was pretty refreshing. So all the debates were televised. The opposition leaders and deputies and MPs were allowed to bring forth their bills. So I think when you look at Congo, most people talk about the overwhelming level of problems that Congo may have. But for once, there was an element of hope. So you had the review of a mining contract with China. You had a lot of hearings. You had all these things being televised so that even there were reports that even though it had come from the IMP, the Presidential Coalition, these people were not very happy. The rest of the country was happy because these things are working. But the challenge then became even though these things were happening and it was televised, it never actually led to anywhere. So if we had hearings, then what happened after the hearing? So does it become just a much exercise in the sense people are doing things because it feels good? And on the form level, it's great. But the form, the substance is lacking. So we had about two years of this period where interpellation after interpellation, hearing after hearing, the Minister came true, but nothing really happened. But at the same time, it gave a certain momentum because this is where we saw, for instance, with the Chinese mining contract. Some review were pushed, but again, it didn't go very far. After the Bundudak, the Akongo protestation and manifestation and revolt took place in Bakongo, the Minister of the Interior at the time thought he could just go to Kong to the Parliament and build those his way through and get some results in favor of the government. But unfortunately for him, there was certain openness in Parliament which allowed the leader of that party, the BDK, to rebut the Minister of the Interior. So he was able to unravel the Minister's argument because there was a certain openness and I think this actually led to the undoing the Minister himself because when the Rima Nima took place after that, he was out. So moving on to the next level and that is what do we do then with the opposition when the government is so bent, or should I say the IMP is so bent on taking the lion's share and not even leaving crumbles for the rest of the electorate or the people in the system. Here's the challenge. If you take any African country, and this is just a rhetorical question, take Angola, if I ask you to name any opposition leading Angola, most of you will be hard pressed to give me a name of an opposition leading Angola. That will be the same for Namibia, this will be the same for Botswana and this Botswana Namibia country that are fairly organized but you don't know them. If I ask you to name two names for the opposition leading in Congo, you will name a few. To show just the contrast how Congo is between two others, it's chaotic but it's not always that chaotic. There is room actually. The things that are happening, they may be happening in place but things are actually moving. So it's not purely a mirage in that sense. You have Tisekedi, you have UDPS, Tisekedi being the father of the democratic, the modern democratic movement in Congo. If you analyze him, he is a guy who had a lot of courage to break out from Obutu and start this great movement. Now, for whatever reason, he's never been able to capitalize on the various opportunities that came along the way. I don't know why that's UDPS to respond but UDPS nevertheless have a strong structure that makes it possible if some conditions were put together for them actually to challenge the power in place today. So on the other level, we had people like Jean-Pierre Bemba who also came to illustrate the other side of the coin. So former rebel, but very rich. And because he was rich, because he had a structure of his own, he could do what the other parties cannot do. Tisekedi has a structure in terms of population and followers but Tisekedi doesn't have money. The UDPS does not have money. They do not have a radio. In a system where a government owns the media, the government owns the security forces and everything else, and the government is actually greedy and by government I mean the AMP, it's hard to operate in that system. So UDPS will never get airtight. But if you have your own radio station and your own TV stations, then you can do that. So Bemba was able to emerge in part because of this. The power in place, but there was also possibilities that he was able to capitalize on. And of course the result we saw between the two rounds of the election that his station were looted, burned, and so on and so forth. So when we have a new party that is born, the UNC with Kamere, what does that mean? So this actually raises the new questions. Does the UNC and the other parties that will emerge in the process going forward have any structure? Right? So it's going to be, or is this going to be another exercise as we saw while you were the head of the parliament? Goodwill, popularity on the rise, but in the end does it lead anywhere? So do you have followers? I think there's a lot of frustration. Are you going to try to fill the void at Bemba left? And in that case, gain the popularity and the Moana Congo and all the other stuff that comes with it, the momentum, but still when it comes to it, you will not be able to deliver because the structure again is not there. Because of the diaspora in the room, there is an element that has been very frustrating to your fellow Congolese around the world. And that is the moratorium on citizenship. So in 2006, the Congolese overseas were very much eager to contribute. That is to vote. For whatever reason, the system made it impossible for them to vote, for various reasons with which you're very familiar. But then we found out quickly that once you were sworn in, that parliament, about 150 of you had foreign passport. So as they had foreign passport, you as the principle of the parliament, I don't know what happened, so this is a chance for you to explain to your fellow Congolese, decided not to kick these people out of parliament, as the law would have dictated, but instead to do something we've never seen anywhere in the world, to pass a moratorium on the law on citizenship. And that moratorium is still in place.