DATE=9/18/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CONGO REBEL PROFILE
NUMBER=5-47012
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=GBADOLITE
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Congolese rebel-leader Jean-Pierre Bemba says
his men are preparing to attack a government-held town
unless President Laurent Kabila follows through with a
regional peace plan. As Congo's ceasefire collapses,
Correspondent Scott Stearns profiles the rebel leader
and his family's role in the crisis.
TEXT: Jean-Pierre Bemba was born November 4th, 1960 in
northern Equateur province. His father, Jeannot Bemba
Saolona, was one of the richest men in the country.
He financed much of the rule of Zairean dictator
Mobutu Sese Seko.
When it was time for school, Jean-Pierre went to
Belgium. He spent 20-years studying there, graduating
with an economics degree from the Catholic Institute
of Commerce in 1986. A year later, the younger Mr.
Bemba started his own transport company, dealing in
coffee, commercial goods, and insurance. In 1990, he
founded a cellular telephone company, and he also
opened an air transport firm, exporting fish from
Uganda to Belgium.
With the fall of the late dictator in 1997, those
families that profited during the Mobutu years were
targeted by the new government of Laurent Kabila.
Jeannot Bemba Saolona was jailed and his son left for
Belgium and Portugal, returning a year later to found
the rebel Movement for the Liberation of Congo.
Leading the rebellion has caused a split with his
father, who in March of last year agreed to serve as
President Kabila's minister of economy and industry.
The elder Bemba has since had a falling-out with
President Kabila, but his son says the family division
is far from over.
Mr. Bemba says he launched his rebellion because he
says he saw President Kabila make the same mistakes
(as Mobutu) of corruption, tribalism, and bad
governance. In two-years, Mr. Bemba's rebels have
captured northern Congo.
/// REBEL SINGING, ESTABLISH AND FADE ///
In the past few weeks, they have been fighting along
the Ubangi River, driving President Kabila's army
farther south.
Mr. Bemba says his men are fighting for the right of
Congolese to have a voice in their government, to
choose their own leader in elections, not to have one
imposed on them by war. And if the chance for
president came to him? Mr. Bemba says he is more
interested in the political order (than political
office).
/// FIRST BEMBA ACT ///
I am not fighting to be president. What I am
looking for is - after that fighting, after that
war - a new political order to come out in
Congo. No more tribalism, no more corruption,
transparency in governance, the leader to think
about improving people's lives. That is what we
are fighting for. I do not think I need to be
president.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Bemba's manner is that of the professional,
confident businessman. He has memorized the detail of
this war, from village-by-village casualties to the
arsenal of government hardware abandoned by retreating
troops.
As a businessman, friends say, Mr. Bemba was more
accustomed to going from goal to goal in as quick and
as straight a line as possible. He has learned that
running a rebellion takes more negotiation, less
direct advances, more compromise.
Despite the rift with his father, Mr. Bemba says he is
confident he is doing the right thing for Congo. For
him, that it is more important than family.
/// SECOND BEMBA ACT ///
(It may be that) I lost a father, but I gained
another family, which is the people of Congo,
which I like very much. I am very pleased to be
with them and to do something with them. That
is, for me now, the most important thing. I am
very satisfied. I am very satisfied.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Bemba expects his rebel movement to influence the
choices of a new transitional government for Congo if
everyone follows through with a regional peace plan.
But he says he doubts whether President Kabila is
serious about the plan - if he is not, Mr. Bemba says,
there will have to be more fighting. (SIGNED)
NEB/SS/KL/RAE
18-Sep-2000 12:16 PM EDT (18-Sep-2000 1616 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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