Sentenced in 2016 for “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” by the International Criminal Court, Jean-Pierre Bemba was acquitted in 2018 on appeal. His appointment to the DRC government is a surprise.
Eight months before the presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the head of state, Félix Tshisekedi, candidate for his succession, is getting ready for battle. The ministerial reshuffle announced on the night of March 23 to 24 can be read through this electoral prism. Admittedly, Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde remains Prime Minister. But the new team is enriched by the return to the front of the stage of several heavyweights of Congolese politics with tumultuous careers, some of whom have been prosecuted by national or international courts.
This is the case with the new Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Jean-Pierre Bemba, famous in the DRC but whose appointment came as a surprise as he seemed politically marginalized recently. “Can we say that the page of a politician is definitely turned? I know something…”, he said alludingly in an interview granted, in 2022, to the French channel France 24. Four years earlier, he was still going around in circles in a cell of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, where he will have spent ten years (2008-2018) of his life. Until international judges acquit him on appeal.
This son of Jeannot Bemba Saolona, a powerful Congolese businessman who was the boss of DRC bosses, had been sentenced at first instance by the ICC to eighteen years’ imprisonment for “war crimes” and ” crimes against humanity” committed by his troops in the Central African Republic in 2002. At the time, Jean-Pierre Bemba was at the head of a politico-military organization, the Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC), supported and armed by Uganda. He was then fighting Congolese President Laurent-Désiré Kabila (1997-2001), controlling a stronghold stretching between the north and the east of the country.
“I learned to be more patient”
When Joseph Kabila took over from his father in 2001, Jean-Pierre Bemba swapped his warlord cap for a costume of vice-president of the Republic in favor of power-sharing negotiations. But Kabila and Bemba hate each other. In 2006, their rivalry at the polls turned in favor of Joseph Kabila. The two camps clash in Kinshasa. Jean-Pierre Bemba must go into exile. Indicted by the ICC, he was arrested.
When he returned to the DRC in 2018, this political animal tried to make up for lost time. In the process, he announced his presidential candidacy scheduled a few months later. The huge crowd that came to welcome him at N’djili airport confirmed his ambition, but his candidacy was ultimately rejected. “I learned to be more patient, time compels you to it”he said on his release from prison, while recalling his “experience in the management and securing of territories”.
First in the opposition, he joined the majority of Félix Tshisekedi at the end of 2020. This imposing and charismatic man has constantly avoided the light in recent years. He advises the Congolese president, but remains discreet and does not hesitate to criticize behind the scenes some of the president’s choices, including the management of the crisis in the East.
Here is now Jean-Pierre Bemba facing his responsibilities. For a time, he cast doubt on his presidential candidacy, the date of which was set for December 20, 2023, but agreed to take up, immediately, the most complex file in the country. A “election campaign is expensive and the former warlord must rebuild a treasure”slips an observer in Kinshasa.
A political risk
Since the new March 23 Movement (M23) offensive in November 2021, the crisis in eastern DRC has been at the heart of national and regional tensions. To try to calm the situation, Bemba can count on his influence over part of the army and on his reputation as a tactician. He also has regional networks, from the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, to Uhuru Kenyatta, the former Kenyan president, mediator in the DRC. But by returning to the front line, Jean-Pierre Bemba is taking a political risk given the magnitude of the task. “His popularity, including in his stronghold of the Equateur region [Nord]is no longer what it used to be”, continues the observer. This appointment is much less risky for Félix Tshisekedi, who is ensuring the loyalty of this ally nine months before the presidential election, while the ballot will be played in part on the evolution of the crisis in the east of the country.