wfn.org | Kinshasa Presbyterians Brace

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

30-April-1997 
97187 
 
                Kinshasa Presbyterians Brace for  
                    Final Assault in Civil War 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--With rebel troops advancing on Zaire's capital and with 
its president showing no sign of stepping down, Kinshasa is bracing for the 
worst, with supplies of food and medicine already dwindling. 
 
     It is a city squeezed by two armies: the Zairian army inside, the 
rebels outside. 
 
     "People are trying to hang on to normal routines despite increasingly 
palpable tensions," said the Rev. Tshimungu Mayela, president of the 
60,000-member Presbyterian Community of Kinshasa.  "But we are afraid 
because we do not know what will happen tomorrow.  This crisis is very 
hard. 
 
     "There is no money for everything we need ... but we continue to work, 
to do what we can do until something happens." 
 
     That "something" could be an assault on the city by Laurent Kabila and 
his seemingly unstoppable Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation 
of Congo-Zaire (ADFL), which in a six-month campaign has gained control of 
two-thirds of Zaire.  Kabila is demanding that President Mobutu Sese Seko, 
who has ruled Zaire for 32 years, abdicate all political power.  Mobutu has 
not shown any signs of doing so, despite the rebels' stunning advances and 
widespread popularity.   
 
     The endgame could be a negotiated settlement, which both leaders have 
agreed to in principle. However, they have failed to agree on a date or a 
mutually acceptable agenda, despite international appeals to them to 
negotiate a peaceful transition to democratic government. 
 
     In the meantime, Kinshasa's residents are trapped in a city that is 
home to both Mobutu hardliners and political adversaries.  Rebel forces are 
squeezing supply lines to agricultural markets in the south, grinding down 
an already fragile economy where many earn less than $500 yearly. 
Government soldiers routinely harass and extort citizens, while rumors of 
planned looting by Mobutu's troops -- which wrecked the city amid political 
crises in 1991 and 1993 -- run rampant. 
 
     "We are discouraged," said the Rev. Wa Kasonga, assistant dean of the 
Protestant Theological University in Kinshasa, who at press time was 
intending to move his family to safer quarters, since the university sits 
close to the already tense presidential palace.  "We have suffered a lot in 
this country and we want this kind of suffering to end.  That has been the 
prayer of all time.   
 
     "Some figure this [political movement] is the kind of change we have 
asked from God," Kasonga said.  "But we are afraid of killing ... and 
[political change] is coming in the form of rebellion. The fear is we don't 
want to die." 
 
     Kasonga, who is also the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in 
Kinshasa, said his parishioners are urging him to move, since looting at 
the university is predictable should Mobutu's backers -- as some rumors 
portend -- decide to demolish the city's remaining infrastructure if 
government troops retreat. He said an all-night prayer vigil is under way 
at the church to help quell some of the fear.   
 
     "All of us," he said, "are very, very anxious." 
 
     Longtime Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) missionary to Zaire Larry 
Streshley said the average Kinshasan has no ability to withstand a 
protracted seige of the capital, which would further cut into already 
meager food supplies.  "Zairians generally live day by day.  They take what 
they have to sell [to the market] and get enough money to buy what they 
need for the day.  And then they have to start the whole process over 
tomorrow," he said, adding that prices are already soaring for limited 
items such as canned goods and charcoal.  "The burden of living is going to 
be worse and worse as the war approaches. 
 
     "The church has a challenge to help people through this time," said 
Streshley.  "But I don't know how much it can actually do."  He noted that 
the church's health clinics and schools were badly damaged by soldiers in 
1991 and 1993 revolts, and there is fear that similar destruction could 
curtail services again.  "People are not afraid of the rebels at all ... 
it's the military [that frightens them]." 
 
     Tshimungu said staples like meat and rice are in short supply in the 
city and that he is increasingly approached by people wanting help, both at 
his home and on the street.  "One comes for food only.  Another comes ... 
saying,  I am sick and have no money to pay for medicine,'" he said. 
Tshimungu said he had only aspirin to give a man who came seeking malaria 
medication. 
 
     The present anxiety is exacerbated by the lack of certainty about 
Zaire's political future, according to Willis Logan, the National Council 
of Churches' liaison to Zaire.  "The whole world of Zaire is about to be 
turned upside down, one way or another.  Within hours, something could 
happen to bring a whole new regime to power. ... 
 
     "But few people know what Kabila is about, who he is," said Logan. The 
rebel leader has been quoted as saying he intends to form a transitional 
government of ADFL members only, even eliminating other opponents of 
Mobutu.  "I do pray it will not be a violent confrontation ... that there 
be some negotiation toward some kind of transition," Logan said. 
 
     Whatever happens, most residents of Kinshasa have no choice but to 
stay put, though some politicians, foreigners and members of the wealthier 
classes are getting out of  the country, even if it is just crossing the 
river into the Congo. Travel to other provinces within Zaire is curtailed 
because of the war.  But, Kasonga said, it is obvious that people are 
trying to move their belongings to safer quarters within the city itself. 
"My church," said Kasonga, "is in a poor area, so people won't go away. 
There is nowhere to go because they can't afford it." 
 
     He said he's turning to the Psalms and to Isaiah for his preaching as 
a way to offer comfort. "But the insecurity is up," he said in an April 18 
interview.  "And less and less food is coming in.  I think by the end of 
next week it will be terrible." 

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