VZCZCXRO8224
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHGI RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHKI #0089/01 0251409
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 251409Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5473
INFO RUEHXR/RWANDA COLLECTIVE
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 KINSHASA 000089 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PINR KDEM CG ELECTIONS
SUBJECT: EX-MOBUTUISTS HELP KABILA COALITION TAKE MAJORITY 
OF SENATE SEATS IN BEMBA'S EQUATEUR 
 
¶1. (U) The pro-Kabila Alliance for the Presidential Majority 
(AMP) won a slight majority in the senatorial delegation from 
Jean-Pierre Bemba's home province of Equateur. AMP-aligned 
candidates, including three who ran as independents, took 
eleven of 20 national Senate seats, with one apiece for the 
PPRD, the RADESO party, Nzanga Mobutu's UDEMO, and Azarias 
Ruberwa's RCD, plus four seats for Jose Endundo's Christian 
Democrat Party (PDC). Bemba's Movement for the Liberation of 
Congo (MLC) won six seats, while two others allied with 
Bemba's Union for the Nation (UN) coalition also won. One 
other independent candidate, whose affiliation is yet 
unknown, was also elected. 
 
¶2. (U) The number of AMP candidates elected to the Senate 
from Equateur is on the surface something of a surprise, 
given that the area voted overwhelmingly for Bemba in the 
2006 presidential elections. Bemba's UN coalition holds the 
majority of seats in the 100-member provincial assembly, 
including 37 by the MLC alone. Endundo's PDC and the PPRD 
together, however, control another 24 seats in the assembly, 
mainly in the southeast and northwest corners of the 
province. 
 
¶3. (U) The AMP coalition, which formed an alliance with the 
RCD on the provincial level, won as many seats as it did 
because voting by provincial assembly deputies was conducted 
based on Equateur's five regional sub-provinces, a level on 
which the AMP-UDEMO-RCD coalition has slight majorities or 
near-parity with Bemba's UN. (Note: Equateur Province is 
eventually to be divided into five separate provinces 
according to the DRC's decentralization plan. While Senators 
will represent the entire province for the time being, they 
will represent their smaller constituencies if and when 
decentralization occurs. End note.) 
 
¶4. (U) The list of Senators from Equateur reads as a "Who's 
Who" from the Mobutu era. Among the prominent figures elected 
are Mobutu's intelligence chief Edouard Mokolo wa Mpombo (an 
independent aligned with Kabila), former Deputy Interior 
Minister for Internal Security Pius Isoyongo Lofete Loyangu 
(an independent also aligned with Kabila), Mobutu's chief of 
staff Michel Bongongo Ikoli Ndombo (MLC), former Prime 
Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo (independent aligned with 
Bemba), Bemba's father Jeanot Bemba Saolona (MLC), and former 
Minister of Interior Leon Engulu Baangampongo (UNADEC, a 
member of the AMP). 
 
¶5. (SBU) Biographical information: 
 
Pius Isoyongo Lofete Loyangu (independent, allied with 
Kabila/AMP) 
 
Isoyongo, 52, served as National Assembly deputy during the 
Transitional Government and headed the chamber's foreign 
relations committee. He was the leader of Mbusa Nyamwisi's 
RCD-K/ML component in the Assembly. A career security agent 
with the National Documentation Agency (AND) and National 
Service for Intelligence and Protection (SNIP) during the 
Mobutu regime, he later served as deputy Interior Minister 
for Internal Security in the final Mobutu government from 
April-May 1997. He has a degree in politics and 
administration. Born November 23, 1954. 
 
Michel Bongongo Ikoli Ndombo (MLC) 
 
Bongongo, 56, was most recently a senior professor at the 
school of social, political and administrative sciences at 
the National Pedagogic Institute in Kinshasa. He was the 
first vice president of Kinshasa's regional assembly from 
1985-1989 and its president from 1989-1990. He concurrently 
served as Mobutu's national security adviser from 1986-1990 
and was lahis chief of staff in 1993. Bongongo was also 
President and Director-General of the Commercial and 
Integrated Development business group SOCODI, as well as 
counselor to the Ministries of Higher Education and Foreign 
Affairs. A born-again Christian, he holds a doctorate in 
philosophy from Catholic University of Louvain. Born November 
5, 1950. 
 
Edouard Mokolo wa Mpombo (independent, allied with Kabila/AMP) 
 
Mokolo, 62, has been described as "Mobutu's Foccart." A 
former student activist, he was a central player during the 
early Mobutu years as the founder and head of the 
intelligence services. He later served as Foreign Minister 
 
KINSHASA 00000089  002 OF 004 
 
 
from 1985-1986 after postings as ambassador to Cote d'Ivoire 
in 1976 and France in 1980. A native of the provincial 
capital Mbandaka, he was named senator from the political 
opposition during the Transitional Government, and chaired 
the Senate's exterior relations committee. The father of pop 
musician Kaysha, he holds a degree in politics and 
administration from Lovanium University (now known as the 
University of Kinshasa). Born May 31, 1944. 
 
Henri Thomas Lokondo Yoka (UCL, allied with Kabila/AMP) 
 
Lokondo, 51, is the president of the Congolese Union for 
Liberty (UCL) and an adviser to President Kabila. Appointed 
to the Transitional National Assembly by Kabila, he lost his 
race for a National Assembly seat in the July 2006 elections. 
A former security agent for Mobutu's AND, he was the 
Mobutuist deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kengo wa 
Dondo's 1996-1997 Zairian crisis government. Born July 27, 
¶1955. 
 
Leon Kengo wa Dondo (independent, allied with Bemba/UN) 
 
Kengo wa Dondo, 71, was the longest-serving Prime Minister 
under Mobutu. Born Joseph-Leon Lubicz to a Polish father and 
Tutsi mother, he was appointed Prime Minister from 1982-1986, 
and moved to the post of Foreign Minister from 1986-1987. 
Mobutu again appointed him Prime Minister in 1988, where he 
served until the creation of the Sovereign National 
Conference (CNS) in 1990. The transitional parliament after 
the CNS selected him as Prime Minister in 1994. He remained 
in the post until the Congo's civil war began in late 1996, 
when he then headed a crisis cabinet focused on defeating the 
rebellion of Laurent Kabila. In April 1997 he resigned his 
position, one month before Kabila's army arrived in Kinshasa, 
and went into exile in Europe. He returned to the DRC in 
¶2005. Born May 22, 1935. 
 
Leopold Ndolela Siki Konde (MLC) 
 
Ndolela, 70, was a senator in the Transitional Government, 
the president of the MLC's organization in Equateur, and a 
member of the MLC's College of Founders. Rector of the 
University of Lubumbashi from 1983-1985, he was later an 
adviser to Mobutu who helped craft strategies to sideline the 
reforms of the CNS. He is the president of the Mbiya Cultural 
Association, an advocacy group that represents the Ngbandi, 
Mobutu's ethnic group. Born January 15, 2007. 
 
Pierre Nzege Alaziambina (PPRD) 
 
Nzege, 59, was a Transitional Government senator from 
Equateur from the PPRD. After receiving his degree in 
philosophy in 1974, he held academic positions at the 
Universities of Lumbumbashi and Kinshasa, and later with the 
Institute of Higher Education in Mbandaka. He was named 
Minister of Primary and Secondary Education in 1983, serving 
until 1990. Born January 15, 1948. 
 
Jose Masikini Adongba (UDEMO) 
 
Masikini, 45, is one of the youngest senators from Equateur. 
Elected from the northern district of Nord-Ubangi, he is a 
relative unknown politically. Born July 21, 1961. 
 
Jeanot Bemba Saolona (MLC) 
 
Jeanot Bemba, 64, is the father of former vice president and 
presidential candidate Jean-Pierre Bemba. A senator during 
the Transitional Government, he is one of the richest men in 
the DRC and was known as "Mobutu's banker." He is the head of 
multiple enterprises through his Equateur-based holding 
company SCIBE (Bemba Commercial and Industrial Company), 
which deals in the import-export, air transport and precious 
metals sectors. His company owns one of the DRC's largest 
airlines, Hewa Bora. He was jailed by Laurent Kabila but was 
later named Minister of Economy by him in 1999. His daughter 
is married to UDEMO founder and Kabila ally Nzanga Mobutu, 
son of Mobutu Sese Seko. Born September 3, 1942. 
 
Samuel Mbombo Engongo (MLC) 
 
Mbombo, 64, is a former senior executive of Congo's Central 
Bank and the CEO of the river navigation parastatal RVF. He 
holds a degree in economics from the Lovanium University and 
first served as an adviser to the Ministry of Transport and 
 
KINSHASA 00000089  003 OF 004 
 
 
Communications in 1969. In 1980 he was named Minister of 
Portfolio and later served as President of the mining 
parastatal Gecamines. He became deputy director general of 
the oil industry parastatal Zaire SEP in 1994. Born October 
15, 1942. 
 
Thomas Betyna Ngilase Gbeledolo (PDC) 
 
Betyna, 58, is the PDC's vice president for doctrine and 
ideology and served as a member of the Transitional National 
Assembly. A member of the Mobutu-era parliament from 
1977-1982, he holds degrees in literature and economics. He 
first worked with and NGO in Bwamanda, Equateur before 
entering politics. Born November 11, 1948. 
 
Richard Pendje Demodetdo Yako (RADESO) 
 
Pendje, 61, is a former representative to UNESCO and director 
of the International Organizations department of the Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs. He holds a history degree from the 
University of Strasbourg and a Masters from the University of 
Toulouse. He headed the Ministry of Mines and Energy in 1984. 
Subsequent positions in the late 1980s were at the Ministries 
of Culture and Arts, Public Health, and Environment. Born 
October 24, 1945. 
 
Hilaire Mayamba Monga Liwanda (independent, affiliation 
unknown) 
 
Mayamba, 65, ran as an independent candidate from the 
north-central Equateur district of Mongala. Born January 21, 
¶1942. 
 
Polycarpe Mongulu T'Apangane (MLC) 
 
Mongulu, 61, is a longtime member of the Congolese legal 
system. He holds a law degree from Kinshasa's Lovanium 
University. A former prosecutor in Bas-Congo province, he was 
prosecutor-general to the Kinshasa Court of Appeals and later 
prosecutor-general under Laurent Kabila. He is a member of 
the administrative council of Simon Kimbangu University. Born 
March 3, 1945. 
 
Sebastien Adambu Lomalisa (PDC) 
 
Adambu, 62, is a member of Endundo's PDC from the 
north-central Equateur district of Mongala. Born July 12, 
¶1944. 
 
Leon Mondole Esso Libanza (RCD) 
 
Mondole, 43, was a deputy in the Transitional National 
Assembly. He is a member of the RCD's College of Founders. 
Born March 8, 1963. 
 
Jacques Djoli Eseng'ekeli (MLC) 
 
Djoli, 48, was deputy and later chief of staff to 
Transitional Minister of Foreign Affairs Raymond Ramazani. A 
former major in the army, he holds law degrees from the 
University of Kinshasa and the Sorbonne. He is also a 
professor of constitutional law at the University of Kinshasa 
and at the Protestant University of the Congo. Born October 
26, 1958. 
 
Toussaint Ekombe Mpetsi (PDC) 
 
Ekombe, 49, is a former MLC deputy from the Transitional 
National Assembly who switched parties in 2006 to join 
Endundo's PDC. He served as a member of the Lutundula 
Commission mission to Eastern and Western Kasais. Born 
November 1, 1957. 
 
Denis Engunda Litumba (PDC) 
 
Engunda, 52, was defeated in his race for a National Assembly 
seat in the Befale district of central Equateur. Born 
November 10, 1954. 
 
Leon Engulu Baangampongo (UNADEC) 
 
Engulu, 72, is the president of the National Union of 
Christian Democrats (UNADEC) and served as a senator for the 
MLC during the Transitional Government. A member of the 1960 
Political Roundtable in Brussels that led to Congolese 
 
KINSHASA 00000089  004 OF 004 
 
 
independence, he is nicknamed the "Baron of Equateur." From 
1962-1968 he served as governor of Equateur, Kivu, and 
Katanga, and Cuvette Central. Under Mobutu he held several 
positions, including Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of 
Public Works, and Minister of Interior. A member of Mobutu's 
Popular Movement of the Revolution (MPR) political bureau, he 
served on MPR's central committee from 1980-1990. Born April 
1, 1934. 
MEECE