VZCZCXYZ0001
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKI #0688/01 1711307
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
R 201307Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6359
INFO RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 1155

S E C R E T KINSHASA 000688 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR AF/C RUTH HENDERSON, JANE GAFFNEY 
INR/AA JOHN BERNTSEN, JENNIFER PEKKINEN 
PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS GREG D'ELIA, ROBERT KANEDA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/21/2017 
TAGS: PREL PINR PHUM PGOV CF
SUBJECT: BRAZZAVILLE/CONGO:  NTUMI - DEER HUNTER OR THE 
HUNTED? 
 
REF: A. KINSHASA 000659 
 
     ¶B. BERNTSEN-BARGERON E-MAIL 
     ¶C. 13 JUNE 2007 
     ¶D. BRAZZAVILLE 000093 
 
Classified By: DCM MARK BIEDLINGMAIER, REASONS 1.4(B)(D) 
 
¶1.  (C)  Following his June 8 "walk in the woods" in Kinkala 
with CNR President Frederic Bintsamou (Pasteur Ntumi), in the 
presence of BBC journalist James James, (reported reftel A), 
DCM was contacted by CNR National Secretary Joseph Mbizi to 
discuss his party's anticipated participation in the June 24 
legislative elections.  A meeting was held in Brazzaville on 
June 14 with Mbizi and included the DCMs from the Embassy of 
South Africa, Coen van Wyk and Apostolic Nunciature, Msgr. 
Banatulaye Kuriwkose.  Mbizi reported that, despite firm 
commitments made by the Office of the Prime Minister during 
protracted pre-concertation negotiations, no government 
"matching funds" had been provided by the host-government to 
Ntumi, or to the CNR, which would have virtually assured the 
party's full involvement and active participation in the 
nationwide election campaign.  Mbizi added that, if these 
funds were not received prior to the June 15 voter 
registration deadline, Ntumi would have no option but to 
withdraw all CNR candidates from the ballots.  Post 
verified on June 20 that no government funding had 
been provided to the CNR and that Ntumi would now called 
for a boycott of the Sunday electoral process. 
 
¶2.  (S)  BBC journalist John James (please protect) reported 
to DCM the substance of a conversation held with Presidential 
Spokesman and Minister of Communication, Alain 
Akouala-Antipault, on Sunday evening, June 10, shortly after 
BBC had broadcast James' piece on the Kinkala meeting with 
Ntumi.  Akouala advised James that, unlike his BBC 
predecessor, Francois Bikindou, who had been forced to leave 
Brazzaville five years earlier after an interview arranged 
with Ntumi, the Republic of Congo was now  "a completely 
democratic country and would certainly not interfere with his 
activities or those of the working press."  He then added, to 
James' bewilderment, that President Sassou-Nguesso had been 
approached on several occasions by various elements within 
the military who offered to "get rid of" Ntumi, but that the 
President did not believe this would be a prudent course of 
action.  Instead, Akouala continued, the President would now 
welcome Ntumi's return to Brazzaville as "the government 
would at least know where he was located." 
 
¶3.  (C)  (Note:  During the June 14 meeting with Mbizi noted 
above, it was disclosed that Ntumi had planned to return to 
Brazzaville prior to the June 24 election in an elaborate 
40-car motorcade, surrounded by his supporters from the Pool, 
and with a security detail of 45 ex-combattant soldiers. 
Mbizi stated that this number had been agreed upon following 
negotiations with the host government after an initial 
proposal to bring 60 armed, ex-combattants to the city was 
declined.  It is now unlikely that Ntumi will make this move 
to Brazzaville given his call to boycott the elections and 
withdraw CNR candidates from the process due to non-receipt 
campaign matching funds from the Ministry of the Interior.) 
 
¶4.  (S)  On a related note, Ambassador Weisberg met privately 
with Minister of Technical Education, Pierre-Michel Nguimbi 
(please protect), who frequently shares insider views with 
the embassy, for a tour d'horizon of the current political 
situation.  In response to Ambassador's summation of DCM's 
recent contact with Ntumi, Nguimbi stated that Ntumi was 
thought to be mentally unstable, a marginalized figure in the 
newly-reopened Pool region, and above all, a festering 
irritant to President Sassou-Nguesso and the PCT.  Motioning 
to the Ambassador with a double cross-slash to the throat, 
Nguimbi said that Sassou-Nguesso was "fed-up" with the entire 
Pasteur Ntumi issue, and that he (Ntumi) "was finished." 
This conversation took place only days after Minister 
Akouala's discussion with BBC correspondent James in which 
similar sentiments were expressed.  This discourse would lead 
one to wonder, now that Ntumi is officially "out of the 
woods" whether he is the hunter, or the hunted, in the eyes 
of his countrymen and senior government leaders? 
 
¶5.  (C)  The Nguimbi assessment of Ntumi's personality 
differs from that observed by James and DCM during their 
chance June 8 encounter.  Ntumi welcomed his visitors to the 
outdoor setting in a calm, yet somewhat shy manner, and then 
warmed-up considerably after opening pleasantries, reference 
to the Bikindou PNG affair, and Ntumi's wish to continue his 
university studies in either psychology and sociology in the 
United States.  He was articulate and surprisingly well 
 
informed of world events given his relative isolation in the 
Pool region for over ten years, in particular the U.S. lead 
role in anti-narcotics trafficking, economic globalization, 
Chinese presence in the central Africa region, and the recent 
Sarkozy-Royal election run-off in France.  Perhaps playing to 
his audience, Ntumi insisted that English-language study and 
access to information technology resources would be "the key 
to unlock the talents" of the young, future Pool generations, 
now anxious to re-integrate into society following the tragic 
civil war period.  Unlike the dated photographs run 
frequently in the national press, which often feature Ntumi 
as an ill-groomed, bizarrely-clad deadbeat, he arrived to the 
June 8 meeting dressed in a conservative suit, neat in 
appearance and grooming, shined black loafers and sporting a 
modest Seiko- or Timex-style chronometer/racing watch.  The 
CNR secretary, Joseph Mbizi, later confided to the DCM that 
Ntumi was a voracious reader of history, politics and 
international affairs, and despite its remote location, 
Kinkala had an excellent internet link which allowed Ntumi to 
"surfing the net" several hours each day for news and 
developments in the fields of medicine, technology, and his 
personal passions, music, culture and the arts. 
 
¶6. (C)  In other election news, candidates worth watching 
this weekend include former Minister of Transportation, Andre 
Okombi-Salissa; populist opposition Member of Parliament, 
Nick Fila; and, recently demoted Special Advisor to the 
President, Jean-Dominique Okemba (profiled reftel C). 
Okombi-Salissa, currently Minister of Tourism and Environment 
-- an insignificant portfolio given the heavy clout borne by 
Minister of Forestry and Environment Henri Djombo in the 
international community -- and Okemba, now wallowing on the 
back benches as president of Congo's National Security 
Commission, both aspire to higher office but have been 
frustrated in this trek by Sassou-Nguesso's recent decision 
to remove them from their respective power bases. 
Okombi-Salissa has, to date, adamantly refused to dislodge 
from his office at the Ministry of Transportation, and, known 
to control both a well-armed private militia and regional 
radio station, is considered by many to be "off limits" and a 
formidable force "not to be reckoned with" lest one would 
be prepared to suffer dire consequences.  Urban legend 
in Brazzaville notes that Salissa's militia conducted a 
mafia-style "knee-capping" of a fellow Member of Parliament who 
attempted to cut-in on lucrative commercial activities 
controlled by Salissa while Minister of Transportation. 
 
¶7. (SBU) The avuncular Fila, hero of last Fall's successful 
passive resistance protest in the Poto-Poto suburb of 
Brazzaville -- prompted by a host-government attempt to 
forcefully expropriate land and slum residences for a 
Chinese-backed redevelopment project to build medium-income 
housing, led by the unpopular Minister of Construction 
Alphonse Nsilou -- is openly criticizing the Minister of 
Interior, Francois Ivobi, and others charged to establish a 
representative National Electoral Commission, with 
corruption, incompetence and voter registration fraud.  There 
has been, however, a highly-pervasive apathetic attitude 
toward the election process by the average Congolese, who 
find it more advantageous (financially and otherwise) to 
accept generous gifts of cash, t-shirts, baseball caps, and 
in one precinct, small refrigerators, from aggressive PCT 
campaigners, than to seriously debate tough political issues 
and the merits of a true opposition voice. 
 
¶8. (U)  Post once again renews its interest to secure prompt 
Congressional approval for the IFES grant proposal, currently 
in the AF/C clearance process, which would provide an 
innovative opportunity to educate and empower voters, through 
an open debate for all party candidates, to capture the 
interest of Republic of Congo voters prior to the anticipated 
July 22 run-off. 
MEECE