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Viewing cable 07KINSHASA185, ANDRE KASONGO ILUNGA, R.I.P.

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
07KINSHASA185 2007-02-15 15:48 2011-08-25 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY Embassy Kinshasa
VZCZCXYZ0003
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHKI #0185/01 0461548
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151548Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY KINSHASA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5614
INFO RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUFOADA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
UNCLAS KINSHASA 000185 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV ETRD KDEM CG
SUBJECT: ANDRE KASONGO ILUNGA, R.I.P. 
 
REF: KINSHASA 140 
 
1.  (SBU) Summary.  Trade minister Kasongo Ilunga was one of 
the many unknowns named to the DRC cabinet February 5.  A 
true non-entity, he left the political scene this week with a 
singular flourish that has humiliated his political 
godfather.  In fact, he never existed.  The episode 
demonstrates Prime Minister-designate Gizenga's determination 
to reject candidates with questionable pasts, but also a 
slapdash vetting process.  It also points to the relative 
unimportance of trade in the current DRC government.  End 
summary. 
 
2.  (U) Andre Kasongo Ilunga passed from the Congolese 
political scene this week, only days after being named the 
first trade minister of the DRC's Third Republic.  Nothing 
befitted his tenure so much as his manner of leaving it.  His 
ministerial colleagues never had the opportunity to get to 
know him, but he will be remembered for the humor he brought 
to their conversations and the public humiliation he visited 
on the outgoing minister of justice. 
 
3.  (U) Kasongo Ilunga, as he was called by the journalists 
who knew him best, was an uncommon man with a common name 
(the Tshiluba equivalent of John Smith).  He was one of the 
Kasai provinces' few representatives in the 60-member cabinet 
named by President Joseph Kabila and Prime Minister Antoine 
Gizenga February 5 (reftel).  The background information 
submitted to the prime minister's office portrayed a senior 
official of the Unafec political party, a minor member of 
Kabila's AMP electoral coalition which had been allotted one 
ministerial and one vice-ministerial slot in the 
post-election carve-out.  According to news reports, 
Kasongo's name was submitted together with that of party 
president and transitional justice minister Honorius Kisimba 
Ngoy as Unafec's candidates for the trade post. 
 
4.  (SBU) In fact, two close associates of Gizenga told us 
February 14 that Kasongo was a late addition for ministerial 
consideration, after Gizenga had sent back an initial list 
proposing Kisimba and Kisimba's son.  Gizenga then selected 
Kasongo after rejecting Kisimba because of the latter's close 
ties to Mobutu.  Kasongo was an unknown when his nomination 
was announced February 5, but then so were many of his new 
ministerial colleagues. 
 
5.  (SBU) Concerns were first raised about Kasongo Ilunga 
last week when he failed to make an appearance at the first, 
informal meeting of the council.  Gizenga then received a 
letter from Kisimba stating that Kasongo had written him to 
say he was resigning as minister for personal reasons. 
According to the Gizenga associates we spoke with, when 
staffers subsequently contacted other Unafec officials to 
inquire about Kasongo they learned that no one had heard from 
him.  In fact, no one had ever heard of him at all. 
 
6.   (SBU) The phantom minister, as he is now being called, 
appears to have been a full-size Frankenstein stitched out of 
whole cloth by Kisimba Ngoy.  It is now clear that when 
Gizenga rejected Kisimba junior as a ministerial hopeful, 
Kisimba senior calculated that Gizenga would have no choice 
but to select Honorius Kisimba Ngoy himself -- a former 
minister -- over a political unknown with the commonest of 
names. 
 
7.  (U) A cartoon in the February 14 edition of the Kinshasa 
daily "Le Palmares" sums up the hilarity currently making the 
rounds.  Kisimba, dressed in a loud checked suit, looks on 
with a Cheshire-cat smile as an aide hands Gizenga a letter 
and tells him "The trade minister has resigned and designated 
the bearer of this letter as his replacement."  Gizenga waves 
him off, saying "Him!?  Yande ve!" -- a Kikongo expression 
best translated here into Bronxese as "fuhgedabowdit!" 
 
8.  (U) Kisimba miscalculated badly.  Gizenga, a Lumumba 
associate from the independence era, has been clear in 
rejecting Mobutuism in all its forms, even continuing to 
refer to the capital by its original name, Leopoldville.  He 
became known as "Monsieur Yande Ve" in recent weeks for his 
wholesale rejection of heavyweight ministerial hopefuls with 
questionable pasts; the literal translation is "not him!" 
 
9.  (SBU) The incident has made Kisimba the butt of jokes and 
will mark whatever political future remains to him.  He was 
clearly not paying attention last fall when Gizenga 
threatened to walk out of a carefully choreographed ceremony 
solemnizing the AMP electoral coalition by refusing to sit 
together with Kabila and Mobutu's son Nzanga.  This was 
resolved only when Nzanga agreed to sit alone at the back of 
the stage while Kabila and Gizenga occupied a ceremonial 
table far from Nzanga. 
 
10.  (SBU) Comment. The Kasongo affair has also drawn 
attention to a slapdash vetting process for ministers.  The 
remaining ministers are real people, to be sure, but many 
have little or no track record and it is difficult to predict 
how well they will perform.   Moreover, the choice of a 
literal non-entity as trade minister speaks volumes about the 
relative unimportance of the portfolio in a country where 
smuggling could well outweigh legitimate international 
commerce.  The DRC's WTO membership, AGOA eligibility and 
other trade schemes are perhaps its trade minister's most 
valuable commodities, as they present regular opportunities 
for profitable travel abroad.  End comment. 
MEECE