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President Joseph Kabila


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Third-Party Descriptions

November 2009: "AFTER 32 years of rapacious dictatorship under Mobutu Sese Seko and nearly a decade of chaos following his demise in 1997, Congo’s elections in 2006 marked the first time the people of the former Belgian colony had gone to the polls in a free and fair vote for four decades. It was a rare moment of hope for a better future. But the latest signs are less auspicious. In recent parliamentary sessions, it emerged that President Joseph Kabila had called for a special constitutional review commission to consider amending Congo’s four-year-old charter. Among various suggestions, it may ask for presidential terms to be extended from five to seven years and perhaps for term limits to be junked altogether. Another idea being touted is for the president to become head of the Superior Council of Magistrates, the country’s most powerful judicial body. But the constitution specifically forbids amendments in all of those areas."

http://www.economist.com/world/middleeast-africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14920068

March 2008: "Joseph Kabila Kabange (born June 4, 1971), known commonly as Joseph Kabila, became president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in January 2001, ten days after the murder of his father and DRC president Laurent-Désiré Kabila, a former rebel leader. On November 27, 2006, Joseph Kabila was confirmed as the first Congolese President to be democratically elected by universal direct suffrage..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kabila

October 2007: "But the government of President Joseph Kabila has so far failed to assert authority over the vast country, much less disarm the FDLR militias or subdue Nkunda, a charismatic leader who has had close ties to the Rwandan government and who claims to be protecting Congo's Tutsi minority from the FDLR."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/23/AR2007102302072.html

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Articles and Resources

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Nov 19, 2009 Democracy under threat: Congo's constitution

QUOTE: In the past three years the 38-year-old president [of Congo, Joseph Kabila] has shown increasingly little interest in living up to the democratic promise that impressed the West when he won at the polls in 2006.

 Economist
Oct 24, 2007 Atrocities in East Congo Attributed to All Parties: Fighters Routinely Terrorize Civilians, Report Says

QUOTE: A variety of armed groups, including the Congolese military, have routinely terrorized civilians across eastern Congo in the past year, with killings, massacres, rapes, abductions, looting and other brutalities perpetrated by all parties in the conflict, according to a report released Tuesday by New York-based Human Rights Watch.

 Washington Post