Denis Sassou Nguesso
President of the Congo-Brazzaville
Incumbent
Assumed office 25 October 1997
Prime Minister	Isidore Mvouba
Preceded by	Pascal Lissouba
In office 8 February 1979 – 31 August 1992
Prime Minister	Louis Sylvain Goma Ange Édouard Poungui Alphonse Poaty-Souchlaty Pierre Moussa Louis Sylvain Goma André Milongo
Preceded by	Jean-Pierre Thystère Tchicaya (Acting)
Succeeded by	Pascal Lissouba
Personal details
Born	(1943-11-23) 23 November 1943 (age 68) Edou, French Equatorial Africa (now Congo-Brazzaville)
Political party	Congolese Party of Labour
Spouse(s)	Antoinette Sassou Nguesso

Denis Sassou Nguesso (born November 23, 1943) is a Congolese politician who has been the President of Congo-Brazzaville since 1997; he was previously President from 1979 to 1992. During his first period as President, he headed the single-party regime of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT) for 12 years. Under heavy pressure, he introduced multiparty politics in 1990 and was then stripped of executive powers by the 1991 National Conference, remaining in office as a ceremonial head of state. He stood as a candidate in the 1992 presidential election but was defeated, placing third.

Sassou Nguesso was an opposition leader for five years before returning to power at the conclusion of the June–October 1997 civil war, in which his rebel forces ousted President Pascal Lissouba. Following a transitional period, he won the 2002 presidential election, which lacked meaningful opposition participation; he was again re-elected under controversial circumstances in the 2009 presidential election.

Sassou Nguesso is backed by a variety of political parties, the most important of which is the PCT. He is the President of the PCT Central Committee.

Biography[link]

A member of the Mbochi tribe, Sassou Nguesso was born in Edou in the Oyo district to the north of the country.

He joined the army in 1960 just before the country was granted independence. He was marked for prominence and received military training in Algeria and at Saint Maixent, France before returning to join the elite paratroop regiment.

He had socialist leanings and supported the opposition to Fulbert Youlou in Les Trois Glorieuses of August 1963. He was later part of the 1968 military coup that brought Marien Ngouabi to power and was a founding member of the Congolese Labour Party (Parti Congolais du Travail, PCT) in December 1969.

In 1970 Sassou Nguesso was made Director of Security and a minister in the new presidential council. When Ngouabi was assassinated in March 1977, Nguesso played a key role in maintaining control, briefly heading the Military Committee of the Party (CMP, Comité Militaire du Parti) that controlled the state before the succession of Colonel Joachim Yhombi-Opango. Sassou Nguesso was rewarded with a promotion to colonel and the post of vice-president of the CMP. He remained there until February 5, 1979 when Yhombi-Opango was forced from power in a technical coup accused of corruption and political deviancy. On February 8, the CMP chose Nguesso as the new President, and at the Third Extraordinary Congress of the PCT his position was unanimously approved on March 27, 1979.^[1]

Presidency[link]

Denis Sassou Nguesso and George W. Bush in the Oval Office.

Sassou Nguesso surprised many observers who saw only a military strongman by revealing a strong commitment to Marxism as well as a streak of practical politics^{[citation needed]}. He negotiated loans from the International Monetary Fund and allowed foreign investors from France and the Americas to operate in the vital oil and mineral extraction operations. He also traveled to Moscow in 1981 to sign a twenty-year friendship pact with the Soviet Union.

Sassou Nguesso was re-elected for a five year term as President of the PCT Central Committee and President of the Republic at the party's Third Ordinary Congress on July 27–July 31, 1984;^[2] he was sworn in for his new term on November 10, 1984, and on this occasion he announced the release of Yhombi-Opango.^[3] He was not slow to moderate the Marxist policies of the government as the situation demanded.^{[citation needed]} He was Chairman of the Organization of African Unity from 1986 to 1987. In late 1987 he faced down a serious military revolt in the north of the country with French aid.

At the PCT's Fourth Ordinary Congress on July 26–31, 1989, Sassou Nguesso was re-elected as President of the PCT Central Committee and President of the Republic.^[4] Subsequently he saw the collapse of the socialist states of Eastern Europe and, under pressure from the French, began to prepare the process of bringing the country to capitalism.^{[citation needed]} In December 1989 he announced the end of government control of the economy and declared a partial amnesty for political prisoners. Into the following year he attempted to improve the failing economic situation and reduce the outrageous levels of corruption. From September 1990 political parties other than the PCT were allowed and Sassou Nguesso undertook a symbolic state visit to the United States of America, laying the grounds for a new series of conditional IMF loans later that year.

In February 1991, a national conference began; the opposition gained control of the conference, and the conference's declaration of its own sovereignty was not challenged by Sassou Nguesso. The conference, which concluded in June 1991, chose André Milongo as Prime Minister during the transitional period leading to scheduled elections in 1992. Milongo was given executive powers, leaving Sassou Nguesso as effectively a figurehead president.^[5] Sassou Nguesso's power was so limited by the Conference that he was barred from travelling outside of Congo without the transitional government's approval. He was also subjected to serious criticism and allegations during the Conference, including a claim from some delegates that he was involved in Ngouabi's 1977 assassination.^[5][6] His eventual response to the criticism on 26 April was "repentant rather than defiant" in tone.^[5]

1992 elections[link]

In the parliamentary election of June–July 1992, the PCT won only 19 of 125 seats in the National Assembly; the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS) was the largest party, with the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI) another strong force. In the August 1992 presidential election, Sassou Nguesso was eliminated in the first round, in which he placed third with 17% of the vote; although he performed strongly in the north, he fared poorly in the rest of the country. The second round was held between Pascal Lissouba (UPADS) and Bernard Kolelas (MCDDI); Sassou Nguesso backed Lissouba, who won in the second round with 61% of the vote, although he and the PCT quickly went into opposition after the PCT received fewer positions in government under Lissouba than it had anticipated.^[7]

Lissouba began his rule dogged with accusations of voting irregularities and he had to act with increasing repression to maintain his power.^{[citation needed]} From November 1993 to the end of that year clashes between supporters of Kolelas and Lissouba left almost 1500 people dead. In 1994 Sassou Nguesso prudently left the country for Paris.^{[citation needed]} He returned to Congo on January 26, 1997 and intended to contest the presidential election scheduled for July.^[8]

Return to Presidency[link]

In May 1997, a visit by Sassou Nguesso to Owando, Yhombi-Opango's political stronghold, led to the outbreak of violence between his supporters and those of Yhombi-Opango. On June 5, 1997, government forces surrounded Sassou Nguesso's home in the Mpila section of Brazzaville, attempting to arrest two men, Pierre Aboya and Engobo Bonaventure, who had been implicated in the earlier violence. Fighting broke out between the government forces and Sassou Nguesso's fighters, called Cobras, and led to the outbreak of a civil war. By October, Sassou Nguesso, who was aided at the end of the war by Angolan troops, was in control of the country, and he was sworn in as President on October 25.^[8]

Sassou Nguesso declared that he was willing to allow a return to democracy and began a three-year transition process in 1998,^{[citation needed]} but renewed fighting with opposition groups led to the collapse of the endeavor. With the government forces in ascendancy and following peace agreements in 1999, elections were re-scheduled for 2002, although not all rebel groups signed the accords. On March 10 Sassou Nguesso won with almost 90% of the vote; his two main rivals Lissouba and Kolelas were prevented from competing. The only remaining credible rival, André Milongo, withdrew his candidacy three days before the election day, claiming that the election would be rigged. A new constitution was agreed upon in January 2002 which granted the president new powers and extended presidential terms from five to seven years. While the 2002 elections were hailed as being free of violence, they conferred little legitimacy on Sassou Nguesso's regime due to the lack of meaningful participation by opposition parties. Sassou Nguesso was sworn in on August 14, 2002.^[9]

Having already served as the Chairman of the Organisation of African Unity in 1986 to 1987, he was elected Chairman of the African Union, the OAU's successor body, in January 2006. His election was the result of a compromise reached to prevent the chairmanship from going to Omar al-Bashir, President of Sudan. Despite making frequent trips around the continent and around the world during his year-long tenure as AU chairman, Sassou Nguesso's achievements in the office were limited.^{[citation needed]}

Sassou Nguesso was re-elected as President of the Central Committee of the PCT at the party's Fifth Extraordinary Congress in December 2006.^[10]

In January 2007, Sassou Nguesso's international reputation suffered a blow after a panel of judges in France reopened an official investigation into the alleged role of Sassou Nguesso's government in the 1999 disappearance of 353 Congolese refugees.^[11]

Re-elected in the July 2009 presidential election with 78.61% of the vote amidst an opposition boycott, Sassou Nguesso was sworn in for another seven-year term at a ceremony in Brazzaville on 14 August 2009. He said that his re-election meant continued "peace, stability and security", and he called for an end to "thinking like ... freeloaders" in reference to international aid received by the country. Sassou Nguesso also made an important announcement at his inauguration, saying that he would set in motion an amnesty bill to pardon Pascal Lissouba, who had gone into exile after his 1997 ouster and was convicted of crimes in absentia. Sassou Nguesso said that he wanted the amnesty bill to be presented to Parliament by the end of 2009.^[12]

As Congo-Brazzaville prepared to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its independence from France in 2010, Sassou Nguesso noted that the country had far to go in fully realizing the dream of independence: "Our country will not be totally independent until our people are free of the yoke of poverty." He presided over a large parade in Brazzaville, featuring thousands of soldiers and civilians, to celebrate the anniversary on 15 August 2010.^[13]

Personal spending[link]

When Sassou Nguesso attended the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September 2006, almost £14,000 of room service at the Waldorf Astoria was added to his bill during another five-night stay. His entourage, including several members of his family, occupied 44 rooms which together ran up a bill of £130,000. The bills on September 19 included two bottles of Cristal champagne charged at £400. This was pointed out by the British newspaper The Sunday Times to be "comfortably more than the £106,000 that Britain gave the Republic of Congo in humanitarian aid in 2006."^[14]

As of June 2007, Sassou Nguesso, along with President Omar Bongo of Gabon, is being investigated by the French police due to claims that he has used millions of pounds of embezzled public funds to acquire lavish properties in France. He has been cited in recent years during French criminal inquiries into hundreds of millions of euros of illicit payments by Elf, the former French state-owned oil group.[1]

In July 2007, British NGO Global Witness published documents on its website that appear to show that the President's son, Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, may have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of money that may derive from the country's oil sales on shopping sprees in Paris and Dubai.^[15] The documents show that in August 2006 alone, Denis Christel, who is the head of Cotrade - the marketing branch of Congo's state oil firm SNPC - spent $35,000 on purchases from designers such as Louis Vuitton and Roberto Cavalli.^[16] Attempts were made by Schillings Solicitors to suppress this information but the application failed (see law report at http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/inpractice/lawreports/view=details.law?GAZETTEINPRACTICEID=357873).

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Denis Sassou Nguesso

• Denis Sassou Nguesso

References[link]

v t e Heads of state of the Republic of the Congo Youlou • Massemba-Débat • Raoul*† • Ngouabi† •Military Committee of the Congolese Labour Party†• Yhombi-Opango† • Sassou Nguesso • Lissouba • Sassou Nguesso * acting     † military

Saint Denis of Paris
Saint Denis, holding his head. statue at the left portal of Notre Dame.
Bishop and Martyr
Born	3rd century AD Italy
Died	c. 250, 258,[1] or 270 Montmartre, Paris, France
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Orthodox Church
Major shrine	Saint Denis Basilica
Feast	October 9
Attributes	carrying his severed head in his hands; a bishop's mitre; city; furnace[2]
Patronage	France; Paris; against frenzy, strife, headaches, hydrophobia, possessed people, rabies

Saint Denis (also called Dionysius, Dennis, or Denys) is a Christian martyr and saint. In the third century, he was Bishop of Paris. He was martyred in connection with the Decian persecution of Christians, shortly after A.D. 250. After his head was chopped off, Denis is said to have picked it up and walked ten kilometres (six miles), preaching a sermon the entire way, making him one of many cephalophores in hagiology. He is venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as patron of Paris, France and as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. The medieval and modern French name "Denis" derives from the ancient name Dionysius.

Life[link]

Beheading of Denis and of his companions, tympanum of the north portal of the Basilica of St Denis.

Gregory of Tours^[3] states that Denis was bishop of the Parisii and was martyred by being beheaded by a sword. The earliest document giving an account of his life and martyrdom, the "Passio SS. Dionysii Rustici et Eleutherii" dates from c. 600, is mistakenly attributed to the poet Venantius Fortunatus, and is legendary. Nevertheless, it appears from the Passio that Denis was sent from Italy to convert Gaul in the third century, forging a link with the "apostles to the Gauls" reputed to have been sent out under the direction of Pope Fabian. This was after the persecutions under Emperor Decius had all but dissolved the small Christian community at Lutetia.^[4] Denis, with his inseparable companions Rusticus and Eleutherius, who were martyred with him, settled on the Île de la Cité in the River Seine. Roman Paris lay on the higher ground of the Left Bank, away from the river.

Martyrdom[link]

Denis, having alarmed the pagan priests by his many conversions, was executed by beheading on the highest hill in Paris (now Montmartre), which was likely to have been a druidic holy place. The martyrdom of Denis and his companions is popularly believed to have given it its current name, derived from the Latin mons martyrium "The Martyrs' Mountain",^[1] although in fact the name is more likely to derive from mons mercurei et mons martis, Hill of Mercury and Mars.^[5] After his head was chopped off, Denis is said to have picked it up and walked ten kilometres (six miles) from the summit of Mont Mars (now Montmartre), preaching a sermon the entire way, making him one of many cephalophores in hagiology. Of the many accounts of this martyrdom, this is noted in detail in the Golden Legend and in Butler's Lives Of The Saints.^[6] The site where he stopped preaching and actually died was marked by a small shrine that developed into the Saint Denis Basilica, which became the burial place for the kings of France. Another account has his corpse being thrown into the Seine, but recovered and buried later that night by his converts.^[2]

Veneration[link]

Late Gothic statue of Saint Denis, limestone, formerly polychromed (Musée de Cluny)

Veneration of Saint Denis began soon after his death. The bodies of Saints Denis, Eleutherius, and Rusticus were buried on the spot of their martyrdom, where the construction of the saint's eponymous basilica was begun by Saint Geneviève, assisted by the people of Paris.^[7] Her Vita Sanctae Genovefae attests the presence of a shrine near the present basilica by the close of the fifth century, though the names of Rusticus and Eleutherius are non-historical. The successor church was erected by Fulrad, who became abbot in 749/50 and was closely linked with the accession of the Carolingians to the Merovingian throne.

In time, the "Saint Denis", often combined as "Montjoie! Saint Denis!" became the war-cry of the French armies. The oriflamme, which became the standard of France, was the banner consecrated upon his tomb. His veneration spread beyond France when, in 754, Pope Stephen II, who was French, brought veneration of Saint Denis to Rome. Soon his cultus was prevalent throughout Europe.^[7] Abbot Suger removed the relics of Denis, and those associated with Rustique and Eleuthére, from the crypt to reside under the high altar of the Saint-Denis he rebuilt, 1140-44.^[8]

The feast of Saint Denis was added to the Roman Calendar in the year 1568 by Pope Pius V, though it had been celebrated since at least the year 800. St Denis' feast day is celebrated on October 9.^[2]

In traditional Catholic practice, Saint Denis is honored as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers. Specifically, Denis is invoked against diabolical possession and headaches^[9] and with Sainte Geneviève is one of the patron saints of Paris.

Companions[link]

Last Communion and Martyrdom of Saint Denis, by Henri Bellechose, 1416, which shows the martyrdom of both Denis and his companions

9 October is celebrated as the feast of Saint Denis and also of his companions, a priest named Rusticus and a deacon, Eleutherius, who were martyred alongside him and buried with him.

Confusion with Dionysus the Areopagite[link]

Since at least the ninth century, the legends of Dionysus the Areopagite and Denis of Paris have been often confused. Around 814, Louis the Pious brought certain writings attributed to Dionysus the Areopagite to France, and since then it became common among the French legendary writers to argue that Denis of Paris was the same Dionysus who was a famous convert and disciple of Saint Paul.^[7] The confusion of the personalities of Saint Denis, Dionysus the Areopagite, and pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, the author of the writings ascribed to Dionysius brought to France by Louis, was initiated through an Areopagitica written in 836 by Hilduin, Abbot of Saint-Denis, at the request of Louis the Pious. "Hilduin was anxious to promote the dignity of his church, and it is to him that the quite unfounded identification of the patron saint with Dionysius the Areopagite and his consequent connexion with the apostolic age are due."^[10] Hilduin's attribution had been supported for centuries by the monastic community at Abbey of Saint-Denis and one of origins of their pride. In Historia calamitatum, Pierre Abelard gives a short account of the strength of this belief and the monastery's harsh opposition to challenges to their claim. Abelard jokingly pointed out a possibility that the founder of the Abbey could have been another Dionysius, who is mentioned as Dionysius of Corinth by Eusebius. This irritated the community so much that eventually Abelard left in bitterness. As late as the sixteenth century, scholars might still argue for an Eastern origin of the Basilica of Saint-Denis: one was Godefroi Tillman, in a long preface to a paraphrase of the Letters of the Areopagite, printed in Paris in 1538 by Charlotte Guillard.^[11] Historians today^[12] do not dispute this point.^[4]

Depiction in art[link]

Denis' headless walk has led to his being depicted in art decapitated and dressed as a Bishop, holding his own mitred head in his hands.^[7] Handling the halo in this circumstance poses a unique challenge for the artist. Some put the halo where the head used to be; others have Saint Denis carrying the halo along with the head. Even more problematic than the halo was the issue of how much of his head Denis should be shown carrying. Throughout much of the Middle Ages, the Abbey of St Denis and the canons of Notre-Dame Cathedral were in dispute over ownership of the saint's head. The Abbey claimed that they had the entire body, whilst the Cathedral claimed to possess the top of his head which, they claimed, had been severed by the executioner's first blow.^[13] Thus while most depictions of St Denis show him holding his entire head, in others, the patrons have shown their support for the Cathedral's claim by depicting him carrying just the crown of his skull, as, for example in the mid 13th century window showing the story at Le Mans Cathedral (Bay 111).^[14]

Notes[link]

Further Reading[link]

• Drinkwater, J.F. (1987). The Gallic Empire : separatism and continuity in the north-western provinces of the Roman Empire, A.D. 260-274. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag Wiesbaden. ISBN 3-515-04806-5. 
• Gregory of Tours (1988). Glory of the martyrs. Raymond Van Dam, trans. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-236-9. 
• Lacaze, Charlotte (1979). The "Vie de Saint Denis" Manuscript. New York: Garland. 
• Van Dam, Raymond (1985). Leadership and community in late antique Gaul. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-05162-9. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Denis de Paris

• The Life, Miracles and Martyrdom of St. Denis (Dionysius, Dennis, Denys) Bishop & Martyr of the Church
• Catholic Encyclopedia: St. Denis
• St. Denis and Companions provides information about their feast on October 9

Joseph Kabila
President of the Congo-Kinshasa
Incumbent
Assumed office 17 January 2001 Acting: 17 January 2001 – 26 January 2001
Prime Minister	Antoine Gizenga Adolphe Muzito Louis Alphonse Koyagialo (Acting) Augustin Matata Ponyo
Preceded by	Laurent-Désiré Kabila
Personal details
Born	(1971-06-04) 4 June 1971 (age 41) Fizi, Congo-Léopoldville (now Congo-Kinshasa)
Political party	People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy
Spouse(s)	Olive Lembe di Sita
Alma mater	Makerere University People's Liberation Army National Defense University

Joseph Kabila Kabange (known commonly as Joseph Kabila, born June 4, 1971) is a Congolese politician who has been President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since January 2001. He took office ten days after the assassination of his father, President Laurent-Désiré Kabila. He was elected as President in 2006. In 2011, he was re-elected for a second term.

Biography[link]

Early life and education[link]

Joseph Kabila Kabange was born on June 4, 1971 at Hewabora, a small village in the Fizi territory of the South Kivu province, in Eastern Congo. He is the son of long time rebel, former AFDL leader and president of the Congo Laurent-Désiré Kabila and Sifa Mahanya.

Guerrilla and army years[link]

Following high school, Joseph Kabila followed a military curriculum in Tanzania, then at Makerere University in Uganda. In October 1996, Laurent-Désiré Kabila launched the campaign in Zaire to oust the Mobutu regime. Joseph became the commander of the infamous army of "kadogos" (child soldiers) and played a key role in major battles on the road to Kinshasa. The liberation army received logistical and military support from regional armies from Rwanda, Uganda, Angola and Zimbabwe. Following the AFDL's victory, and Laurent-Désiré Kabila's rise to the presidency, Joseph Kabila went on to get further training at the PLA National Defense University, in Beijing, China.

When he returned from China, Kabila was awarded the rank of Major-General, and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in 1998. He was later, in 2000, appointed Chief of Staff of the Land Forces, a position he held until the elder President Kabila's assassination in January 2001.^[1] As chief of staff, he was one of the main military leaders in charge of Government troops during the time of the Second Congo War (1998–2003).

Presidency[link]

Joseph Kabila rose to the Presidency on 26 January 2001 after the assassination of Laurent-Désiré Kabila, becoming the world's first head of government born in the 1970s. He remained the world's youngest head of government until Roosevelt Skerrit became Prime Minister of Dominica in January 2004.^[2]

At age 30, he was considered young and inexperienced. He subsequently attempted to end the ongoing civil war by negotiating peace agreements with rebel groups who were backed by Rwanda and Uganda, the same regional armies who brought Laurent-Désiré Kabila's rebel group to power 3 years before. The 2002 peace agreement signed at the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in Sun City, South Africa, which nominally ended the Second Congo War, maintained Joseph Kabila as President and head of state of the Congo. An interim administration was set up under him, including the leaders of the country's two main rebel groups as vice-presidents (two other vice-presidents were representatives of the civilian opposition and government supporters respectively).

Kabila in 2002, with Thabo Mbeki, George W. Bush, and Paul Kagame

On March 28, 2003, an apparent coup attempt or mutiny around the capital Kinshasa, allegedly on the part of members of the former guard of former president Mobutu Sese Seko (who had been ousted by Kabila's father in 1997 and died in the same year), failed.^[3] On June 11, 2004, coup plotters led by Major Eric Lenge allegedly attempted to take power and announced on state radio that the transitional government was suspended, but were defeated by loyalist troops.^[4][5]

In December 2005, a partial referendum approved a new constitution, and a presidential election was held on July 30, 2006 (having been delayed from an earlier date in June).^[6] The new constitution lowered the minimum age of presidential candidates from 35 to 30; Kabila turned 35 shortly before the election. In March 2006, he registered as a candidate.^[7] Although Kabila registered as an independent, he is the "initiator" of the People's Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD), which chose him as their candidate to the election. Although the new constitution stipulates that a debate be held between the two remaining candidates for the presidency, no debates took place and this was declared by many as unconstitutional.

According to widely disputed provisional results announced on August 20, Kabila won 45% of the vote; his main opponent, vice-president and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, won 20%. The irregularities surrounding the elections results prompted ^[8] a run-off vote between Kabila and Bemba which was held on October 29. On November 15, the electoral commission announced the official results and Kabila was declared the winner, with 58.05% of the vote.^[9] These results were confirmed by the Supreme Court on November 27, 2006, and Kabila was inaugurated on December 6, 2006 as the country's newly elected President.^[10] He named Antoine Gizenga, who placed third in the first round of the presidential election (and then backed Kabila in the second round) as prime minister on December 30.^[11]

In December 2011, Kabila was re-elected for a second term as president. After the results were announced on 9 December, there was violent unrest in Kinshasa and Mbuji-Mayi, where official tallies showed that a strong majority had voted for the opposition candidate Etienne Tshisekedi.^[12] Official observers from the Carter Center reported that returns from almost 2,000 polling stations in areas where support for Tshisekedi was strong had been lost and not included in the official results. They described the election as lacking credibility.^[13] On 20 December, Kabila was sworn in for a second term, promising to invest in infrastructure and public services. However, Tshisekedi maintained that the result of the election was illegitimate and said that he intended also to "swear himself in" as president.^[14]

In January 2012, Catholic Bishops in DR Congo also condemned the elections, complaining of "treachery, lies and terror", and calling on the election commission to correct "serious errors".^[15]

Views[link]

In 2006, Kabila responded to evidence of widespread sex crimes committed by the Congolese military by describing the acts as "simply unforgivable". He pointed out that 300 soldiers had been convicted of sex crimes, although he added that this was not enough.^[16]

Wedding[link]

On June 1, 2006, after many wedding rumors were fueled by many in top positions in the country, the head of the Presidential Household, Ambassador Theodore Mugalu officially announced the wedding of the President to Olive Lembe di Sita. The wedding ceremonies took place on June 17, 2006.^[17] Kabila and his spouse have a daughter, born in 2001, named Sifa after Kabila's mother.

As President Kabila is Anglican, and Ms Lembe di Sita is Catholic, the wedding ceremonies were ecumenical, and were therefore officiated by both the Catholic Archbishop of Kinshasa, Cardinal Frederic Etsou Bamungwabi, and Pierre Marini Bodho – Presiding Bishop of the Church of Christ in Congo, the umbrella church for most denominations in the Congo, known within the country simply as "The Protestant Church".

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Joseph Kabila on Wikipedia's sister projects:
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• Joseph Kabila, The Untold Story
• Rape in the DRC
• BBC Country Profile
• Official website of the President of the DRC
• Joseph Kabila 2011 campaign site
• Democratic Republic of the Congo - Permanent Mission to the United Nations
• DR Congo presidential candidates face off in second round Jane's Intelligence Watch Report, 22 August 2006
• For Congo’s Leader, Middling Reviews by Jeffrey Gettleman, The New York Times, April 4, 2009

v t e Candidates in the 2011 Democratic Republic of the Congo presidential election Jean Andeka Adam Bombolé Joseph Kabila François Nicéphore Kakese Vital Kamerhe Oscar Kashala Léon Kengo Antipas Mbusa Nzanga Mobutu Josué Alex Mukendi Étienne Tshisekedi

v t e Candidates in the 2006 Democratic Republic of the Congo presidential election Jean-Pierre Bemba Antoine Gizenga Joseph Kabila Nzanga Mobutu Oscar Kashala Azarias Ruberwa Pierre Pay-Pay wa Syakasighe Vincent de Paul Lunda-Bululu Joseph Olenghankoy Mukundji Pierre Anatole Matusila Malungenine Kongo Antipas Mbusa Bernard Emmanuel Kabatu Suila Eugène Diomi Ndongala Banyingela Kasonga Jean Marinaque Alou Bonioma Kalokola Gérard Kamanda wa Kamanda Norbert Likulia Bolongo Roger Lumbala Guy-Patrice Lumumba Christophe Mboso N'Kodia Pwanga Alafuele Mbuyi Kalala Hassan Thassinda Uba Thassinda Florentin Mokonda Bonza Timothée Moleka Nzulama Justine Mpoyo Kasa-Vubu Jonas Mukamba Kadiata Nzemba Paul Joseph Mukungubila Mutombo Osée Muyima Ndjoko Arthur Z'ahidi Ngoma Jacob Niemba Souga Marie-Thérèse Nlandu Mpolo Nene Wivine N'Landu Kavidi Cathérine Marthe Nzuzi wa Mbombo

v t e President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (list) Republic of the Congo (1960–1971) Joseph Kasa-Vubu • Antoine Gizenga (rebel) Republic of Zaire (1971–1997) Joseph Mobutu/Mobutu Sese Seko Democratic Republic of the Congo (1997–present) Laurent-Désiré Kabila • Joseph Kabila