By Sabine CessouPosted on 29-05-2019Modified the 29-05-2019 at 17:44

The body of the historical opponent of the successive regimes of Mobutu and Kabila, father and son, has been living for two years and four months in a cold room in Brussels. This monument of Congolese politics will finally be buried at home on June 1st. His body leaves Belgium on May 29, in the evening. Reactions to Matonge, the African district of Brussels.

From our correspondent in Belgium,

The last trip of the historic leader of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), the main opposition party in power today, is expected in the evening, May 29, aboard a special flight, who will take off from Brussels, after a military tribute. In Matonge, the "Afro" district of Brussels, some people are already thinking of the spectacular welcome that will be given to his remains, two years and four months after his death in Brussels.

" I would have liked to be," notes Claudine, 54 , a mother living in Brussels for 18 years. Already, during his lifetime, he was gathering huge crowds all the way between Kinshasa airport and his home in Limete. If I had the means, I would have flown just to see that . For miles, indeed, thousands of Kinois had acclaimed him when he returned in July 2016, to demand the departure of the outgoing President Joseph Kabila and the organization at the scheduled date of the presidential election. The return of his body, May 30, should not derogate from the rule, before the popular meditation that prepares the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) May 31, and his national funeral June 1.

See also: Tshisekedi: A myth is dead

Repatriation marked by political quarrels

In the vibrant district of Matonge, Brussels, we are mainly talking about the murder on Sunday of a 32-year-old half-breed, stabbed in the stomach. The outcome of the Tshisekedi case takes a back seat, even if it is gladly commented with relief. For more than two years, the disagreement between the Tshisekedi family, his UDPS party on one side, and Joseph Kabila's camp on the other, prevented the funeral from being peaceful and consensual. It will have taken five months, after the presidential election of December 2018, officially won by his son Felix Tshisekedi, but strongly contested by the candidate Martin Fayulu and the observers of the Cenco (National Episcopal Conference of Congo), to organize this return. " In itself, this funeral is a major political event for the Congolese nation, " says Innocent, a young nurse of Congolese origin. It will be able to take place without the successive postponements of elections, in the last two years, come into play. " It is very important for us that this patriarch, who has done so much for democracy, is buried in dignity. Political quarrels must stop. In fact, the whole country will have to turn a page in its history. "

What 40-year-old Jean-Pierre Lezi, a former TV producer and presenter in the DRC in Brussels to study information and communication, does not believe too much. " Tshisekedi represents a major figure, having really participated in the emergence of a form of democracy. This repatriation should be a national event, but it is largely phagocyted, polluted by political games. It is only now because of these games, which will continue, with among others the crisis of leadership at the head of the UDPS. "

Some, however, find it ironic that this return of the opponent is done in a context where rivalries have given way to a good agreement between Joseph Kabila and Felix Tshisekedi. " It must be noted that the return of Etienne Tshisekedi happens after that of another opponent, who is alive alive that one, says Michele , a municipal employee born in Lubumbashi. Moses Katumbi was also prevented from setting foot on Congolese soil for three years. Is it really a coincidence ? Did Katumbi have to return to bury Tshisekedi ? ".

The cost of the mausoleum questioned

The political opinions of each other play, of course, in the way of seeing the event. " The person of Etienne Tshisekedi deserves respect, but all the rest is roguery, says Denis, musician. We lost a Papa, certainly, but politically, Tshisekedi was never my cup of tea, with his inflammatory speeches and tribalists, in addition to the fact that he ate at all racks. He released us from what ? From whom ? The decision to spend $ 2.5 million to erect a mausoleum in his memory makes no sense. It's even a delusion, in a country where a university professor receives $ 100 and people are hungry. "

Another artist, the writer Sinzo Aanza, who presented a plastic art installation on May 25 in a group exhibition at the Wiels Art Center in Brussels, agrees. " Apart from his long opposition to Mobutu and all his successors, we are not told how he is heroic for the state, which is paying money for its scandalous mausoleum. For the mowed young people of this country whose desires, desires, ideas and projections should pass before this event so meaningless, it is despair. All this is justified only by the fact that the son has become president. He buries his father with ostentation, which is his duty, but the money does not belong to him. He continues the Mobutist tradition of privatization of space and public resources. "

A fringe of the diasporic opinion in Brussels, meanwhile, remains relatively indifferent. " I am of the same ethnicity as him and my mother lives in the same street in Limete, says a young entrepreneur . For these simple reasons, I should be happy about this repatriation, but given everything I've seen and heard, I do not find it a priority. It is good that there is a stele that mentions that he was a great leader, unlike others ... But nothing more. "

See also: DRC: controversy over the cost of the funeral of Étienne Tshisekedi

See also: DRC: the funeral of Étienne Tshisekedi entrusted to the family

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