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Zaire The UDPS
Alone among pre-1990 Zairian opposition groups, the
UDPS began
as a dissident faction within the legislature. In November
1980,
thirteen members of parliament signed an "open letter to
the
president of the republic," a ten-point document
cataloging
corruption and abuse of power in the regime, and calling
for
legalization of a second political party. The thirteen
signatories
were arrested and stripped of their parliamentary seats.
In July 1982, some of the Thirteen--as the ex-deputies
were
known; but the exact number involved was unclear--were
sentenced to
fifteen years in prison for aggravated treason. In 1983
Mobutu
lifted the prison sentences of six members of the group,
but
banished them to their home villages. The Thirteen became
an
opposition party in 1982 or merged with an existing
clandestine
party, under the rubric of the UDPS. Frédéric Kibassa
Maliba, a
former minister under Mobutu, was the party's first head.
The UDPS stood out among opposition groups as being
distinctly
moderate. The party identified itself as "the Party of
Peace and
Justice for all" and committed itself to achieving
democracy in
Zaire through nonviolent means. It aimed at establishing a
multiparty political system with free elections, freedom
of the
press and association, and a free-market economy.
The UDPS suffered from several handicaps. It was seen
as a
party dominated by Luba-Kasai. In fact, of the original
thirteen
deputies who signed the open letter in November 1980,
about half
were from the Luba or related groups from Kasai-Oriental
or KasaiOccidental , while others represented other regions of the
southern
half of the country. The most prominent members, including
Tshisekedi, were Luba-Kasai. When the UDPS emerged as a
party, new
members were brought in from other regions. Nonetheless,
the
government had some success in painting the UDPS as an
ethnic
movement.
A second handicap, which contributed to frequent
incoherence in
the message of the UDPS, was the split between leaders in
the
country and in exile. This division was at the same time a
strength
of the UDPS. Its survival, when so many other opposition
groups
disappeared, was linked to its double status as a group
within and
outside Zaire. Particularly helpful was the willingness of
Tshisekedi and others to attempt to work within the
country. Also
important was the early success of the UDPS in attracting
the
support of several United States congressmen.
On June 24, 1987, Mobutu announced that the last
leaders of the
UDPS had rejoined the MPR. "Apart from a few dozen noisy
supporters, prudently based outside the country--notably
in
Brussels and Paris--and true militants isolated in
Kinshasa--the
UDPS had no impact in this too vast country of Zaire," the
Paris
weekly Jeune Afrique commented. It was too soon to
write off
the UDPS, however. Tshisekedi explained that permission
had been
granted to allow the group to continue as a "tendency"
within the
MPR. In January 1988, he attempted to address a public
meeting in
Kinshasa. Police beat and arrested hundreds of
participants,
including Tshisekedi himself.
In February 1989, when thousands of students took to
the
streets of Kinshasa to protest IMF-inspired austerity
measures,
including a hike in tuition fees, and inadequate and
expensive
transportation, security forces arrested Tshisekedi's
wife,
apparently to pressure the UDPS leader into confessing
that he had
instigated the demonstrations. In the meantime, Mobutu,
perhaps
attempting to subvert the opposition, named former UDPS
president
Kibassa to the low-ranking post of minister of sports.
Data as of December 1993
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