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Zaire The Party Security Apparatus
Any discussion of Zaire's civil security apparatus
would be
incomplete without considering the Youth of the Popular
Movement of
the Revolution (Jeunesse du Mouvement Populaire de la
Révolution--
JMPR) and its disciplinary arm, the Corps of Activists for
the
Defense of the Revolution (Corps des Activistes pour la
Défense de
la Révolution--CADR). Although the JMPR was a spin-off of
Zaire's
single, ruling political party (until the legalization of
multiple
parties in the early 1990s), it played a role in state
security,
limited, however, by the poor quality of its personnel,
who were
typically unemployed youths. The JMPR's main tasks were
maintaining
party discipline and vigilance and providing information
to the
state. JMPR directors had arrest powers, which CADR
members also
exercised from time to time. CADR members could act alone
or in
support of local operations by the gendarmerie or Civil
Guard.
Municipal administrators sometimes called on CADR elements
to
perform in place of the often unresponsive gendarmes who
were part
of the FAZ. At the same time, like the members of Zaire's
other
security elements, the typically unpaid and untrained
young men of
the CADR frequently used their positions to extract money
and other
resources from the local citizenry. The total strength of
the CADR
was unknown, but its presence was widespread, and elements
of some
size probably existed in nearly every municipal region
prior to
1990.
Data as of December 1993
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