Ann Eveleth
Government lawyers this week secured their first victory in a series of legal battles over the fate of three allies of the late Zairean dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
Johannesburg High Court Judge Meyer Joffe on Tuesday rejected a bid by Mobutu’s former national police commander, General Kpama Baramoto, defence minister Mudima Mavua and special army commander General Ngbale Nzimbi to be declared political refugees.
The Department of Home Affairs usually decides on refugee status, but the men asked the court to take over this function because they said the department had clearly already decided to deport them.
Immigration officials arrested the men in December when they returned from a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo where they met opponents of new ruler, Laurent Kabila, to consider whether to join armed resistance against him. The men, who claim they refused to join the resistance, were released in mid-January.
They will now have to submit reasons to the refugee affairs committee of home affairs backing their claim to be political refugees. In terms of international protocols accepted by South Africa, the committee may refuse them recognition only if they are f ound to have “committed a serious non-political crime outside South Africa prior to their arrival; carried or smuggled arms or ammunition into Sou th Africa; or if they are social or economic refugees”.
In another development, a senior representative in South Africa of Kabila’s main opponent, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), Dr Nakeya Kimwana, said this week that he hoped the men would return to the Congo to join a revolt against Kabi la.
UDPS leader Etienne Tshisekedi, currently under house arrest, was Mobutu’s main opponent before Kabila’s whirlwind revolution in late 1996. But Kimwana, through daily attendance of the court proceedings, has demonstrated an extraordinarily close relation ship with the Mobutu generals. His comments follow UDPS threats to change from political opposition to more violent means.
It resurrects the possibility that supporters of Tshisekedi may be moving towards a military alliance with Mobutu’s former elite.