The royal couple of the former occupying power must arrive this Tuesday afternoon in Kinshasa. According to the Belgian palace and the Congolese presidency, the two parties will talk about colonial past, diplomacy, politics, economy and security. King Philippe will also be accompanied by some members of the government. He will visit the capital then Lubumbashi and Bukavu.
After three postponements since 2020, the King of the Belgians flies away this Tuesday with Queen Mathilde for the DRC at the head of a delegation including in particular Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Secretary of State Thomas Dermineresponsible among other things for the restitution of Congolese heritage.
Kinshasa expects a lot from this visit postponed several times by the Covid and then the war in Ukraine, reports our correspondent in Kinshasa, Patient Ligodi, and which intervenes twelve years after that of Albert II, the father of Philippe. Félix Tshisekedi’s entourage believes that this is the fallout from the policy of openness that Kinshasa has been pursuing since the 2018 elections. He considers this visit to be an event with a strong symbolic content and hopes to derive maximum dividends from it.
Politically, Kinshasa expects the sovereign and the Belgian government to express a greater attachment to the DRC and to Congolese interests. Brussels has always been considered a stronghold of the Congolese diplomatic system. As such, Kinshasa would like the Kingdom of Belgium to carry more Congo’s voice on the international scene. Especially in this period marked by the Rwandan-Congolese crisis.
In the defense sector, Kinshasa wants to strengthen military cooperation with Brussels. Currently, experts from the Belgian army are in the province of Maniema where they train the 31st brigade of the FARDC, in particular in techniques for detecting and neutralizing improvised explosive devices.
Economically, the two countries are not satisfied with their trade volume. Kinshasa, for example, believes that Congolese diamonds are undervalued in eastern Dubai and hopes to redirect this trade to Antwerp.
For Bob Kabamba, professor of political science at the University, ” the essential ” will be about “ return of works of art plundered by Belgium during the colonial period and under Leopold II “.
► To read also: Visit of King Philippe to the DRC: “Building a future of brotherhood between the Congolese and Belgian peoples”
The royal program
Accompanied by Queen Mathilde and Prime Minister Alexandre De Croo, the King of the Belgians will be in the DRC for six days.
The Belgian king wanted to take his time to discover the realities of the DRC today and to make symbolic gestures. In Kinshasa for the first three days, Philippe II and Queen Mathilde will pay tribute to veterans. One of them, a centenarian, and therefore a soldier under Belgian colonization, will be decorated. At the brand new National Museum of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Belgian sovereign should hand over an object of art, probably a Congolese mask, left for Belgium under colonization. A foretaste of the restitutions of which the Belgian Parliament is in the process of adopting the ambitious legislative framework.
After them ” regret expressed two years ago by Philip II for the wounds inflicted under colonization, will the king pronounce an apology? His speech at the People’s Palace should in any case refer to the past.
Friday the royal couple will fly to Lubumbashi, the big economic city of the South, where youth and education will be in the spotlight. Last stop: Bukavu, to visit Doctor Mukwege, the man and Nobel Peace Prize winner, who repairs women victims of violence in the East, the region which is currently the focus of Congolese concern, with the return pro-Rwandan militias of the M23.
The many expectations of the population
RFI Special Envoy in Kinshasa, Claire Fages asked the inhabitants of the capital what they expected from this visit. Some Kinshasa people expect nothing from the Belgian sovereign, others want him to repair the misdeeds of colonization. This is the case of this 45-year-old telecom engineer. ” Reparations are needed, whether for the Lumumba family or for the Congolese people. And when the king arrives here in the Congo, he will have to apologize to the Congolese people for everything that Belgium has done to our compatriots. Regrets are not enough. »
Warming up Belgian-Congolese relations will also hopefully allow this official, in his sixties, the return of European investments in the DRC. “ The DRC’s relations with Belgium have been a bit up and down lately and we have an interest in seeing this normalize so that the country’s affairs can resume. We believe in Belgian investments and behind them, those of the entire European Union. »
Almost all the Kinshasa people questioned consider, however, that the priority is peace in the East. This clothing saleswoman makes a desperate plea: 1000 Congolese die every second. Tell them to end the war in the Congo first and we’ll be happy. »
The mediation of Belgium and even its military aid are therefore expected by the Congolese.
The people of Kinshasa expect a lot from this visit
■ Seen from Brussels
Philippe took his responsibilities
These five days of travel to the Congo are expected in Belgium in various ways, but this trip in particular puts the king himself in the spotlight, observes our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet.
Passionate about history and in particular that of his ancestors, Philippe took his responsibilities in the face of colonial and dynastic history by expressing his deepest regrets two years ago. King Philip expressly referred to the ” acts of violence and cruelty which occurred in the Congo during the personal reign of his great-great-great-uncle King Leopold II. He was uttering these terms on June 30, 2020, the sixtieth anniversary of the DRC’s independence and he should have been in Kinshasa on that day.
There is no doubt that in his mind this trip refers to the one made at the time by his uncle King Baudoin, to whom he was close. King Philippe’s speech this Wednesday in Kinshasa will certainly be a response to the unfortunate speech of his uncle during independence.
For the Belgian government, this trip could not have been delayed again because the presidential election in the DRC will take place in 2023 and Belgium must above all not appear to interfere in Congolese politics. For Belgian opinion, there is also a large part of the desire to settle a colonial past that is all the heavier since the personality of the colonizing King Leopold II was at the center of the claims linked in Belgium to the Black Lives Matter movement.