(PHOTO: A gun-downed Kuluna gangbanger washing in his own blood)
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About two weeks ago, Kinois saw a dramatic change in the way cops dealt with kuluna gangbangers throughout the communes of the Congolese capital.
(On the kuluna gangbangers, see my post of February 2010: http://alexengwete.blogspot.com/2010/02/kuluna-and-kuluneurs-in-kinshasa-low.html?m=1)
Whereas in the past, machete-wielding kuluneurs would go on rampages terrorizing entire neighborhoods as police officers cowered in containers reused as neighborhoods' police precincts, there were suddenly balaclava-clad gang unit cops confronting those gangbangers on their own turfs.
As these confrontations had an uncanny way of turning deadly--more than a dozen gangbangers were gun downed in the past couple of weeks--word quickly spread that the gang unit cops were extrajudicially executing kuluneurs.
These perceived extrajudicial killings of kuluneurs make Kinois cheer police on for the terrific job of ridding denizens of the bane of the "kuluna phenomenon."
And these days the much respected soukous star and peace ambassador Werrason is being vilified for suggesting that kuluneurs could just show up at his residence, lay down their machetes, and be forgiven.
"Why couldn't he come up with his brilliant peace initiative when kuluneurs were killing and maiming?" I heard a man fuming today. "I say, kill them all, to the last man!"
Yesterday, to straighten things out, Gen. Célestin Kanyama aka Esprit-de-mort (spirit of death)--the country's number two cop--held a small televised rally at a square in the eastern part of the capital city to showcase two dozen arrested kuluneurs and to explain what was going on.
Kinshasa police have launched a 3-month anti-kuluna so-called Operation "Likofi" (Lingala for knuckle-duster), Gen. Kanyama said.
Vindicating the point I made in that 2010 post that kuluna was a low-intensity insurgency, Gen. Kanyama equated kuluna with M23.
"M23 equals M-Kuluna!," he blared out to a cheering crowd of Kinois. "We'll deal with them the way we dealt with M23!"
It was laughable to hear Gen. Kanyama blaming the recent deaths of kuluneurs to the gangbangers themselves (dividing up loots gone awry) or to civilian vigilantes.
Be that as it may, the sprawling slums of Kinshasa were suddenly safe to live in; and to show their contentment residents displayed ostentatiously their jewelry and wads of dollars--all the while heaping praise on Jesus Christ and Gen. Esprit-de-Mort!
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PHOTO CREDITS: Via Twitter @ManyaRiche & @Mkasiala
