Chinese become targets in DR Congo riots

KINSHASA: Clashes between Democratic Republic of Congo police and political protestors that left some 40 people dead last week also revealed the level of hostility towards the Chinese in the capital Kinshasa.
“Congolese, please” implored a sign in one store window, hoping it would be spared by the marauding protesters who attacked and looted around 50 Chinese-owned stores in the gritty, teaming Kinshasa neighbourhoods of Ngaba and Kalamu.
Other stores displayed the message “Ya bino moko” -- “it belongs to you, too” in the local Lingala language -- in a bid to discourage the rioting demonstrators who shattered windows, broke down doors and picked shelves clean in nearby shops owned by Chinese nationals.
“We’ve got a printing shop and spare parts store here, but nothing was touched besides the Chinese store,” said a 37-year-old businessman who owns dozens of business premises in the area.
According to rights groups, around 40 people have died over the past week in protests ostensibly against a proposed bill that could extend President Joseph Kabila’s hold on power in the vast African nation.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Saturday that security forces used excessive force during the protests and then tried to remove the evidence.
The advocacy group said it had confirmed 36 dead in protests in the capital Kinshasa, 21 of whom were fatally shot by security forces, and four dead in the eastern city of Goma.
The government has put the death toll at 12.
The political demonstrations, confrontations with police and subsequent rioting targeting Chinese entrepreneurs may be rooted in the same popular disenchantment with President Kabila and the power base he rules from.
Though the protests primarily opposed a change to electoral law that would allow Kabila to remain in office beyond 2016 -- sidestepping a constitutional prohibition of running for office again -- the rioters’ targets appeared to have been influenced by the government’s decision to boost economic ties with China.
Gigantic contracts between Kinshasa and Beijing signed in 2007 and 2008 gave Chinese companies the right to operate many of mineral-rich DR Congo mines in exchange for developing the country’s road system and other infrastructure -- deals Western nations denounced as unfair.
As a result, some observers say, when the protests opposing Kabila’s effort to retain power in the impoverished country turned to rioting, the focus fell on Chinese businesses.
Thousands of Chinese workers have come to DR Congo to provide labour for the projects covered by those contracts, many in Katanga in the country’s south-eastern mining centre.