11 June 1997 The Washington Post

Congolese in U.S. Cast Wary Look Home
For Exiles in Area, Kabila Regime Not Living Up to Expectations

By Pamela Constable

Washington Post Staff Writer

Though employed by Sutton Place Gourmet in McLean, Kalala Kalao, left, and Tshibangu Kabamba believe they have work to do in their native Congo.

It may not have meant much to customers at the Sutton Place Gourmet in McLean when Mobutu Sese Seko, the longtime dictator of Zaire, finally fled from power last month as rebel forces swept toward the African country's capital. But to two sales clerks at the suburban food boutique, the news was momentous .

" We had all been praying for this to happen for so long. I just wish I could have been there to see it," said Kalala Kalao, 30, a former journalist in Zaire, renamed the Democratic Republic of Congo .

Kalao, who said he was imprisoned and beaten for writing articles critical of Mobutu's army, fled to the United States in 1993 and was granted political asylum. His co-worker in McLean, Tshibangu Kabamba, 36, a former auditor and mine union leader, was admitted to the United States as a refugee two years later.

"We were forced to leave because of our convictions," Kabamba said. " Now we want to go back and help the country rise again."

Once successful professionals, the two men are paid $7.60 an hour these days stacking apples and squeezing orange juice, and live in modest apartments in Arlington with their families. They are among an estimated 400 Congolese in the Washington area, many of whom have watched developments abroad with growing apprehension .

Kalao and Kabamba said their first thoughts after Mobutu's May 16 departure was that soon they could return and put their educations to use in their liberated homeland. Barely three weeks later, however, their jubilation has been dampened by the Mobutu ‑ like actions of the country's new leader, President Laurent Kabila .

Although the triumphant rebel commander has pledged to hold elections within two years, Kabila has banned political parties, protest demonstrations and even miniskirts. There are persistent allegations of atrocities by rebel troops. And exiles say they fear Kabila is more eager to please his military allies in Rwanda and Uganda than his own people .

" Everyone supported Kabila because they wanted to oust the dictator, but now he is playing with fire," Kalao said yesterday as he and Kabamba arranged a display of fresh fruit at the store. "If he is [democratic], he must let people speak out and spread the power. No one wants Zaire to become someone else 's colony again."

Deogratias Symba, 52, a veteran opposition activist who lives in Adams ‑ Morgan, recently returned from six months in Africa, where he helped organize Angolan troops allied with Kabila's rebel movement. Yet Symba, whose small apartment is a frequent gathering place for other exiles, also has soured on Congo's new leaders.

" We did not fight to establish another dictatorship; we fought to end it and create a democracy," he said. " We must give Kabila time to prove himself, but if he shows signs of becoming another Mobutu, we will never allow that to happen. "

Last week, a Congolese exile group called Rally for a New Society held a news conference in Washington to protest what it said are "extremely troubling" and authoritarian actions by Kabila. Alafuele Kalala, 43, a biophysicist at the National Institutes of Health who heads the group, appealed to Kabila to open his government to other political parties — and commit himself to human rights .

U.S. officials are pressing Kabila to establish a democratic system of government. But they also say he needs time to adjust to civilian rule and that his economically devastated country needs a break from divisive politics.

Those arguments, however, ring hollow to many Congolese in this area. Opposition exiles as well as some who were sympathetic to the Mobutu regime worry that foreign forces and minority ethnic groups are wielding too much influence on Kabila.

" You don't give a dictator time, because he only uses it to consolidate power," said Libambu Schiller, who heads an emigrant group based in Arlington and is a relative of a former Mobutu aide.

" We don't need to have elections tomorrow, but we need a democratic process to begin, and instead it's already been aborted. "

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