Nguza Karl-I-Bond

Jean de Dieu Nguza Karl-I-Bond (* 1938 ; † July 27, 2003 in Kinshasa ) was a Congolese politician.

Political career

Karl-I-Bond came from Katanga and for a period of around 20 years was alternately part of the government of the long-standing authoritarian President Mobutu Sese Seko , his staunch opponents or was in exile .

From 1972 to 1974, 1976/1977 and 1979/1980 he was Foreign Minister of what was then Zaire. In 1977 he was sentenced to death for high treason , but was then pardoned to life imprisonment. His imprisonment ended in 1979. He was rehabilitated and reinstated. He became Prime Minister for the first time on August 27, 1980. His brief term ended on April 23, 1981. At that time he belonged to the unity party Mouvement Populaire de la Révolution (MPR). Karl-I-Bond went into exile in Belgium and tried to present himself as an alternative to Mobutu, whose government was also considered corrupt and ineffective at the time . In 1982 he founded the opposition group Front congolais pour le rétablissement de la democracie (FCP) in Belgium . In 1985 he returned to his homeland and was appointed ambassador to the USA the following year .

After the approval of other parties in 1990, he was the founder and chairman of the opposition party Union des fédéralistes et des républicains indépendants (UFERI). When Mobutu came under pressure from the poor economic situation and rebellions in some provinces, he reappointed Karl-I-Bond as prime minister, the fifth in 1991 alone. Karl-I-Bond's second term lasted from November 25, 1991 to November 15, 1991. August 1992. In early 1992, Karl-I-Bond suspended the national conference that was supposed to draft a new constitution. International pressure resulted in the re-establishment of the conference in April 1992.

Last years

After his release, there were clashes between the Lunda , to which he belonged, and the Luba , to which his successor Étienne Tshisekedi was one . Karl-I-Bond continued to be an important player in the inner-Congolese conflicts. In 1994 his health deteriorated and he handed over the management of UFERI to his wife. The state dissolved further in the years that followed, until Mobutu went into exile at the end of a civil war in May 1997. After Laurent-Désiré Kabila came to power , Karl-I-Bond went into exile in South Africa . After a few years he returned and died in Kinshasa.

Web links

• Cabinet lists 1960 to 1990 (French)
• History of the Congo until 1999 at asylumlaw.org (English)