{"id":14415,"date":"2012-09-09T04:01:29","date_gmt":"2012-09-09T02:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/09\/top-drc-opposition-figure-seeks-asylum-from-s-africa-in-burundi\/"},"modified":"2012-09-09T04:01:29","modified_gmt":"2012-09-09T02:01:29","slug":"top-drc-opposition-figure-seeks-asylum-from-s-africa-in-burundi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/top-drc-opposition-figure-seeks-asylum-from-s-africa-in-burundi\/","title":{"rendered":"Top DRC opposition figure seeks asylum from S.Africa in Burundi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Political chaos threatens President Kabila&#8217;s rule<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Opposition figure has been in hiding after treason charge<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* U.N. report accuses Rwanda of backing eastern conflict<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Jonny Hogg<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>KINSHASA, Sept 8 (Reuters) &#8211; A top opposition figure in the<br \/>\nDemocratic Republic of Congo wanted by the government on treason<br \/>\ncharges is seeking asylum in the South African embassy in<br \/>\nneighbouring Burundi, a spokesman for the Congolese government<br \/>\nsaid on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The government accuses Roger Lumbala, a Congolese MP and<br \/>\nformer rebel, of helping Rwanda support a rebellion in eastern<br \/>\nCongo that has deepened political divisions in the capital<br \/>\nKinshasa, where the government and the opposition accuse each<br \/>\nother of fanning the flames of the distant war.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The worsening political chaos threatens to undermine<br \/>\nPresident Joseph Kabila&#8217;s ability to push through reforms in the<br \/>\ncountry &#8211; a potential mining and oil giant &#8211; after his<br \/>\nreelection in flawed polls last year.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lambert Mende, a spokesman for the Congolese government,<br \/>\nsaid Lumbala had been trying to win asylum at the South African<br \/>\nembassy in Bujumbura, the Burundian capital, and had evaded<br \/>\narrest by Burundian security forces whom Kinshasa had asked to<br \/>\ndetain him.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re convinced he is in a group who are helping the<br \/>\nRwandans in North Kivu,&#8221; Mende said, referring to the province<br \/>\nwhere the M23 rebels operate.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Political chaos threatens President Kabila&#8217;s rule * Opposition figure has been in hiding after treason charge * U.N. report accuses Rwanda of backing eastern conflict By Jonny Hogg KINSHASA, Sept 8 (Reuters) &#8211; A top opposition figure in the Democratic Republic of Congo wanted by the government on treason charges is seeking asylum in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-14415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}