Bernard Kolélas

Bernard Bakana Kolélas (12 June 1933 – 13 November 2009 ) was a Congolese politician and President of the Congolese Movement for Democracy and Integral Development (MCDDI). Kolélas was a long-time opponent of the single-party rule of the Congolese Labour Party (PCT), and after the introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s he was one of Congo-Brazzaville's most important political leaders. He placed second in the August 1992 presidential election, behind Pascal Lissouba; subsequently he was mayor of Brazzaville, the capital, during the mid-1990s, and he briefly served as Prime Minister of Congo-Brazzaville during the 1997 civil war. After rebel forces prevailed in the civil war, he lived in exile for eight years until an amnesty made it possible for him to return; he was then elected to the National Assembly in 2007.

Education and early political career

A native of Congo-Brazzaville's Pool Region, Kolélas was born at Mboloki (Mpayaka), located in the Pool's Kinkala District, in 1933. He attended primary and secondary school in the nearby administrative capital of Brazzaville. He joined the Union for the Defense of the Interests of Africans (UDDIA) in 1958. Under Fulbert Youlou, who was Congo-Brazzaville's first President, Kolélas worked for a time as Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1961. and founded an opposition newspaper, La Résistance.

MCDDI and URD

Kolélas later founded a political party, the MCDDI; its statutes were deposited at the Ministry of the Interior on 3 August 1989. In the June–July 1992 parliamentary election, he was elected to the National Assembly as the MCDDI candidate in Goma Tsé-Tsé constituency, located in the Pool Region. Kolélas then stood as the MCDDI candidate in the August 1992 presidential election, placing second. In the first round he won 20.32% of the vote, President Lissouba, seeking to secure his position and resolve the conflict by bringing his opponents into the government, appointed Kolélas as Prime Minister at the head of a government of national unity in September 1997. The government under Kolélas was composed of 41 members; although the rebel coalition loyal to Sassou Nguesso was offered some portfolios in the government, it rejected the offer.

Lissouba and Kolélas were ousted and forced into exile when forces loyal to Sassou-Nguesso captured Brazzaville on October 14, 1997. Ninja rebels loyal to Kolélas continued to fight for some time afterwards. In November 1998, Kolélas spurned a government offer of dialogue. Pro-Kolélas rebels unsuccessfully attempted to seize Brazzaville in December 1998, and Kolélas, who was in the United States at the time, claimed that his forces were effectively in control of the city, while suggesting that he might return home to lead the country. The government rejected Kolélas' claim and said that the army had the upper hand. A few days later, Kolélas described the rebellion as an uprising of the youth, and he said that it had only been defeated due to intervention by Angolan troops on the side of the government.

Exile and return

On May 4, 2000, Kolélas was sentenced to death in absentia by a Congolese court for illegal arrests, abductions, and rape. In October 2005, he returned to Congo from exile to attend the funeral of his wife, Jacqueline; Sassou Nguesso granted Kolélas a special amnesty for the occasion on humanitarian grounds, enabling him to visit. In the Bacongo district of Brazzaville, excitement led to clashes between his supporters and the police on October 13, immediately prior to his return. The National Assembly unanimously adopted a law granting an amnesty to Kolélas on November 23, 2005. In the subsequent 2007 parliamentary election, Kolélas was elected to the National Assembly as the MCDDI candidate in Goma Tsé-Tsé constituency; facing two challengers,

Reportedly suffering from Alzheimer's disease, Kolélas was hospitalized in Paris in late 2007. In 2009, he spent several months in Paris for medical treatment before dying there in the early hours of 13 November 2009 at the age of 76.