DR Congo parliamentarian joins M23 rebels

Roger Lumbala, an opposition parliamentarian who was elected on the ticket of the Congolese Rally for National Democracy (DR Congo/National), has joined the March 23 (M23) movement, a rebel movement operating in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), M23 officials said yesterday.“Comrade Lumbala is now a member of M23, he is here with us. Lumbala understands that the revolution being launched by M23 is identical to his revolution that he has been engaged in against the regime of President Joseph Kabila since the rigged elections of Nov. 28, 2011,” said Amani Kabasha, M23’s deputy communication officer. He noted that Lumbala had not abandoned his parliamentary privileges to go to M23 for positions.Kabasha announced that in the coming days, five other senior Congolese politicians living in Europe and the US. will be joining M23.“If I am here, it’s first because I am persuaded and convinced that it’s my brothers who are fighting for among other things, the re-establishment of the truth from ballot box, something that Etienne Tshisekedi has been fighting for as the elected president of DR Congo,” Lumbala said when he spoke to Xinhua on phone. Investigations by the Congolese interior ministry indicate that Lumbala, an opposition member of parliament who supports the opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, was involved in a plot to overthrow the government in Kinshasa. Xinhua