Article

2006-08-23 Africa Subsaharan

Gun battles between forces loyal to Congo's president, Joseph Kabila, and those of his main election rival, Jean-Pierre Bemba, broke out for a second day yesterday, with heavy fire reported outside the latter's home as he met senior foreign diplomats inside. A British envoy and William Swing, the head of the United Nations' 17,500-strong peacekeeping mission, were among those in Mr Bemba's residence in the capital, Kinshasa, the UN said. The UN spokesman, Jean-Tobias Okala, said all the envoys were safe after 150 UN troops in 20 armoured personnel carriers took them from Mr Bemba's home hours after they arrived for a meeting. Mr Bemba's political party said his rival's guards had attacked the house in the north-east of the city, drawing return fire, but not before Mr Bemba's helicopter had caught fire inside the compound.

Um. The helo "caught fire." Okaaaaaay...

A military official confirmed that Mr Kabila's special presidential guards had been battling members of the military drawn from Mr Bemba's insurgent ranks for a second day. He claimed Mr Bemba's guards provoked the battle. Mr Kabila, 35, failed to win an outright majority after the first round of Congo's historic elections on 30 July - he had 45 per cent of the vote against Mr Bemba's 20 per cent - but he called the results "a great victory" as the country braced itself for a run-off between the two men on 29 October. The 31 other candidates were eliminated after the first round. The president appeared on television late on Sunday to thank voters and call for calm after the evening's violence. "To all of you who chose me, I say thank you ... it's a great victory," he said.

Congo's first elections in more than four decades are meant to select a legitimate leader to knit together the country's 58 million people and end years of corrupt rule and war that have roiled this vast nation and wider Central Africa. Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, whose peacekeeping troops are helping to oversee the voting process, hailed the elections as "a historic milestone in the peace process in the country". He urged the Congolese parties and candidates to "abide by the electoral law in the resolution of any disputes related to the electoral process" and "to accept and respect the final results of the elections".

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Mr Kabila, who helped to end Congo's 1996-2002 war as leader of the transitional government, has drawn his greatest support in the east of the country, where he was born. Mr Bemba, who led a rebel faction in Congo's wars and is now a vice-president in the national unity government, won the backing of most of the electorate in overcrowded Kinshasa, but he accused his rival of vote-rigging. "Kabila's party tampered with ballots and increased Kabila's score in the east. But, despite the irregularities, they could not win the vote," Dully Sesanga, a spokesman for Mr Bemba's party, said.

Mr Bemba and Azarias Ruberwa, another leading candidate among the 33 standing in the race, have alleged fraud in the first-round vote and said they might contest the results. Nineteen of the lesser candidates have also banded together to demand a rerun of the election. A spokesman for Congo's electoral commission said political parties could now submit their complaints to the country's supreme court, which will pronounce the final first-round election results before 31 August. International observers identified irregularities in the run-up to the vote and on election day, but many groups say they saw nothing to call into question the results' validity.

UN officials have called for calm in recent days and Congo's media regulatory body banned three channels from the airwaves for showing images that it ruled were meant to incite Congolese. Under the deals to end Congo's wars, former rebel fighters were able to join the security forces, but many retain loyalty to their former leaders. Mr Kabila's red beret-wearing presidential security forces have in the past battled members of the military drawn from Mr Bemba's insurgent forces

Posted by Seafarious 2006-08-23 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11139 views since 2007-05-07] Top

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