MONDAY, 5.30PM:
CONGOLESE President Laurent Kabila put off a visit to his closest ally, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni, on Monday morning, while he struggled to halt clashes between his own soldiers in Kinshasa.
The armed clashes began on Thursday, resulting in at least 20 deaths, and have included gunfights inside army barracks and the presidential palace grounds. Although outsiders continue to be mystified as to the causes, they may be related to the arrest for “disciplinary reasons” of the youthful General Anselme Masasu Mindaga, 27, a hero of the struggle to unseat ex-dictator Mobutu.
Masasu appears to have a strong grassroots backing, and his supporters have attacked other soldiers in retaliation and are reported to be planning striked in his home region of South Kivu, in the east.
Although the official reason for Kabila’s failure to turn up in Uganda is pressure of work, officials in Kinshasa privately say he is unlikely to leave the country for some time until he has settled the problem with his soldiers.
The Kabila government has banned all local radio stations from using material from foreign broadcasters, and prevented stations from providing FM signals for Radio France Internationale, Voice of America and the BBC. Local journalists have also been given an ambiguously worded warning against supplying reports to foreign media.
Last week, ten journalists were seized and whipped by soldiers for attending an opposition news conference.