/ 22 February 1999

DRC LEADER DROPS ARMED STRUGGLE

FORMER rebel leader Arthur Zahidi Ngoma, who last week quit the Democratic Republic of Congo rebel movement, announced on Monday that he will continue to oppose President Laurent Kabila through a newly formed unarmed group.”We have set up with Congolese people abroad and within the DRC, the Union of Congolese for Peace (UCP),” said Ngoma, speaking by telephone from Paris.Ngoma was, until his resignation, the deputy leader of the armed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), the main rebel movement in the former Zaire.