OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kinshasa | Saturday
THE Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) new president, Joseph Kabila, has boosted hopes for an end to his country’s complex civil war, vowing in his inaugural address to work for peace – after which, he said, democratic elections would take place.
General Kabila took the oath of office on Friday, succeeding his father Laurent Kabila who was fatally shot by a bodyguard ten days earlier.
The new leader, in an address to the nation broadcast on radio and television, vowed to seek an end to the war in which troops from several other African nations are involved.
Troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe are supporting the DRC’s army in a war against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda, which has split this huge central African country in half. The fighting continues despite a peace agreement signed in Lusaka in mid-1999.
Once peace returns, he said, there will be “free and transparent elections to allow the people themselves to choose a leader to guide the destiny of this country.”
US President George W Bush earlier sent a clear signal of support to Kabila, sending him a letter just after he took the oath of office in which he addressed him as “Mr President” and offered condolences on the death of his father.
EU envoy to the Great Lakes region Aldo Ajello said the countries fighting in the DRC would prefer a peace deal to continued war in the wake of Laurent Kabila’s death.
Louis Michel, foreign minister of former colonial power Belgium, said that combatants Angola and Zimbabwe were both considering pulling their troops out of DR Congo. Both governments are likely to be “tempted to leave the Congo and the conflict,” said Michel.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni hinted that this might indeed be the case, asserting that his country had achieved its objectives here. Museveni said his troops might be withdrawn if other nations continued to accuse him of being in the former Zaire to exploit its natural resources.
Jean Pierre Bemba, chairman of the newly formed Congolese Liberation Front, which has united groups of Ugandan-backed Congolese rebels, said Kabila’s death could offer a chance to bring about peace through dialogue. – AFP