Joseph Kabila was sworn in on Wednesday as the first democratically elected president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) at a colourful ceremony attended by thousands of guests and seen by many as a possible turning point for the war-ravaged nation.
Africa’s youngest head of state at 35, Kabila raised his right hand before Supreme Court judges and pledged to ”uphold and defend the Constitution and … let myself be guided only by the general interest” of the country.
Kabila in November was proclaimed winner of the first free presidential poll held since independence from Belgium in 1960, after he headed an interim government, including his foes, to lead the nation out of war to democratic rule.
Nine African leaders came for the ceremony, including South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, chief architect of the peace accords that launched an arduous political transition overseen by the world’s biggest United Nations peacekeeping force.
”I, Joseph Kabila Kabange, … solemnly swear before God and the nation to uphold and defend the Constitution and laws, … to let myself by guided only by the general interest … to fulfil loyally and as a faithful servant of the people, the high duties conferred upon me,” said the dark-suited president.
Cannons fired salutes as the first president of the Supreme Court, Benoit Lwamba, gave Kabila the heraldic symbols of the republic and traditional chiefs from the vast country’s 11 provinces took turns to congratulate him.
The throng under bright awnings in the palace grounds included foreign heads of state or their representatives, Congolese politicians and civic leaders, and top UN and European Union officials.
Kabila first was made president early in 2001 after the assassination of his father, Laurent Kabila, and Kinshasa politicians looked to the son, then army chief in a country at war, to take the helm.
With the end of the 1998 to 2003 conflict and the withdrawal of foreign armies, Kabila took charge of a transitional regime including four vice-presidents. He now has the backing of a coalition majority in a newly reconstituted National Assembly.
The Supreme Court last week knocked down a legal challenge to the results of the October 29 second round of the presidential poll by rival candidate and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, who was absent from the ceremony.
The DRC is potentially one of Africa’s richest countries, harbouring 34% of the world’s cobalt reserves, 10% of copper reserves, and as yet unknown quantities of uranium, gold, wood, and oil.
With the planet’s fourth-largest estimated potential in hydroelectric power — more than 80 000MW — it could be one of the continent’s engines of economic development.
But if Kabila fails to rein in various armed movements in the east and heal political rifts that erupt into bloodshed, the DRC will remain stymied in sectarian conflict.
An estimated three million people in the sprawling nation, almost the size of Western Europe, have perished since 1998 through war, disease and outright starvation.
The neighbouring Congo’s Denis Sassou Nguesso, who currently chairs the African Union, was among other African leaders present, along with Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza, Omar Bongo of Gabon, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, Togo’s Faure Gnassingbe, Francois Bozize of the Central African Republic, Namibia’s Hifikepunye Pohamba and Angola’s Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
One of the biggest foreign delegations was that of Belgium, which ruled the country as colonial power until independence in 1960, led by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.
The UN, whose 17 600 peacekeepers are the largest UN force deployed anywhere in the world, was represented by Deputy Secretary General Jean-Marie Guehenno.
The EU, which has invested more than $800-million in the DRC over the last three years, sent its development commissioner Louis Michel.
Most of the country’s 60-million inhabitants live in crushing poverty, three-quarters subsisting on less than a dollar a day.
In his campaign, Kabila outlined five policy priorities: health, education, access to water, electricity supply and road construction. He has also pledged to reverse decades of corrupt and opaque mismanagement of the nation’s natural resources. — AFP
