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DR Congo President Kabila Shot Dead By Own Guard
KINSHASA (News Agencies) - Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Laurent Kabila was shot dead by one of his own bodyguards Tuesday, Belgium and France said after a reported coup attempt in the former Belgian colony.
Officials in Kinshasa made no public statement as to the fate or whereabouts of the president, but the army sealed the vast central African state off and appealed to the population to remain calm after heavy gunfire was heard around Kabila's official residence in the capital.
Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said that Kabila was "dead, killed by his own bodyguard," in a statement released by his spokesman Olivier Alsteens.
Michel's information came from two "very reliable" sources, Alsteens said, without identifying them.
The French foreign ministry later confirmed the statement, but gave no details except that the situation was again calm in Kinshasa, whose streets were deserted late Tuesday amid a government-imposed curfew and torrential rain.
Residents across the capital did not know of the president's death late Tuesday.
Alsteens said that Michel could not give any further details and said Brussels did not know who was currently in charge of the vast central African country.
In Kinshasa, one of Kabila's top military aides, Colonel Eddy Kapend, announced on state television just after the shooting that the country's air, river and land links had been closed by the army. He made no mention of the gunfire at Kabila's residence.
"To the army chief of staff, to commanders of ground, air and naval forces, and all regional military commanders, I order you to take charge of your units," Kapend said.
"While waiting for further orders, no guns shall be fired, for whatever reason," Kapend added.
Western diplomats in Kigali, the capital of neighboring Rwanda, said that Kabila - who ousted dictator Mobuto Sese Seko in a May 1997 rebellion - had been targeted in an attempted coup.
But DRC Interior Minister Gaetan Kakudji, who said the president himself had ordered a curfew be imposed on the capital, later implicitly denied the reports.
And in Brussels, the DRC's ambassador to Belgium, Albert Kisonga, said Kabila was indeed alive and still in control.
"Something happened, but I cannot say more for the moment, except that the president is alive. There has been no change of power," Kisonga said.
But the main group of rebels who have been fighting Kabila since an uprising in August 1998 accused Colonel Kapand himself, along with other top officers backing Kabila, of staging a coup to topple their boss.
Jean-Pierre Lola Lisanga, a spokesman for the Congolese Rally for Democracy said that the shooting earlier was a "putsch staged by officers close to Kabila."
Belgian and French foreign ministers were in contact Tuesday to examine ways of ensuring the safety of their nationals in the DRC, according to Alsteens.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine is in the Cameroon capital Yaounde for a Franco-African summit due to start Wednesday, which Kabila had been scheduled to attend.
Kabila, who seized power in 1997, has fought a rebellion backed by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi for last two and a half years.
Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola have supported Kabila's forces in the tangled war that has given free reign to business interests to exploit the mineral-rich DRC.
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