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DR Congo Officially Confirms Kabila Dead
KINSHASA (News Agencies) - President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) died Thursday, two days after being shot at his presidential palace in Kinshasa, officials said here as his son pressed ahead with governing the war-wracked central African nation.
"The Democratic Republic of Congo is in mourning and the government of national salvation has the deep pain and the unhappy task of announcing the death of president Laurent-Desire Kabila today, Thursday January 18, at 10:00 am (0900 GMT)," government spokesman and Information Minister Dominique Sakombi said.
The declaration ended two days of confusion created by Western and African states saying they believed Kabila was dead and Kinshasa officially denying that was so.
Kabila's body is on Saturday to be flown back from Zimbabwe, where he had been taken for medical treatment, the DRC ambassador to Harare, Kikaya Bin Karubi, said.
The passing of Kabila, an African strongman who developed a pariah status on the international stage, thrust the mineral-rich country into a new uncertainty after three and a half years of brutal civil war and nearly four decades of predatory rule under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
Sakombi did not clarify the circumstances of Kabila's shooting; saying only that the president had been victim of an "attack".
Reports following the incident suggested several bullets hit Kabila after a row erupted between him and several of his generals over their handling of the protracted war involving at least half a dozen African nations.
Sakombi said "every effort" had been made to save the life of Kabila, whom he described as "a committed patriot".
Kabila's son and the former head of the country's armed forces, Joseph Kabila, 32, who Wednesday was put in charge of the country, earlier Thursday met diplomats from Belgium, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, Sakombi said.
Sakombi called for the population to stay calm and said that the whole country would observe 30 days of mourning, that Monday and Tuesday next week would be public holidays, flags would fly at half-mast and that state radio and television broadcasts would be modified as a sign of respect of Kabila's death. He did not give any details of burial plans.
Sakombi also said the late leader had left a testament ordering the armed forces, police and security forces to respect discipline and to remain peaceful and calm, to protect the population" and to "kick out the aggressors out of the national territory," in reference to Rwandan- and Ugandan-backed opposition forces in the east of the country.
The head of a opposition alliance, Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Congo Liberation Front, said DRC forces bombed opposition positions in the north of the country late Thursday.
They have called for national dialogue and a new transition government.
Propping up Kabila's forces against the opposition have been Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia.
After the DRC government's announcement, Zimbabwe Defense Minister Moven Mahachi said his country would continue lending military support to the new government led by Kabila's son, Joseph. "We will help them to preserve their peace and we will help them as much as we can," the minister said in an interview with the U.S. television network CNN.
"We are also hoping that the rebels stop their fighting and actually come to negotiate with the new government," he said.
In Washington, before the DRC government announcement, the U.S. State Department condemned Kabila's slaying and urged all combatants in the DRC to redouble peace efforts.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the United States would be working with the new DRC head of state to bring peace, but declined to say whether Washington was pleased by the leadership succession.
The DRC's unrest began in mid-1998, a year after Kabila came to power following an eight-month insurgency he led across the vast country rich in diamonds, cobalt and gold.
Rebels hold most of the eastern half of the country and a large swathe in the north.
Shortly after Tuesday's attack on Kabila been announced, with former colonial power Belgium saying he had died of his wounds, the opposition called for a dialogue among the people in the DRC in the hope of seeing the cards of power reshuffled.
There had been little doubt as to his fate of Kabila in the minds of some 50 African leaders gathered early Thursday in the Cameroon capital Yaounde for the opening of a Franco-African summit.
They stood as one to pay tribute by observing a minute of silence when Togolese President Gnassingbe Eyadema invited them to do so "in memory of our dear brother Laurent Kabila".
Over the course of the day, news broadcasts showed General Joseph Kabila in uniform greeting members of the government, and then meeting diplomats introduced to him by his father's cabinet director and aide-de-camp, Georges Buse and Colonel Eddy Kapend.
It was not immediately certain how Joseph Kabila, who has not addressed the nation since taking power, will tackle the DRC's problems, in particular the crippling war that has gone on despite a ceasefire accord signed in Lusaka in 1999.
Laurent Kabila, a former self-styled Marxist, guerrilla fighter and businessman, had said himself that the war was swallowing up 80% of the DRC's resources.
Relief workers warn that undernourishment has spread relentlessly across the country; in Kinshasa, almost a third of children under five lack sufficient food.
More than one million people are estimated to have been displaced by the conflict in the country, called Africa's World War, which has killed at least 200,000 people so far.
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