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DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Kabila assassinated
Reports that President Laurent-Desire Kabila had been assassinated in an apparent coup attempt in Kinshasa on Tuesday reached IRIN on the same day. The first official report of the incident came in the form of a statement broadcast over DRC state radio on Wednesday by Communications Minister Dominique Sakombi, who said Kabila had survived an assassination attempt and had been flown out of the country for medical treatment. Earlier that day, the former colonial power, Belgium, said Kabila was dead and stuck by its report. Also on Wednesday, the DRC minister delegate for defence, Godefroid Tcham'lesso, who was on a visit to Tripoli, said on Libyan television that Kabila had been killed by one of his bodyguards. "He was airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in the [Kinshasa] city centre," Tcham'lesso said. "He was said to have fought death for about two hours before he died." Meanwhile, the DRC authorities named Major-General Joseph Kabila, the president's son, as acting head of state.
Reaction from from Kabila's opponents in the DRC conflict was muted, with Rwanda, Uganda and the three main rebel groups stressing the need now to push ahead with implementation of the Lusaka peace accord.
Not until Thursday night did the DRC authorities officially announce the death of President Laurent-Desire Kabila. A statement read over Congolese state television by Information Minister Dominique Sakombi said Kabila died "on Thursday 18 January 2001 at 10:00 [a.m. local time]". In the long eulogy to the late president, Sakombi announced a 30-day mourning period and declared Monday 22 January and Tuesday 23 January - the day of Kabila's funeral - public holidays. He urged the security forces to stay calm and disciplined and "defend the integrity of the DRC [and] cast away the aggressors from the national territory".
Kabila's body will be flown back from Harare, Zimbabwe, to Lubumbashi in Kabila's native Katanga Province for a private ceremony, before being taken to Kinshasa for a state funeral next week.
Speaking on the BBC on Friday morning, Zimbabwean Defence Minister Moven Mahachi denied Kabila had died in Zimbabwe, as claimed by the DRC authorities. He said Kabila had died in Kinshasa after being shot by one of his bodyguards on Tuesday, and the body was flown out of the country so that the DRC authorities had time to decide on the next course of action. [For more details, refer to a series of separate reports issued by IRIN between 16 and 19 January]
DRC: Renewed fighting in Bunia
Heavy fighting broke out in the northeastern DRC town of Bunia on Friday morning, UN sources told IRIN. Fighters from the ethnic Lendu-Ngiti community attacked the town with heavy weapons around 05:00 local time (02:00 GMT), including the airport and radio station. The situation has since calmed down after a Ugandan military helicopter managed to open fire on Lendu positions. The renewed fighting between the rival Lendu and Hema communities in Ituri province - whose capital is Bunia - comes just after rebel leaders signed an agreement on forming a joint movement, the Congolese Liberation Front (CLF). The deal, brokered in Kampala, Uganda, names Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Gbadolite-based Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) as president of the new group, with Ernest Wamba dia Wamba of the Bunia-based Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML) as his deputy. Wamba, however, has refused to sign the accord, which effectively "demotes" him, local observers said. [For more details, see separate IRIN story of 19 January]
As humanitarian organisations tried to assess the impact of an outbreak of fighting in Ituri earlier this month, it became clear that at least 3,500 people had sought refuge over the border in Uganda. Humanitarian workers on the Ugandan side of the border confirmed that members of the agriculturalist Lendu ethnic community attacked their pastoralist Hema compatriots, forcing them to flee in all directions. [For full story see separate IRIN item of 15 January, headlined "Relief workers scramble to assess Ituri situation"].
DRC: Civilians reportedly killed in Pweto bombing
Six civilians were killed and many others injured after DRC government forces bombed Pweto town in the southeastern province of Katanga, Reuters news agency on Sunday quoted Rwandan military officials as saying. "About 20 bombs were dropped on Pweto on Saturday by a Russian-built Antonov aircraft," the report quoted Colonel Charles Kayonga, defence adviser to Rwandan President Paul Kagame, as saying. The Rwandan-backed Congolese rebel group Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) said there had been "intense bombings" of its positions in Pweto and its surroundings for about a week, Deutsche Presse Agentur reported. In a separate statement, the RCD said that Congolese government forces, Rwandan militia forces and Burundi Hutu rebels had attacked RCD-Rwandan army forces 30 km to the south of Pweto, but were repulsed "with heavy losses", Reuters added.
BURUNDI: Government waiting for new Kinshasa government policy
The Burundi government says it is "a bit too early" to discuss what direction the recently launched "close-working relationship" with the late DRC President Kabila would take following his assassination. "We are expecting Kinshasa to set up the new government and thereafter know what their policy towards the initiative will be," Burundi government spokesman Luc Rukingama told IRIN on Friday. "Our hope is that the initiative would continue so as to restore the much-needed peace in the region," he said. "We hope that our government and those of countries in the Great Lakes region will support and help us continue with the initiative for the sake of peace," Rukingama added.
Burundi: US welcomes meeting between Buyoya and FDD leader
The US has welcomed the meeting between Burundi President Pierre Buyoya and Hutu rebel leader Jean-Bosco Ndayikengurukiye on 9 January as a move towards the cessation of fighting in the Great Lakes region. "We hope that this meeting will encourage further dialogue between the Burundian government and the Front pour le defence de la democratie (FDD) to help bring an end to the violence in Burundi," according to a State Department press release on 12 January. The Buyoya- Ndayikengurukiye meeting should add important impetus to the efforts being made by peace facilitator Nelson Mandela to launch ceasefire negotiations, the US added.
Subsequently, the internal wing of the opposition FRODEBU party, led by Augustin Nzojibwami, also welcomed the talks between Buyoya and Ndayikengurukiye, the Burundian agency Net Press reported on Monday. "FRODEBU [Nzojibwami wing] encourages and welcomes the move undertaken by the Burundian government in Libreville, Gabon, with the aim of negotiating a ceasefire, and exhorts both groups to press forward," the group stated in an official statement released on Monday, as quoted by Net Press. "A peace agreement without a ceasefire will not bring peace to Burundi," the statement said.
BURUNDI: Plenary session of IMC opens in Arusha
The plenary session of the first substantive meeting of the Implementation Monitoring Committee (IMC) following up Burundi's peace agreement opened on Wednesday in the northern Tanzanian town of Arusha. "Consultations were going on Wednesday and there was not much, yet, to report about it," a diplomatic source told IRIN. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Special Representative to the Great Lakes region, Ambassador Berhanu Dinka, called on members at the opening of the session "not to disappoint people's hopes", the independent Hirondelle news agency reported. "The people of Burundi, many of whose lives have been destroyed or made meaningless by years of violence and war, are waiting to see the peace dividend now that the Arusha agreement has been signed," he said.
"We should therefore strive not to disappoint the expectations of the international community and, more importantly, that of the Burundian people, who are desperately seeking a return to peace and stability in their country," Dinka added. He said that since IMC's inception on 27 November 2000, there had been "several important developments" regarding Burundi, notably, "generous donor pledges" at a Paris conference and "encouraging developments" on ceasefire talks between the Burundi government and dissident Hutu rebels. The 29-member IMC is composed of representatives of the 19 Burundian signatories to the peace agreement, six members of civil society in Burundi and one representative each from the UN, OAU, the Great Lakes region and the donor community. The current meeting hopes to adopt draft rules of procedure, nominate representatives to the executive council and draw up an implementation timetable.
RWANDA: Kagame commends Tanzania for peace efforts
President Paul Kagame on Tuesday expressed his appreciation of the efforts of the Tanzanian government in securing peace in the Great Lakes region. "We appreciate the central role of the Tanzanian leadership in returning peace to the region," the Rwandan News Agency (RNA) quoted him as saying. Kagame praised President Benjamin Mkapa's effort to understand the basis of conflicts within the region. "In order to solve a conflict, you do not simply wish that there be peace... You must seek to understand the basis of the conflict in order to solve it, by digging deep to the root cause of the conflict, because that puts you in a better position to provide answers to the various aspects of the problem and eventually enables a solution to the conflict," he added. Tanzania has maintained a neutral stance within the turbulence in the Great Lakes region.
RWANDA: "Genocide widows" called on to testify
Danielle Mukandori, president of the association of Rwandan genocide widows (AVEGA) has urged its members to testify before the popular justice trials known as 'gacaca', which are due to begin trying alleged genocide perpetrators, the PanAfrican News Agency (PANA) reported on Sunday. Speaking on Saturday in Kigali during ceremonies marking the sixth anniversary of the association, Mukandori said that only justice could "console and reconcile genocide victims with society", the agency reported.
Meanwhile, AVEGA estimated that 66 percent of genocide widows were living with HIV/AIDS, the RNA reported on 12 January. Mukandori said a good number of women who were raped during the genocide were infected with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including HIV/AIDS. Sylvie Barakagwira, charged with justice and information in AVEGA, criticised the international community for "providing treatment and taking care of genocide perpetrators [while] neglecting genocide victims," RNA added. Barakagwira said the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the Rwandan government should speed up genocide trials and ensure that victims were compensated.
UGANDA: One new Ebola case in Gulu District
One new confirmed case of Ebola was detected in Gulu District as of 16 January, a WHO disease outbreak report said on Wednesday. It said the person was a "close contact" of the patient who died on 4 January. The cumulative total number of cases was now 396 and 150 deaths in this district. In Masindi District, however, no new cases had been reported since 18 December 2000. The cumulative total number of cases remained 27 cases and 19 deaths. "WHO recommends no special restrictions on travel or trade to or from Uganda," the statement noted.
EAST AFRICA: Annan welcomes creation of EAC
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Tuesday welcomed the creation of the new association of East African countries, calling the newly established regional body a "building block" for a future African Economic Community (EAC). "The UN supports the strong commitment of African countries to multilateralism, and initiatives such as the EAC that strengthen Africa's capacity to meet the challenges of globalisation," a spokesman for the quoted the Secretary-General as saying in his statement. Noting that the demands of a rapidly changing international economic environment required new responses, Annan wished the EAC "all success", the statement said.
The EAC, which comprises of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, is the latest of many efforts of groups of African countries to integrate their economies more effectively and to collaborate more actively in the design and implementation of their economic and social policies.
Nairobi, 19 January 2001
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