Government News: Top Stories

Failed Congo candidate claims death plot
by Eddy Isango

The Associated Press Translate This Article
27 March 2007

KINSASHA, Congo (AP) - A failed presidential candidate whom Congo's government accuses of attempting an insurrection claimed Monday he was targeted in an assassination plot that triggered a round of fighting, leaving more than 100 dead in the capital.

``Eleven o'clock in the morning the firing started. It was something well prepared,'' Jean-Pierre Bemba told The Associated Press by telephone from the South African Embassy in Kinshasa, where he has taken refuge since fighting first broke out Thursday. Bemba said two battalions of government troops surrounded his house before the firing started.

``It's political,'' Bemba said. ``Do you believe that someone who wants to organize an insurrection will keep his children and wife in town? It's nonsense. When the fighting started I was with my wife in my house and my children were at school.''

Thursday morning's shootout between Bemba's guards and government troops gave way to mortar fire that lasted through Friday night, when government forces regained control of the capital.

During the fighting, mortar rounds set fire to buildings, landing as far as 2 1/2 miles away in Brazzaville, the capital of neighboring Republic of Congo. Aid groups said more than 100 people were killed by the time calm returned Saturday.

The government of President Joseph Kabila has said government forces were responding to an attempt by Bemba's guards to take over part of the capital. The government has issued an arrest warrant for Bemba, and Kabila has condemned the violence as an attempted insurrection.

Bemba said he had ``no idea'' of a solution to the impasse.

Congo is a sprawling Central African country that was wracked by civil war and dictatorship before an October vote installed Kabila as its first freely elected president in more than four decades. Bemba was runner-up in the vote.

The latest violence came less than a week after Bemba's personal armed guard refused to disband as promised in an agreement with the new government, saying Bemba's safety was in danger. Bemba said he was scheduled to meet with the government to further discuss disbanding his force on the day the violence broke out.

Bemba said he has about 350 fighters in the country, 200 of them in the capital. That is far fewer than the 1,200 overall estimate given by Defense Minister Chikez Diemu and the 1,500 estimate provided by Bemba's spokesman in October.

``Do you organize an insurrection with 200 men?'' Bemba asked. Bemba, a former warlord who once commanded about 20,000 fighters, is now a senator in the newly formed government. He argued that the attack was an attempt to silence opposition figures.

``By trying to kill me, he sends a signal to all opponents in Congo that he can kill anyone who is opposed to him,'' Bemba said.

At a news conference Monday, Kabila demanded that Bemba face justice in Congo's courts. Bemba said his immunity as a senator should protect him from prosecution.

Mineral-rich Congo has been ravaged by years of dictatorship and civil war that have kept its people from profiting from its vast reserves of diamonds, gold and other resources. The nation the size of Western Europe has few roads, and little electricity outside major cities.

___

Associated Press writer Heidi Vogt contributed to this report from Dakar, Senegal.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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