DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Police remove bodies of victims of fighting between rival political factions in Kinshasa as truce holds.

A truce ending clashes between followers of Congo's presidential election rivals brought a tense calm to Kinshasa on Wednesday (August 23) and diplomats said more confidence building steps were needed to avoid further violence. U.N. and European Union peacekeepers patrolled the sprawling riverside capital to enforce a U.N.-brokered agreement reached on Tuesday (August 22) between President Joseph Kabila's military commanders and fighters loyal to Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba. Kabila and Bemba's camps have blamed each other for the violence, saying their fighters were responding to attacks. U.N. military personnel held meetings with representatives of the two rivals and went out on joint patrols on verification and security missions around Kinshasa in a bid to uphold the truce and stop the gunfight. "We are here to verify that any of the military involved in the troubles last night have disarmed and returned to their quarters," said the U.N. Lt.Col. in charge Mamadou Sane. The feuding factions agreed to end three days of artillery, rocket and machine-gun duels which began on Sunday (August 20) when electoral officials announced the two men would contest a presidential election run-off in October. The clashes, which killed at least 10 people and wounded many more, marred what had otherwise been remarkably peaceful historic elections in Democratic Republic of Congo on July 30. These were the first free polls in the vast, war-ravaged former Belgian African colony in more than four decades. "People voted in a peaceful way. Now everyone has to respect the arrangements made and the instructions given by the troops deployed in the capital," said William Lacy Swing, Special Envoy of the U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. Kinshasa showed some signs of getting back to normal on Wednesday, although looting and sporadic gunfire were reported in some neighbourhoods and residents remained on edge as French Air Force helicopters clattered overhead. But fearing possible further violence, expatriates and locals rushed to get home early from the centre of town. The U.N., which has its biggest peacekeeping force in the world in Congo, and other foreign mediators have urged Kabila and Bemba to meet in person to settle the armed feuding. "We are appealing to president Kabila and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba to remember that they are still in office. They are not simply presidential candidates, they are in charge of the State. Thus they are can not violate their mandates and expose the population to being killed in this manner," said Azarias Ruberwa, Vice President of the DR Congo in charge of Defence and Security. Kabila's spokesman Kudura Kasongo said tensions were still too raw to be able to predict what the next moves would be. The fighting has raised fears about security for the run-off vote, scheduled for October 29. The more than 17,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission was boosted for the July 30 elections by a smaller EU force of around 1,000 soldiers, backed by standby units in Gabon. U.N. troops in sandbagged positions guarded the riverside home of Bemba, which Kabila's soldiers attacked on Monday (August 21). Kabila, who assumed the presidency when his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001, gained 44.81 percent in the July 30 poll, under the more than 50 percent needed to win outright. Bemba came second with 20.03 percent. The elections were meant to draw a line under a decade of conflict in the former Zaire, where the 1998-2003 war sparked a humanitarian crisis that has killed more than 4 million people.

ITN Source | August 24, 2006

Tags:. .swing. .population. .expose. .clashes. .remarkably