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

U.N. peacekeepers in armoured vehicles patrolled Congo's capital Kinshasa on Wednesday (August 23) as a truce that ended three days of fighting between rival political factions appeared to be holding. The city had been shaken by artillery, rocket and machine-gun duels since Sunday (August 20) between President Joseph Kabila's presidential guard and soldiers loyal to his election rival, former rebel chief Jean-Pierre Bemba. The fighting, which killed at least 10 people and wounded many more, followed an official announcement that Democratic Republic of Congo's landmark elections held on July 30 would require a deciding run-off vote between Kabila and Bemba. After rushing in extra European Union peacekeepers, U.N. and foreign mediators on Tuesday (August 22)brokered a truce between Kabila and Bemba's forces, and witnesses said Kinshasa's centre was calm on Wednesday (August 23) amid signs that life was starting get back to normal. White-painted U.N. armoured vehicles patrolled the streets and guarded key intersections, some taxis were running and streets sellers were out hawking bread and mobile phone cards. Several buildings lining the central boulevard displayed windows shot out by gunfire. Four dead bodies were also lying by the road near the Supreme Court. The fighting has raised fears about security for the scheduled Oct. 29 run-off vote between Kabila and Bemba, one of the vice-presidents in the country's transitional government. The U.N. has its largest peacekeeping force in the world -- more than 17,000-strong -- in the Congo which ensured generally peaceful voting in the July 30 elections, the first free polls in the vast, former Belgian colony in more than four decades. U.N. troops were also guarding the riverside home of Bemba, which was attacked by Kabila's soldiers on Monday. Congolese troops loyal to Bemba also protected the residence. Only sporadic gunfire was heard overnight as police attempted to control outbreaks of looting in some neighbourhoods. Some looters could also be seen carrying off electrical goods and furniture in central Kinshasa. Some aides to Kabila and Bemba are calling for the date of the run-off vote to be brought forward. 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 a 1998-2003 war sparked a humanitarian crisis that killed more than 4 million people. But they have underlined deep political and ethnic divisions.

ITN Source | August 24, 2006

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