DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: Joseph Kabila's rival in historic election takes to the streets in Kinshasa, as truce holds.

International peacekeepers warned political factions in Congo on Thursday (August 24, 2006) they would intervene to enforce a fragile truce, after gun battles in Kinshasa this week threatened to derail historic elections. European Union and U.N. peacekeepers mounted joint patrols on the streets of the sprawling riverside capital after a deal on Tuesday (August 22) ended three days of clashes between President Joseph Kabila's military commanders and troops loyal to Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba. An uneasy tranquillity reigned on Thursday (August 24) on Kinshasa's streets, despite a demonstration by a thousand angry Bemba supporters outside his residence, some of whom chanted "Kill them, Kill them" at foreign journalists. This is Bemba's first public appearance since the violence started on Sunday. The commander of the 2,000-strong European force, EUFOR, appealed to Congolese to remain calm after the clashes, which erupted on Sunday when electoral officials announced Kabila and Bemba would contest an Oct. 29 presidential run-off. At least 16 people were killed in the fighting, which marred what had otherwise been remarkably peaceful elections in Democratic Republic of Congo on July 30. They were the first free polls in the vast, war-ravaged former Belgian African colony in more than four decades. U.N. troops -- part of a 17,000 peacekeeping force -- and European soldiers intervened late on Monday to separate the two sides and secure the release of the U.N.'s top peacekeeper and foreign ambassadors trapped by the fighting at Bemba's house. European reinforcements of three helicopters and parachute troops, which were rushed to Kinshasa on Tuesday, would remain until it was confirmed that peace had been restored, he said. Political analysts and diplomats warned that Tuesday's peace deal -- which foresaw a joint commission including the United Nations and representatives of Bemba and Kabila's camps to review grievances -- could be short-lived. 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. Kabila, who assumed the presidency when his father Laurent was assassinated in 2001, gained 44.81 percent in the July 30 first-round, under the more than 50 percent needed to win outright. Bemba came second with 20.03 percent. The elections revealed a deep split within the mineral-rich central Africa giant -- with Kabila triumphing in his eastern Swahili-speaking homeland, while Bemba dominated in the west and Kinshasa, where Lingala is the main tongue. Analysts have warned the divide could spell a governance crisis for Kabila should he win in October -- leaving him surrounded by a hostile capital city. Some Bemba supporters in Kinshasa, where the incumbent president is widely regarded as a foreigner, said they would take to the streets if Kabila were elected with foreign support.

ITN Source | August 25, 2006

Tags:. .trapped. .sparked. .rival. .conflict. .commission