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Kabila assassinated, son takes charge
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OFFICIALS in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) moved fast on Wednesday to fill a power vacuum after President Laurent Kabila was shot in his palace, leaving him critically injured or -- according to several reports -- dead.
Kabila's son Joseph, barely 30 years old and the DRC's army chief of staff, took over the vast country, run ragged after three-and-a-half years of civil war that has drawn in half a dozen African nations.
Belgium, the former colonial power, was the first to announce that Kabila had been fatally shot on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Louis Michel told Belgian state radio network that Kabila was killed by his own bodyguard.
Another news agency Belga cited its source as saying Kabila was probably killed by the deputy defence minister, Colonel Kayembe, whom he had just fired.
Edy Kapend, a senior military official and Kabila's aide, on Wednesday morning confirmed on that Kabila has been shot dead.
Officials in neighbouring Zimbabwe also said the president died while being flown there for medical treatment.
But the DRC's ambassador to Zimbabwe, Kikaya Bin Karubi, said Kabila was alive and in a critical state in Harare.
"Obviously he is in a very critical condition, but he has not passed away yet," Karubi told Zimbabwe state television.
"As we speak there is a team of Congolese doctors who are attending to him," the ambassador said.
Reports from abroad, mainly citing foreign embassies in Kinshasa, said the president had been fatally shot by one of his presidential guards after a row with generals.
DRC officials acknowledged that the hefty leader was shot in an attack at his Marble Palace.
But the officials here refused to confirm reports from Zimbabwe, European capitals and a junior DRC defence minister speaking in Libya that Kabila later died from his wounds.
Rivals in the region said Kabila's reported death could pave the way for an end to the bloodletting in the former Zaire.
But Belgium's foreign minister hinted that the DRC could be torn apart even further.
"I think that anything is possible," he told state television in Brussels, when asked what kind of repercussions Kabila's death might have.
"It is clear that the power void is a risk," he said.
On the sidelines of the Franco-African summit in Yaounde in Cameroon, Zimbabwe's president Robert Mugabe said an urgent meeting would be convened to review the situation in the DRC.
The attack on Kabila, and the longstanding conflict in the DRC, was expected to dominate the 21st Franco-African summit yesterday and today.
Meanwhile, Kinshasa was calm as cabinet ministers held an emergency meeting.
Markets were closed and the streets were empty, except for an official convoy escorted by armoured vehicles that drove through the city in the afternoon.
The army, meanwhile, maintained a discreet presence. Small groups of people gathered, wondering what was going to happen, some expressing surprise that the soldiers were not running amok.
Amid the confusion fuelled by conflicting claims over Kabila's fate, officials in Kinshasa were quick to dispel fears of a power vacuum.
"To ensure continuity in the management of state affairs and safeguard property and people, the government ... decided to entrust control of government action and the military high command to General Joseph Kabila," government spokesman, Dominique Sakombi, also information minister, said in a statement.
In the United States, officials said they were baffled by conflicting reports about the fate of Kabila but were still operating under the assumption that he had been killed.
Richard Holbrooke, US ambassador to the United Nations, warned belligerents in the DRC not to exploit Kabila's reported death to expand their positions.
"It is essential that the foreign forces who occupied large parts of the Congo halt their offensive action," Richard Holbrooke, US ambassador to the United Nations, said.
"They should not seek to take advantage of the events in Kinshasa to expand their presence," he added.
Sweden, which currently holds the presidency of the European Union, condemned the "attack" against Kabila and urged the parties involved in the DRC conflict to respect a flouted peace deal signed in Lusaka in 1999 and relevant UN resolutions.
Nigeria and Algeria also issued a joint statement condemning "any change of government in that country (the DRC) through violence" and calling for a return to peace.(SD-Agencies)
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