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Kabila's body flown to DRC
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THE body of assassinated Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) President Laurent Kabila arrived back in a tense Kinshasa yesterday as the war-wracked central African country prepared for rule under his 32-year-old son, General Joseph Kabila.
The young general, wearing a dark suit, greeted his father's body as it arrived at Kinshasa's airport from the southeastern city of Lubumbashi.
The cortege, with the coffin atop a gun-carriage, then started out at walking pace to the central People's Palace, where the body will lie in state until a state funeral on Tuesday.
Kabila, who was shot in his Kinshasa residence, known as the Marble Palace, was flown to Harare for medical treatment, but the government announced that he died on Thursday morning. His remains were returned on Saturday to Lubumbashi, capital of his home province of Katanga.
Kinshasa was calm, but tense. Two combat helicopters patrolled, tanks guarded the Marble Palace, and armoured cars were deployed around the building housing the television and radio offices.
A nighttime curfew is in force, and presidential aide Georges Buse went on television on Saturday evening to warn that the government "will not tolerate any disruption of public order" during the funeral period.
Outside the People's Palace, widows wearing wrap-arounds imprinted with Kabila's face gathered to await the body.
The Angolan and Zimbabwean troops, along with soldiers from Namibia, are fighting beside the DRC troops in a war that has split this giant country in half.
On the other side are rebels backed by soldiers from Rwanda and Uganda.(SD-Agencies)
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