Congo swears in new ministers

DOZENS of ministers in Congo’s new power-sharing government were sworn in yesterday in a move that is hoped will end a war that has killed more than three million people in five years.

Two rebel leaders and an opposition politician were among four vice presidents sworn in during a ceremony in the capital Kinshasa on Thursday and another 36 ministers and 24 vice ministers were appointed yesterday.

"A new page of the history of the country will be written, and it will be a rosy one I hope," government spokesman Vital Kamere said. "There is no more old government and no more rebels. We are all one government."

The new administration brings together President Joseph Kabila's supporters, the rebels and the unarmed opposition in a bid to unify a nation the size of Western Europe that has been torn apart by civil war since 1998.

Most significant were the appointments of two rebels leaders Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Uganda-backed Congolese Liberation Movement and Azarias Ruberwa of the Rwanda-allied Congolese Rally for Democracy as vice presidents.

Reports of fresh clashes in the country's especially troubled north-eastern Ituri province cast a shadow over the inaugurations and today's first meeting of the new government.

More than 80 people were killed in clashes between rival Lendu and Hema tribal fighters, officials said.

Congo's riches provide a powerful disincentive for armed factions in the north-east to give up fighting and yield control to a government in Kinshasa.

The war erupted in 1998 when neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda backed Congolese rebels trying to overthrow then-President Laurent Kabila.