Congo president appeals for calm after apparent coup attempt
There were no reports of fighting in Kinshasa yesterday, a day after gun and mortar battles between loyalist troops and the attackers raged in the city. Diplomats called it a coup attempt against Kabila's year-old power-sharing government, blaming fighters loyal to late Congo dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
It was the most serious attack on President Kabila's government since the end of Congo's five-year war, which caused the deaths of up to three million people through violence, disease and starvation. Kabila appeared on state television late on Sunday to say order had been restored. Looking relaxed, the Congo leader was flanked by his four vice presidents in the power-sharing government, which is trying to regain control over lawless areas in the east and north of a country.
"They were terrorists and uncivil individuals who wanted to take over military installations," President Kabila said. "I'm glad they were routed."
Mr Kabila said that the armed forces had received "precise instructions" to protect the population and called for the nation to remain calm. He didn't identify the attackers.
Fighters loyal to Mobutu, Congo's Cold War dictator, were among those who launched Sunday's "coup attempt", British Ambassador Jim Atkinson said.
Mobutu was overthrown in 1997 by then-ruler Laurent Kabila, President Joseph Kabila's father. Mobutu died in exile shortly after his overthrow. As Laurent Kabila's insurgents entered Kinshasa, thousands of Mobutu loyalists scattered, and many now live in surrounding countries.
The attacks came before dawn Sunday and lasted for four hours, keeping most Kinshasa inhabitants indoors. Hundreds took to the streets to cheer government troops when the shooting eased in early afternoon.
Congolese officials said the simultaneous attacks targeted an army camp near President Kabila's offices, a military airport, a naval shipyard and the national radio and television headquarters. Congolese forces apprehended 12 assailants, officials said, adding that untold numbers of the civilian-clothed attackers disappeared into the city with their weapons.
One soldier died in the fighting and two others were wounded. Officials said the government would continue its mission to move Congo beyond the war, which saw foreign-backed rebels take control of the east and much of the north.
Many of the ex-Mobutu loyalists are disgruntled over their virtual exclusion from Congo's peace deal preventing them from sharing in proceeds from the rich diamond and gold mines and lush forests of a country the size of Western Europe.
Shooting was heavy near the US Embassy and the headquarters of the UN mission in Congo.
Joseph Kabila has been in power since January 2001, when bodyguards assassinated his father.
Beginning in 1998, rebels backed by Uganda and Rwanda took up arms against the government, but failed to take the capital.
The government is now trying to re-establish state control in Congo's restive east and north, where sporadic battles among tribal fighters, rapes and looting continue.
Despite Congo's great potential mineral riches, decades of brutal Belgian colonial administration, corrupt post-1960 independence rule and warfare has left the country's 57 million people among poorest in the world.
