London protestors attack Congo president’s top aide

THE chief of staff to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s President Joseph Kabila has been assaulted and robbed in northwest London, outside a TV studio.

Leonard She Okitundu was attacked by protestors who beat him with a baseball bat, stripped him of his clothes, and posted pictures of them on the Internet, the Guardian newspaper reported yesterday.

A spokesman for London’s Metropolitan Police said officers were called to the area at around 5.30pm on Wednesday “after a disturbance between Congolese officials and protestors.”

Okitundu was taken to the A&E ward of Middlesex Central hospital after the attack without any trousers, covered only by a blanket.

His clothes were removed and his briefcase — which held his passport, money and credit cards, as well as official papers — was stolen.

His attackers posted photographs of his suit, Mont Blanc pen, business cards of the members of parliament and officials he had met, as well as some condoms that were in his pocket, on the internet.

“I left the Foreign Office and went to the television station and the people were waiting for us in the car park. I didn’t even have time to open the door of the car before people attacked me with baseball bats,” he said.

Okitundu was in hospital with two other victims of the attacks — former ambassador Henri Nswana and his party’s Britain chairman Placide Mbatika.

The assault comes as the DRC enters the final stretch of an electoral process set to yield the country’s first freely-elected head of state in nearly a half-century, with the official 15-day campaign period beginning for the October 29 run-off.

Incumbent Joseph Kabila is pitted against vice president and bitter rival Jean-Pierre Bemba.

Okitundu said his attackers shouted that he was working for the Rwandans, and that they would kill anyone who obstructed Bemba, he told The Guardian.