Ex-warlord free to leave Congo for medical care

Ex-rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba is being allowed to leave the Democratic Republic of the Congo to seek medical treatment in Portugal.

The DRC Senate has drafted a letter authorising Bemba to leave the country for 60 days to seek treatment for a fractured leg, said Emery Bope in Kinshasa, an executive member of Congo’s Senate.

Bemba’s spokesman did not immediately confirm that the ex-warlord, who has been inside the South African Embassy for 20 days, is free to go, saying that Bemba was still in Kinshasa.

Violent clashes between his militia and government forces broke out last month, leaving at least 200 dead and sending Bemba into hiding, as the country’s chief prosecutor issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of high treason.

The former rebel leader, whose militia is thought to number more than 1,000 men, angered Congo’s government by refusing to dismantle his personal guard after failing to win last year’s presidential election.

Several deadlines came and went for his soldiers to register with the army, and each missed deadline escalated the tension between both sides, until violence erupted outside Bemba’s compound on March 22.

The government has until now refused to let Bemba leave the country for medical treatment at a hospital in Lisbon, where he is due for a check-up for a leg fracture he suffered several months ago.

A Portuguese Foreign Ministry official said Bemba had asked in February to return to Portugal for further treatment on his leg and that the government had no objections to his return.

Lusa, the Portuguese news agency, had earlier reported that Bemba owned a house at a luxury resort on Portugal’s southern Algarve coast.

After Bemba took refuge inside the embassy, 149 soldiers loyal to the ex-rebel turned themselves in to a UN base, a UN spokeswoman said. Dozens of others fled.