27/06/2005 |
Four killed in Congo riots as vote tensions mount |
reuters
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KINSHASA, June 26 (Reuters) - Four people, including a baby, were killed during weekend riots in Congo, the United Nations said on Sunday, in an early sign of unrest as authorities seek to discourage protests over delays to the first post-war polls.
In the sprawling capital Kinshasa, heavily armed soldiers and riot police patrolled the streets on Sunday and a helicopter gunship buzzed overhead in a show of force to dissuade people from trying to undermine the transitional government.
Elections are the cornerstone of a 2003 deal to end Congo's five-year war and were due to take place by the end of June. They have been postponed until next year because of government wrangling, logistical delays and bloodshed in the east.
Opposition politicians have blamed the delay on the government, led by President Joseph Kabila, and demanded it resign. They have called for peaceful protests next week to coincide with the original end of the government's mandate.
"The soldiers have been sent into the streets and the choppers into the skies to make sure the message is clear -- we don't want trouble on June 30," a security source told Reuters.
The four people were killed in Mbuji Mayi, a southern diamond-mining town where at least two people were killed during riots last month over the delay to Congo's first democratic polls in 40 years.
"People went out into the streets of Mbuji Mayi to celebrate on Saturday when rumours went around that Kabila had fled the country," Jean Tobie Okala, the U.N. peacekeeping mission's spokesman, said on Sunday.
"Four people were killed and 10 others were injured when the police intervened, firing their weapons to disperse the crowd," he said, adding that the situation had calmed by Sunday.
Mbuji Mayi is a stronghold for the UDPS opposition party, which is leading the calls for the resignation of the transitional government, which brings together former government members, opposition politicians and armed groups.
Resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo was crippled by the war that claimed around 4 million lives, mainly from conflict-related hunger and disease.
The war ended in 2003 but many of Congo's 60 million people are increasingly disillusioned as two years of relative peace have failed to produce elections or economic progress. Armed groups also continue to wreak havoc in the remote east.
In Kinshasa, home to up to 9 million but lacking many basic social services, residents have been stocking up on food while some international organisations have evacuated their foreign staff in the lead up to June 30, which marks Congo's Independence Day and two years of transitional government.
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