Attack in Congo Capital Mars Peace Transition 'coup attempt'

By SOMINI SENGUPTA

Published: March 29, 2004


AKAR, Senegal, March 28 — For the first time since war ended last spring in Congo, heavy gunfire broke out early Sunday across the capital, Kinshasa, as unidentified assailants carried out simultaneous attacks against several military posts and two radio and television stations.

Whether the attacks were made by soldiers disgruntled about unpaid salaries or were initiated as an attempt to derail the power-sharing transitional government, from within or without, was unclear at day's end. Diplomats in Congo said no possibility could be ruled out.

Diplomats and Congolese government officials said forces loyal to the late ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, known as the Zairean Armed Forces, or FAZ, had been implicated in the attack. News service reports said 15 men had been arrested and paraded before reporters on Sunday afternoon, while several others remained at large. Two government soldiers were killed in the attacks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/29/international/africa/29CONG.html

Arrests after reported Congo 'coup bid'

AP in Kinshasa
Monday March 29, 2004
The Guardian

Government forces battled attackers at military bases and a television station in the Democratic Republic of Congo capital yesterday in what diplomats called a coup attempt against the president, Joseph Kabila.
Fighters loyal to the former dictator, the late Mobutu Sese Seko, were among those behind the attempt, the British ambassador, Jim Atkinson, said.

The fighting woke the city before dawn, leading to four hours of gunfire. By late morning shooting had eased, with attackers apparently contained by loyalist troops.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/congo/story/0,12292,1180200,00.html



COUP ATTEMPT IN CONGO

Britain's ambassador Jim Atkinson said the attacks appeared to have been an attempted coup. “Rocket-propelled grenades were fired from the direction of the Palais de la Nation (Presidential Palace) in the direction of the president's house, and fire returned," he said.

"It was an attack by armed military personnel seeking to undermine the internal security of the Congolese state," Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba Fundu told a news conference.

General Sylvain Buki, head of the country's land forces, said there was a second group of fighters that had not yet been found.

http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=81814®ion=5

Coup attempt behind shooting in Congo's capital, diplomats say


Kinshasa, Congo-AP -- There's been a coup attempt in Congo.

The British ambassador says fighters loyal to the late Congo dictator Mobuto Sese Seko (moh-BOO'-too SAY'-say SAY'-koh) attacked military installations and television headquarters in the capital.

After four hours of intense fighting, troops loyal to President Joseph Kabila were able to put down the attempt.
A government spokesman says the gunmen attacked simultaneously at several military posts and the private television station. One government soldier was killed and two injured.

http://www.whotv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1742271

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 Kabila’s government since the end of Congo’s five year civil war, which killed up to three million people.


He did not elaborate, or identify the attackers’ affiliations.

While the government has refused to characterise the deadly clashes as an attempted overthrow of the government, fighters loyal to Mobutu, Congo’s Cold War dictator, were among those who launched a “coup attempt,” said British Ambassador Jim Atkinson.

http://breakingnews.iol.ie/news/story.asp?j=99127342&p=99yz8x48


Government thwarts apparent coup bid

Government forces put down an apparent coup attempt in the Congolese capital on Sunday, battling attackers believed to be loyal to deceased former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. It was the most serious political strife to hit Kinshasa since the end of Congo's ruinous five-year war.

The government refused to characterize the deadly gunfights as an attempted coup, but Interior Minister Theophile Mbemba said the attacks will not destabilize President Joseph Kabila's government -- a national-unity administration struggling to reassert control over its vast, rebellion-splintered territory after a 1998-2003 war.

http://www.freep.com/news/nw/for29_20040329.htm

I'll admit I have little understanding about the political realities in Africa but the seems to be a bunch of strangeness going on lately. Just three weeks ago there was that plane load of mercenaries caught in Zimbabwe, now an attempted coup in Congo. I know the region is less than stable but is all of this unusual?

At Malebo Pool, the first customs station north of Kinshasa, border guards work two-month shifts collecting unofficial "taxes" from travelers.

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Tom Tshibangu/MONUC


AFRICA No1 at 6: 00
President Joseph Kabila calls for vigilance. He made the call over the national television in Kinshasa yesterday after four military posts came under attack from assailants who had crossed from the neighbouring Congo-Brazzaville on Saturday night. Through its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Zuma, South Africa condemns this attack. Pretoria, which helped broker the Global and All-Inclusive, regards this insurrection as an attempted coup. Javier Solana, the EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, has expressed concern over the situation. Code-named Operation Pentecost, this attack has provoked a general outcry in Kinshasa.

The details with the Minister of Communication, Alain Akoula

“Those that they call ex-FAZ arrived in our country and a large number of them have already returned to the DRC. These ex-FAZ are here in Brazzaville as refugees, and they respect the rules and principles governing the conduct of a refugee in any given country. Thus claiming that the presence of these ex-FAZ in our country has a consequence on what is happening in Kinshasa, that is completely false. Steps were taken yesterday. The border separating our two countries was closed. The security services of our country are doing their work watching all along the Congo river. But we repeat that Congo-Brazzaville has nothing to do with what is happening in the DRC.”

http://www.monuc.org/news.aspx?newsID=2154

from correspondents in Kinshasa
March 30, 2004
SECURITY forces searched the Congolese capital overnight for fugitives of an apparent coup attempt against President Joseph Kabila's fragile power-sharing government, struggling to emerge from years of war in the vast Central African nation.

Untold numbers of attackers in civilian clothes escaped after simultaneous pre-dawn attacks yesterday at military installations and state broadcasting headquarters, melting into the impoverished city's teeming population or possibly fleeing the country.

Congo government spokesman Vital Kamerhe said the attackers' "core elements" were made up of loyalists to the late Mobutu Sese Seko, Congo's Cold-War dictator who was overthrown by Kabila's father, Laurent, in 1997.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,9128379%255E1702,00.html



Bodies of Hema men, executed by Lendu militia just hours before, lie on the road north of Fataki. They were bound and impaled before being shot.