Bloody end to peaceful protests
2005-07-01 11:59
Kinshasa - Ten people were shot dead on Thursday when police in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) broke up opposition rallies in a number of cities, a senior government figure said.
"We have to regret the loss of 10 lives on the territory of the DRC," Jean-Pierre Bemba, one of four vice-presidents, told a television station.
He confirmed the figure put forward earlier by the main opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), which reported six deaths in the capital Kinshasa and four elsewhere.
There were reports in Kinshasa of dozens of injuries and up to 400 arrests as police broke up the UDPS demonstration.
The protestors, mainly young, had gathered with white flags and signs calling for an end to a transition period that was originally intended to finish with elections on Thursday, in line with a 2003 pact to end a five-year civil war.
The agreement signed between the government and the warring factions in Sun City, South Africa, called for a transitional government of leaders of the warring parties under President Joseph Kabila to rule until general elections on June 30, 2005.
But it also provided for up to two extensions of the deadline of six months each, and with unrest and tension persisting, parliament earlier this month put off the polls until December.
The electoral commission said it was physically incapable of organising voter registration in time, and the period is fully expected to be extended again, until June 30 next year.
UDPS leader Etienne Tshisekedi has refused to accept the delay and continued to demand the end of all transition institutions.
Thursday's demonstrations were planned as peaceful events including a march on the parliament in the capital Kinshasa but police ensured the protestors were kept well away.
"We do not understand how people who are claiming to want to put in place a democratic regime in this country can repress a peaceful march," said Suzie, 38.
Police used live rounds in some neighbourhoods of Kinshasa, in addition to tear gas, plastic bullets and clubs, to stop the banned march called by the UDPS, a senior police officer said.
Joseph Mukendi, an aide to Tshisekedi, told AFP that his party had "identified 10 people shot dead across the country, while others remain to be confirmed."
Nearly 5 000 police were deployed across Kinshasa as military helicopters flew at low altitude over the city of six million people.
A series of devastating wars has ravaged the DRC since the 1997 ousting of Mobutu Sese Seko, whose 32-year rule of the country, then known as Zaire, was marked by severe human rights abuses and the looting of natural resources.
AFP