Trapped DRC envoys rescued
2006-08-21 23:16
Kinshasa - United Nations and European peacekeepers
rescued a group of foreign ambassadors on Monday in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
They had been trapped by fierce fighting between soldiers loyal to President
Joseph Kabila and supporters of an election rival.
Uruguayan troops using armoured vehicles and supported by
Spanish legionnaires escorted the UN and foreign envoys from
the house of Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba in the
capital, Kinshasa, where they had been pinned down by gun battles.
"They are in a convoy leaving Bemba's house right now. They
are heading towards the UN headquarters," said a Western diplomat after making radio contact with the convoy.
It was the second day of armed clashes between the two sides
in the DRC after the announcement of a
presidential run-off vote between the two men following July 30
elections.
Sporadic bursts of gunfire went on into the night.
The July polls were the first free national vote for more
than four decades in the vast, mineral-rich, war-scarred former
Belgian colony.
About 150 Uruguayan UN soldiers backed by 130 Spanish
legionnaires - part of a European Union force sent to help keep
the peace during the polls - secured the street around Bemba's
riverside residence to allow the diplomats to be escorted out.
Those trapped had included the UN mission chief for Congo,
William Swing, and ambassadors from a group of foreign donors
known by its French acronym CIAT.
The diplomats had been trying
to broker a meeting between Kabila and Bemba.
The two men are due to face a second-round vote on October 29
after provisional results showed neither candidate had won
outright in the central African nation.