Uneasy calm returns to DRC
2006-08-23 10:51
Kinshasa - Forces loyal to Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila and vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba signed a deal late on Tuesday to withdraw from the centre of the capital after two days of artillery fighting that left at least eight dead.
The deal called for several "actions with immediate effect", including "the order for all troops of the DRC armed forces deployed in the capital to return to their initial positions".
International peacekeeping forces on Tuesday rushed reinforcements to Kinshasa as foreign governments appealed for an end to fighting that broke out after the release of provisional presidential election results on Sunday, setting Kabila and Bemba up for a second round run-off.
Monuc 'protecting Bemba's residence'
The European peacekeeping force (EUFOR), which engaged militarily in the DRC for the first time on Monday, called up reinforcements including two attack helicopters and some 250 German, French, Portuguese and Swedish troops stationed in nearby Gabon to add to the 1 100 troops already in the country.
The United Nations peacekeeping force, Monuc, said it was now protecting Bemba's residence with a "large security force" after the villa, where Bemba and 14 foreign diplomats were meeting, came under fire from army tanks Monday.
It was reported that fighting on Tuesday left at least three dead, while witnesses said they had seen the bodies of "several civilians" in the same central district of the capital, where violent clashes took place.
Monuc said that clashes on Sunday left at least five people dead and 11 injured.
Kabila gets 44.8% votes
They were triggered by the release of provisional first round results from the July 30 presidential election, which gave Kabila 44.8% of the vote against 20% for Bemba, a former rebel leader.
The two men must now contest a second round run-off scheduled for October 29.
Mario Zamorano, a spokesperson for Monuc, the biggest UN peacekeeping operation in the world with 17 600 troops, said peacekeeping troops were out in force on Tuesday and controlled the city's main thoroughfare and crossroads.
An uneasy calm had settled on Kinshasa by the afternoon after Kabila issued orders for troops to return to barracks, measures that armed forces chief of staff general Kisempia Songilanga Lombe said were implemented immediately.
Songilanga said: "No soldier is allowed to carry a weapon unless he has been given orders by his commander. The battalion of military police has been instructed to patrol day and night and arrest anyone who disobeys."
Kabila called for the troop withdrawal after meeting foreign diplomats of the international committee accompanying the country's transition to democracy, known by its French acronym as CIAT.