DRC bans 'gangster' cars

2007-01-24 22:17

Kinshasa - The government in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has banned ordinary citizens from using cars with tinted windows in a bid to stamp out a wave of abductions, said police on Wednesday.

"These windows are only allowed on official vehicles. But private individuals have started using and abusing them in a completely anarchic fashion," the Kinshasa police chief, Patrick Sabiti, said on Wednesday.

He said the ban had been announced to the police on Tuesday by interior minister Denis Kaluime Numbi, after a wave of kidnappings in Kinshasa by unidentified gunmen using cars with tinted glass.

This type of car is reserved by law for ambassadors and senior politicians, but many locals have started using them, apparently in a bid to avoid police checks.

Sabiti said all cars would now be checked, without exception.

Civilians are also banned from wearing combat gear in the DRC, which is slowly emerging from a five-year civil war that ended in 2003. But that measure is also widely ignored.

- AFP