Congolese mourn deceased Kabila, war allies meet<\/p>\n
KINSHASA (Reuters): Thousands of Congolese mourned slain
\nPresident Laurent Kabila when his body arrived back in the
\ncapital Kinshasa on Sunday and his military allies met to discuss
\nthe many-sided war he leaves behind.<\/p>\n
Leaders of Kabila's allies, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, met
\nto discuss Democratic Republic of Congo, and diplomatic sources
\nsaid Southern African leaders were considering a full summit on
\nthe Congo in Mozambique on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
In Angola's capital Luanda, government spokesman Aldemiro de
\nConceicao said President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and President
\nNujoma of Namibia had begun talks with President Jose Eduardo dos
\nSantos in his city office before midday.<\/p>\n
\"It is just a one-day meeting and it has started. They are
\nhere to deal with the situation in the Congo,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The three leaders deployed thousands of troops in Democratic
\nRepublic of Congo in 1998 under the banner of the 14-member
\nSouthern African Development Community (SADC) to help Kabila
\nfight rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.<\/p>\n
They have all pledged to continue supporting the former Zaire
\nafter Kabila's death.<\/p>\n
Congolese Information Minister Dominique Sakombi said the
\nCongo government had no representative at the Luanda talks.
\n\"Dos Santos said clearly that there would be a meeting between
\nthe three allies to assess the situation,\" Sakombi told Reuters
\nin Kinshasa. He also could not confirm reports that a summit was
\nplanned for Maputo next week.<\/p>\n
\"Whatever happens, if there are summits we will be there,
\nprovided it takes after the funeral,\" he said. He declined to
\ncomment on whether Joseph Kabila, who will succeed his father,
\nwould attend such a summit.<\/p>\n
Joseph Kabila, 31, will be sworn in as president of Africa's
\nthird largest country once his father is buried on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Kabila's body was returned to the Congolese capital, where he
\nwas shot by a bodyguard last week in his hilltop palace.<\/p>\n
Groups of police and crowds of people, many wearing T-shirts
\nprinted with Kabila's image, lined the 40-km route from N'djili
\nairport, where the body arrived, to the People's Palace, where he
\nwill lie in state until Tuesday's burial.<\/p>\n
Female relatives wailed and one woman had to be restrained by
\nsoldiers as the body was taken off a plane from Lubumbashi,
\nKabila's home city in the south where he was taken last Saturday.<\/p>\n
Army generals saluted and wheeled the coffin along a red
\ncarpet as government ministers and dignitaries looked on. It was
\nthe final stage of Kabila's return from Harare, where Congolese
\nofficials said he had died on Thursday after being flown there
\nfor treatment after he was shot.<\/p>\n
In Kinshasa cars sported clumps of leaves under bonnets and
\nwindscreen wipers as signs of mourning, and some taxi drivers
\nsaid they had been given free fuel to bring mourners to watch.<\/p>\n
Until Sunday, mourning in Kinshasa for the slain leader who
\nousted former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko more than three years ago
\nhad been low-key, although Agriculture Minister Mawampanga Mwana
\nNanga predicted an outpouring of emotion.<\/p>\n
\"The quiet means they were really mourning. You just wait when
\nthey see the body come. The people will really be crying,\" he
\ntold reporters last Saturday.<\/p>\n
In the first official account of Kabila's murder, Justice
\nMinister Mwenze Kongolo said last Saturday the president had been
\ntalking to an economic adviser before the assassin came into the
\nroom, made as if to speak to Kabila, and shot him three times.<\/p>\n
\"One of the bullets went right behind the ear and came right
\nbehind the ribs. I think that's the one that killed him,\" Mwenze
\ntold a news conference.<\/p>\n
Preparations were under way for an elaborate state funeral on
\nTuesday. After that, Joseph Kabila, an army major-general, will
\nbe sworn in.<\/p>\n
\"He's the president of the republic,\" Mwenze said.
\nMwenze dismissed a common criticism on the streets of Kinshasa
\nthat the cabinet's chosen replacement for the elder Kabila was
\ntantamount to making Congo a monarchy.<\/p>\n
\"These people you see on the street loved him. They need this
\nquietness. They also understand that this is a very fragile
\nmoment,\" Mwenze said.<\/p>\n
State television has shown the younger Kabila meeting foreign
\ndiplomats during the past few days, but he has made no public
\ncomments. One of his first acts, however, was to order the
\npayment of civil servants' and soldiers' salaries on Friday.<\/p>\n
The head of the UN mission in Congo said last Saturday after
\nmeeting Kabila that he had shown willingness to work for peace.<\/p>\n
Mwenze pledged that the government would resume negotiations
\nto end the civil war after Kabila's funeral. \"As soon as we have
\nfinished the burial of the president, we will start negotiating
\nagain,\" he said. But he said Kinshasa would continue to demand
\nthe total withdrawal of Ugandan and Rwandan forces.<\/p>\n
\"We are saying they have to go. Our negotiations have always
\nbeen about that question. They have to withdraw,\" Mwenze said.<\/p>",
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