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Congo's government chases renegade forces after coup attempt in capital

AFP

12 jun. 04 - 09.50h

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Heavy gunfire and tank shelling blasted in the capital on Friday as Congo's postwar government crushed a coup attempt by what officials described as a small band of renegades within the presidential guard.

After a chaotic night of clashes around a military base, state media stations and the presidential mansion, President Joseph Kabila declared the attempt had failed.

"Stay calm, prepare yourself to resist - because I will allow nobody to try a coup d'etat or to throw off course our peace process," Kabila said in a midmorning address to Congolese on state TV. "As for me, I'm fine."

The crisis was the latest to shake Kabila's transition government, pieced together out of loyalists, ex-rebels and opposition figures in 2003 after Congo's devastating war.

The coup attempt started after midnight local time, when an officer identified as Maj. Eric Lengue abruptly appeared on state radio to declare his forces had "neutralized" the transition government.

Power went off in the city, in a blackout suspected caused by the rebels. Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda blamed an "isolated movement" within the security forces, and said dissidents included officers of Kabila's guard.

Government ministers said dissidents quickly yielded the state broadcast stations to loyalists, and retreated to a military base within the capital.

Most of Kinshasa's millions appeared to have slept through the first hours of the coup attempt.

At daybreak, however, the capital awoke to gunfire in the city center.

Residents and diplomats reported bursts from automatic weapons and tank shelling at the base where dissident forces had holed up.

Western diplomatic officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said loyalist security forces were battling coup forces at the military base.

Army Chief of Staff Adm. Mata Liwanga said only about 20 soldiers had accompanied Lengue to the camp.

Twelve had been arrested, and the rest, including Lengue, were fleeing, he said.

Western diplomatic officials said two tanks, an armored personnel carrier and troops seen in the city center around daybreak were Lengue's forces - looking for escape or for a foreign embassy to take their surrender.

By midmorning, Lengue and his last followers were somewhere at Kinshasa's international airport, Ndjili, presidential protocol officer Freddy Lugenda said.

"The airport is under our control and we are looking through Ndjili," Lugenda said.

Simultaneously with the shooting around the base, residents and diplomats had reported heavy gunfire around Kabila's private residence. There was no immediate explanation of the circumstances.

Friday's coup attempt was the second security-force uprising against the transition government led by Kabila, who took power in 2001 after his father, rebel-leader-turned-president Laurent Kabila, was killed by one of his own bodyguards.

Stalled under Laurent Kabila, peace efforts moved forward under Joseph Kabila, now 32.

In March, a few hundred soldiers attacked military installations in the capital. That attempt was defeated, and it was unclear whether it was a coup attempt or a more limited mutiny.

On Wednesday, government forces recaptured the eastern town of Bukavu from renegade ex-rebel forces, ending a seven-day takeover that had posed the greatest military and diplomatic challenge to the government.

Kabila's government came under heavy criticism for allowing fall of the town June 2.

Associated Press reporter Eddy Isango contributed to this report from Bukavu,
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