U.N. deploys in Kinshasa to separate rival forces
Source: Reuters
By Joe Bavier KINSHASA, March 20 (Reuters) - U.N. peacekeepers in Congo's capital Kinshasa have deployed around the residence of defeated presidential contender Jean-Pierre Bemba to defuse a confrontation over the disarmament of his personal guard. A Reuters reporter on Tuesday saw more than a dozen U.N. armoured vehicles at key intersections in the plush, residential Gombe neighbourhood, where hundreds of government soldiers have surrounded former rebel fighters guarding Bemba's compound. The government troops pointed machine guns and grenade launchers down a main avenue towards Bemba's men, who were dug in behind sandbags. Several shots were heard but it was unclear who had fired and there were no reports of injuries. Two dozen U.N. armoured personnel carriers and around 250 peacekeepers were struggling to set up a buffer zone between the two sides. "The buffer zone is not operational because there is no separation of the forces," a U.N. military official said. Several dozen people were killed in clashes between the rival groups last year during Democratic Republic of Congo's first democratic elections in more than four decades. Joseph Kabila was sworn in as president in December. The elections were meant to herald a new era in the former Belgian colony following a devastating 1998-2003 war. Bemba's loyalists were angered when Kabila issued a decree after he was sworn in that called for Bemba and other vice-presidents to allow their personal guards to be integrated into the armed forces (FARDC) and replaced by national police. Bemba says he had a previous agreement with Kabila allowing him to maintain his existing security detail, which analysts say numbers up to 1,500 men around the country. Bemba's spokesman Moise Musangana told Reuters Bemba's forces feared being trapped by the government troops: "The positions they wanted to take up risked hemming us in." The U.N. mission, known by its French acronym MONUC, said negotiations were under way and neither side wanted a violent showdown. But it said it was concerned about the presence of so many armed fighters in a concentrated area. "The risk is of isolated incidents," said MONUC military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Didier Rancher.
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