Congo's Bemba pledges to enter politics "for peace"
Source: Reuters
(Recasts with Bemba pledge to enter opposition, reaction) By David Lewis KINSHASA, Nov 28 (Reuters) - Congolese former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba said on Tuesday he would go into political opposition after his presidential election defeat "to preserve peace and save the country from chaos and violence". Bemba, wearing a business suit in a broadcast on his TV channel, said he stood by his complaints against President Joseph Kabila's victory in last month's poll, which were rejected on Monday by the Supreme Court. "However, in the higher interests of the nation, to preserve peace and save the country from chaos and violence, today I pledge before God, the nation and history to lead ... this struggle for change as part of a strong republican opposition," he said. Bemba had alleged "systematic cheating" in the poll count that gave him 41.95 percent of the vote and 58.05 for Kabila. Diplomats and analysts had feared Monday's court decision might trigger further violence after soldiers loyal to the two presidential contenders fought bloody battles on the streets of the capital Kinshasa in August and again a fortnight ago. The Oct. 29 presidential run-off was the culmination of a peace process ending a 1998-2003 war which devastated the country, triggering a humanitarian disaster that has killed 4 million people and continues to kill 1,200 every day through violence, hunger and disease. Earlier, foreign diplomats overseeing the country's peace process called for calm and urged Kabila and Bemba to honour pledges they made to keep the peace and respect the poll result. "GREAT RELIEF" "This will be a great relief to many in the Congo and the international community if he follows through in his promise," Jason Stearns, senior analyst for the International Crisis Group think tank, told Reuters. "He appears to have recognised that he has to integrate his forces into the national army. It is key that he follows through on this in the next few weeks." Heavily-armed soldiers and policemen, as well as United Nations peacekeepers, patrolled the streets of Kinshasa on Tuesday, where Bemba has widespread support in the city's teeming slums whose residents mostly speak his Lingala tongue. Kabila has stronger support in the Swahili-speaking east, where large numbers of people celebrated loudly following the Supreme Court ruling on Monday evening confirming him as president for the next five years. Despite the lengthy peace process, ethnic militia violence still grips much of the lawless, mineral-rich east of Africa's third biggest country. On Tuesday, forces from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo (MONUC) -- the world's biggest -- together with government troops fought fighters loyal to the renegade general Laurent Nkunda who briefly seized the town of Sake at the weekend. "MONUC troops have opened fire today when it was felt that Sake town and the surroundings were threatened," said Major Ajay Dalal, spokesman for Indian peacekeepers in North Kivu province. "Firing was from both land and air. By this evening, the status quo has been restored. Some (government) positions were lost but later retaken," Dalal said. U.N. helicopter gunships and ground troops moved in over the past two days to prevent Nkunda's troops, who refuse to join an integrated national army, from threatening the main eastern city of Goma, just 20 km (13 miles) away on the border with Rwanda.
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