A Nervous Congo Admits That Its President Is Dead

The Congo government finally announced today that President Laurent Kabila had died, two days after it was reported that he had been shot by a bodyguard. But it is not clear that the battle-worn and impoverished Congo is ready to accept his 31-year-old son as his successor. A Belgian businessman who lives in Kinshasa said the decision to name the son, Maj. Gen. Joseph Kabila, to lead the government seemed to increase tension here, a sentiment reflected on the streets. ''This is a government we have -- it's not a monarchy,'' said Moise Muamba, an 18-year-old student. ''They can't do what they did.''

The announcement on national television this evening that the president is dead gave no details of how he died. Most reports have said that he was shot by a bodyguard, apparently during an argument with some of his generals, and that he died while being flown to seek medical aid in Zimbabwe, which stood as his country's main ally, along with Angola. The government announcement said he had died today in a Zimbabwe hospital. In its announcement, the government also signaled its intention to continue the president's hard-line position toward a 29-month war against rebels that has thrown all of Central Africa into disorder.

Using the same language employed during Laurent Kabila's rule, the communications minister, Dominique Sakombi Inongo, said on state television that Mr. Kabila had left a testament to the army to ''flush the aggressors out of the national territory.'' The government has consistently described the war as an invasion from outside Congo and has refused to negotiate with the Congolese rebels, who are backed by Rwanda and Uganda. As the official announcement was being made, Congo rebels said their positions in the north were being bombed by government troops. The head of Congo Liberation Front, Jean-Pierre Bemba, reported the strikes to the news agency Agence France-Presse.

In the capital tonight, the streets were quiet, with a curfew still in place. People milling outside just before the start of the curfew reacted calmly to the death of Mr. Kabila, who marched into Kinshasa four years ago as the heroic victor over one of Africa's great dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko, but whose own dictatorial style had made him increasingly unpopular. ''There haven't been any positive things, so why should he be mourned?'' said Papy Masundi, 22, a trader who was sitting on a sidewalk and sharing a bottle of beer with four friends. One of his friends, Francis Basayi, 27, an apprentice taxi driver, said Mr. Kabila's death might now bring peace in Congo. ''If he wanted peace,'' Mr. Basayi said, ''peace would have come two years ago. He said he'd come to liberate us. But after all this time, we didn't see any change. The price of gasoline keeps climbing, and so does the price of food. Before I was doing a little well, but look at me now.''

Kinshasa was deserted Wednesday, a day after the shooting in the presidential palace, as people stayed home out of fear. But today taxis and buses started running again, and people returned to work all across Kinshasa, a sprawling city of five million that is like a carcass of houses, roads and sewers built by Belgian colonialists and abandoned by Congo's rulers. Ferry service on the great Congo River between here and Brazzaville, in the Congo Republic, remained closed. The government reopened the main airport, but most carriers stayed away because of insecurity. On one of the few planes that flew in and out of Kinshasa, many European and Lebanese women and children could be seen leaving the capital. Lebanese men, who fearlessly sustain businesses in the most unstable of African cities, typically send their wives and children away during crises -- and the men depart only when things fall apart completely.

After announcing the president's death tonight, state television showed images that tried to portray his son as having already taken control. It showed General Kabila receiving the ambassadors from Belgium, France, Britain, China and Russia, and an American Embassy representative, Barry Walkley. General Kabila, who has no political experience but who will be supported by his father's small inner circle, made no announcement of his own today. Little is known of him, other than that he received his military training in China after his father took over in 1997. Called back to this country after the outbreak of the current war in August 1998, Joseph Kabila was quickly given the rank of general. He is said to have been born in eastern Congo, near the borders with Rwanda and Uganda. His father was a small-time guerrilla fighter for three decades, most of them spent in the eastern region, before the Rwandans and Ugandans plucked him out of obscurity in 1997 to head a rebellion against Mr. Mobutu.

In Kinshasa, people were said to be unhappy about the son's ascension, not only because of its monarchical tinge, but for a far darker reason: His mother, people in Kinshasa say, is a Tutsi. The Tutsi ethnic group, which controls the governments in Burundi and Rwanda, are hated in this part of the country. It was Rwandan Tutsi -- the main victims of the 1994 massacre led by Hutu extremists -- who backed Laurent Kabila against Mr. Mobutu. But once Mr. Kabila arrived here in Kinshasa, he quickly turned against his former Tutsi patrons. Though he had helped the Tutsi exact revenge on Hutu extremists, Mr. Kabila did an about-face to side with these same Hutu. Many of the Congolese rebels who are backed by Rwanda are ethnic Tutsi. Called the Banyamulenge, they have lived in Congolese territory for generations but have never been accepted by other Congolese. After the outbreak of war in August 1998, Mr. Kabila often seized on Congolese hatred of Tutsi to rally his forces.

In Kinshasa, Mr. Kabila never brooked much freedom, and that legacy survived his death. Even as his government denied for two days that Mr. Kabila had been killed, the residents of Kinshasa heard the news on shortwave radio from France, Britain and the United States. People interviewed this evening, before the official announcement was made, were wary of speaking of his death. Most seemed afraid even of mentioning his name. ''It's difficult -- no one knows what's happening,'' said Christian Unshemvula, 29, who speaks English with an American accent and said he had studied at San Jose State University. ''I just want things to improve in this country, on the economic and political levels.'' Asked what effects Mr. Kabila's death might have on Congo's future, Mr. Unshemvula said: ''I'm not a politician. I don't know.''

The Kabila regime clamped down severely on its critics, and many of those interviewed today took the government line, which often seemed surreal. ''Since he's come into power, we've had peace,'' Alain Tshimwanga, 26, said of Laurent Kabila. ''Since he's been here, we've had no disruption.''

State television gave no details of Mr. Kabila's funeral. But the government of Belgium, the former colonial ruler, which was the first to announce Mr. Kabila's death on Tuesday night, said his body would be flown first to Lubumbashi, his hometown, and then here to Kinshasa. His funeral is expected to take place on Tuesday.

Source: New York Times