CONGO: KABILA: FUNERAL LATEST

(23 Jan 2001) Natural Sound
XFA
One week after President Laurent Kabila was gunned down by a bodyguard, the Congo's capital city bid farewell to him on Tuesday.

The funeral began with a service at the People's Palace, the government hall where Kabila had already laid in state for two days, and ended with the burial of the coffin at the colonial-era Palace of the Nation.

It came amidst rising anti-Western sentiment, as the people of this city lashed out at foreigners, particularly white foreigners, blaming them for Kabila's killing.

Outside the People's Palace, thousands of people crowded against the fence as about 500 dignitaries were ushered in.

Other people in the crowd took up the chant that the Congolese army had killed Kabila, as they stood in potholed streets, swept clean for the occasion, where palm fronds - a sign of mourning - decorated lampposts and streetlights.

Laurent Kabila's son, Joseph was joined by the nation's key military allies as the coffin was paraded through the streets and placed in a white marble mausoleum.

Joseph Kabila, who was quickly named president after his father was killed, remained somber throughout the service, watching silently as dozens of dignitaries bowed before the coffin, and exchanging only brief words with visiting heads of state.

The younger Kabila, who was raised in neighboring Tanzania and Uganda, and who does not speak Lingala, the main language of this part of Congo, did not speak at the service.

Members of Kabila's inner circle remembered him as a hero of Congolese history, who toppled the longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Surrounding Joseph Kabila and other top officials were hulking, heavily armed soldiers in jungle camouflage - nearly all of them either Angolan, Zimbabwean or Namibian.

Apparently fearing trouble from their own soldiers, Congolese officials chose to leave them either unarmed or further away from the centre of power.

And a few speakers made pointed comments about the country's more than two-year-old war, which has killed thousands, destroyed the nation's economy and split the country into government and rebel-held regions.

The war pits the Congolese government, backed by Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, against various rebel groups, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, that hold large parts of the East and
North.

Later, Joseph Kabila, dressed in a dark pinstriped suit and a collarless shirt, sat in a red velvet chair at the People's Palace watching the scene from a dais in front of his father's casket.

At one point, a soldier in jungle camouflage opened the coffin, revealing the face of the elder Kabila.

The scene, which was broadcast on national television, may have been planned to disprove widespread rumors that he had already been buried in Lubumbashi.

Joseph Kabila and other dignitaries slowly filed past the coffin, before it was sealed again and a service began with both Christian and Muslim prayers.

They then proceeded in a convoy to the Palace of the Nation, where the coffin was interred in the mausoleum.

The presidents of Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, whose soldiers are common sights here, flew into Kinshasa on Tuesday morning.

The leaders of Rwanda and Uganda were asked not to attend.

The reason Kabila was killed remains a mystery, though theories are rampant, ranging from a single angry gunman, to a power-grab within Kabila's inner circle, to a link to Congo's civil war.

The government holds to the lone bodyguard version.

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