Date: Fri, 19 Jan 2001 16:29:32 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: DRC: Kinshasa students demonstrate against Joseph Kabila  [2010119]
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DRC: Kinshasa students demonstrate against Joseph Kabila

NAIROBI, 19 January (IRIN) - Reports from the Congolese capital Kinshasa
says students have been demonstrating against the appointment of Joseph
Kabila as interim head of state. 

Diplomatic sources in Kinshasa told IRIN on Friday the nomination of
Kabila junior had not been well-received in the city. Thirty-one year-old
Kabila does not speak the languages of Kinshasa - namely French and
Lingala - having lived most of his life in English and Swahili-speaking
East Africa. "His youth and political inexperience are seen as serious
handicaps," one diplomat said. 

Congolese rebel groups in the east have also rejected Joseph Kabila to
succeed his father who was assassinated on Tuesday. "Nothing has changed
in Kinshasa", said Kin-Kiey Mulumba, spokesman for the Goma-based
Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD). 

However, the situation in Kinshasa is still reported to be calm. There
were minor incidents of looting in the city - as well as in the cities of
Kikwit and Mbuji-Mayi - but these were quickly brought under control, the
sources told IRIN.

Regional analyst Professor Filip Reyntjens of Antwerp University said the
likelihood of a weakened regime after Kabila's death may encourage the
Ugandan- and Rwandan-backed rebel movements to make a push on Kinshasa,
which would create "an extremely dangerous situation".

"Any advance by the RCD on Lubumbashi [Katanga province] or Mbuji-Mayi
[Kasai Oriental], or by the Mouvement de liberation du Congo [MLC] on
Mbandaka [Equateur], could then spark a race between the two to march on
Kinshasa, making a mockery of any supposed consensual approach from the
rebel movements," he added. 

[ENDS]

[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]


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