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Kabila Promises New Peace Efforts, Elections
KINSHASA, Jan 26 (News Agencies) - Twenty-nine-year-old General Joseph Kabila took the oath of office to succeed his assassinated father as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Friday, pledging fresh efforts to bring peace to his war-torn country and then hold elections.
His swearing-in by the Supreme Court at Kinshasa's historic Palace of the Nation came two days after the provisional parliament proclaimed him president.
His father, Laurent Kabila, who overthrew longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in May 1997, died January 18th two days after being shot by a bodyguard, the government said.
The new president, in an address to the nation broadcast on radio and television late Friday, also pledged to heal rifts with foreign countries and said the DRC would be more active in international diplomacy.
Troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe are supporting his army in a war against an opposition backed by Rwanda and Uganda which has split this huge central African country in half, with fighting continuing despite a peace agreement signed in Lusaka in mid-1999.
"We shall, in agreement and in concert with the allied countries supporting us against aggression, examine the ways and means to relaunch the Lusaka agreement so that it can lead not only to an effective ceasefire, but also to re-establishing peace in the Great Lakes region," he said in his half-hour address, peppered with respectful references to his father.
Once peace had returned, he said, he would organize "free and transparent elections to allow the people themselves to choose a leader to guide the destiny of this country."
Kabila, who was wearing the same dark suit and blue tie he wore at his inauguration, also promised a better deal for investors in his ruined, but mineral-rich country, saying he would free up foreign exchange regulations and liberalize the diamond industry.
He spoke clearly, but solemnly, without smiling and often looking directly into the camera.
He offered an olive branch to opposition politicians and foreign governments, inviting them to take part in a dialogue.
"I have the firm resolution to pursue the improvement of cooperation with our principal partners in the European Union," he said.
"I shall make efforts to bandage the wounds resulting from certain misunderstandings, because I am conscious the European Union has a role to play in the development of the [DR] Congo."
Kabila added that there had been "moments of mutual misunderstanding" with the Bill Clinton administration in the United States.
"The DRC intends to normalize bilateral relations with the new administration, based on mutual respect and the desire for progress of our two peoples," he said.
President George W. Bush earlier sent a clear signal of support to Kabila, sending him a letter just after he took the oath of office - released by the U.S. embassy here - in which he addressed Kabila as "Mr. President" and offered condolences on the death of his father.
The principal opposition movement, the Congolese Rally for Democracy, had sent letters Thursday to the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity asking all countries to refuse to recognize Kabila, who headed the DRC army at the time of his father's assassination.
He began his speech with a long tribute to his jovial and extrovert father, saying he was "among the rare leaders in the history of the contemporary world to have ruled for more than three years without running up external state debts or accumulating a personal fortune."
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