By Beauregard Tromp

Gunmen killed up to seven people at an election rally in eastern Congo and political violence also erupted in the capital Kinshasa on Wednesday.

The United Nations called the situation "precarious" but the South African government insisted that the country would be ready for elections at the end of the month and dismissed calls for a postponement.

Unidentified gunmen killed the seven during a rally at Mugogo, 15km east of Rutshuru, in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, where marauding bands of rebels and militias still terrorise the civilian population.

And in the capital Kinshasa police fired teargas in running battles with opposition supporters who ran riot in the streets, assaulting supporters of other parties, burning or tearing down their banners and posters, and stoning and petrol bombing a police station and torching vehicles.

'...we will set up terrorism in the DRC'

Heavily-armed riot police fired teargas to disperse them, apparently trying to prevent the crowd meeting up with the mourners at the funeral of veteran journalist Bapuwa Mwaba who was recently murdered.

Most protesters appeared to be supporters of the opposition Union for Democracy and Social Progress Party (UDPS), led by veteran politician Etienne Tshisekedi, who will not be participating in the election.

He originally boycotted the preparations for elections and then tried to register too late and was not allowed as a candidate. His supporters have been protesting against the elections ever since.

"If they don't let us participate in this election we will set up terrorism in the DRC," said Henry Mutombo of the UDPS.

The DRC violence erupted as SA's 118 election observers were about to leave for the DRC, led by Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula.

In Pretoria yesterday deputy foreign minister Aziz Pahad said he had visited the DRC at the weekend and had been assured by Bill Swing, head of the UN peacekeeping mission Monuc that it could deal with the security situation in the east of the country.

Pahad was with a delegation of ministers from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to assess the country's readiness for elections and met all relevant players.

"Based on our discussions and observations we came to the conclusion that despite numerous challenges, inter alia, the logistical difficulties - this being the largest country in Africa with the largest electorate, and no experience in holding elections - that the people of the DRC were eager and ready for democratic elections for which they have waited for over 40 years. "And so we don't accept any calls for delay."

Independent parliamentary candidate Jean-Luc Mutokambale, who had staged the rally that was attacked, fled to Uganda in fear of his life and other local candidates said they were asking the UN for protection.

It was the worst campaign-related violence reported so far in the run-up to the July 30 polls in which President Jospeh Kabila - who took power after his father was assassinated in 2001 - is standing against 32 other contenders.

"He (Mutokambale) was holding his meeting in the market when people opened fire on them. Seven people were killed and several others were injured. The candidate has had to flee to Uganda," said Sekimonyo wa Magango, a rival candidate in Rutshuru.

"Anything can happen out here," he said.

The polls are intended to usher in a new era of stability after a 1998-2003 war which sucked in six neighbouring states and killed around 4-million people through violence, hunger and disease in one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters.

A UN spokesperson in North Kivu, Jacqueline Chenard, said a UN team had been sent to investigate the Mugogo attack.

"We have also heard that seven people were killed and about five were injured. Many candidates in these areas cannot carry out their campaigns freely. The situation is precarious just two weeks before the elections," she said.

Some presidential and parliamentary candidates have been calling for a suspension of the campaign over fears that election authorities may rig the vote.

The anti-election campaigners say many more election ballots have been printed than are actually needed and these could be used to commit fraud.

Pahad explained earlier that it was normal practice to print extra ballots since election officials could not predict how many voters would show up.

• This article was originally published on page 4 of The Pretoria News on July 20, 2006

Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-07-20 00:00:00