Congo waits for results amid violence

MICHELLE FAUL

Associated Press

KINSHASA, Congo - Gunfire and explosions boomed through Congo's capital Saturday in a new round of fighting between forces loyal to two presidential candidates awaiting the results of a runoff election meant to secure an end to years of war.

Residents on Kinshasa dashed for cover and street vendors hurriedly packed up stalls in Kinshasa. Three civilians - two women and a man - and one soldier were killed in the crossfire between loyalists of President Joseph Kabila and Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba.

Police inspector Gen. Patrick Sabiti said police caught two of the civilians vandalizing property and chased them, when they ran into the line of fire.

The shooting lasted less than four hours and was confined to a couple of blocks in front of the residence and a television station of Bemba, a former rebel leader.

But it raised fears about what could happen when results are announced in Congo's first free elections in nearly 50 years. In August, the candidates' rival security forces fought for three days in Kinshasa, leaving 23 people dead.

With two-thirds of the vote counted Friday, Kabila had a commanding lead of 61 percent, compared to 39 percent for Bemba. Final results are expected by Nov. 19.

Saturday's trouble started when police fired into the air to disperse youthful protesters who burned tires and blocked the road in front of Bemba's TV station, Interior Minister Denis Kalume told The Associated Press.

Men in civilian clothes fired at police from behind, wounding one, according to Kalume. He said they suspected the gunmen were Bemba militants because they were in front of his station.

A close Bemba adviser, Adrien Dambana, described the same incident but said it happened in front of the house. He said they believed the protesters and gunmen were sent to provoke a confrontation.

"It was a premeditated act to create disorder and to hinder the electoral process, but we did not react," he said.

Nevertheless, an Associated Press photographer at Bemba's residence saw one of the vice president's fighters fire a mortar, and an incoming round exploded outside the wall of the residence shortly after, forcing a group of lawmakers gathered outside to run for cover.

Dozens of fighters - some in military uniform, others not - brandished submachine-guns and pistols. One man handed out belts of machine-gun ammunition while others argued.

Fighters carried two wounded colleagues dripping blood into the house from a tree-lined boulevard. Its front wall was pockmarked with bullet holes.

U.N. peacekeepers deployed personnel carriers filled with troops at either side of Bemba's house and at the street corner, where civilians took refuge behind sandbags.

As a burst of fire rang out and a mortar boomed, a Uruguayan peacekeeper leapt from the shelter to hustle in a woman and four school-uniformed children who were walking to their nearby home. Two of the girls cried in fright.

The peacekeeper got them huddled low behind the sandbags, handed out biscuits and water and patted them on the heads, reassuring in halting French "You're safe now. Hush."

Bemba partisans have staged protests in recent days since his party charged there was "systematic cheating" in the vote count.

Dambana said they await the Independent Electoral Commission's response to their complaint about the disposition of about 1 million votes that he said would narrow the gap between Kabila and Bemba.

Both pledged this week to accept the results.

Saturday's shooting ended when U.N. officials sponsored a meeting between representatives of the protagonists, Dambana said.

But tensions remained high in the city on the banks of the Congo River. U.N. personnel carriers stepped up patrols. Riot police guarded strategic buildings. Occasional gunfire crackled Saturday night.

Bemba is popular in Kinshasa and many parts of the west of the Central African nation of 58 million, while Kabila generally has more support in the east.

"We voted for Bemba, not Kabila. Kabila must go!" shouted Jean-Pierre Michel, a 43-year-old unemployed resident who was near Bemba's house.

The runoff vote is the culmination of a four-year transition process to transform the mineral-rich Central African nation into a democracy after decades of dictatorship. A 1998-2002 war that drew in armies from a half-dozen African nations left rebels in control of rival fiefdoms. Kabila's father, Laurent Kabila, declared himself president after he took Kinshasa. Joseph Kabila inherited power when his father was assassinated by a bodyguard in 2001.

With Ugandan backing, Bemba ruled a swathe of northeast Congo for several years before accepting a vice-presidency in the transitional administration set up in 2003 after a peace deal reunited the country.

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Associated Press Writer Eddy Isango and AP photographer Jerome Delay contributed to this report.