War allies attend Kabila funeral
AS a band played a jaunty version of Auld Lang Syne and jet fighters screamed low overhead, Laurent Kabila, the liberator turned despot of the Democrat
AS a band played a jaunty version of Auld Lang Syne and jet fighters screamed low overhead, Laurent Kabila, the liberator turned despot of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was laid to rest yesterday, a week after his assassination.
Tens of thousands of mourners surrounded the People's Palace, a crumbling, Chinese-built edifice on the edge of Kinshasa, for the lengthy state funeral.
Kabila's corrupt and brutal rule may not have been popular in his lifetime, but in death, in Kinshasa at least, he appeared to have brought about some sort of national unification.
Eight pall bearers in military uniform struggled at times to carry the white coffin. An 80-strong band played as thousands of police and military patrolled the potholed streets that had been specially swept for the occasion.
Gen Joseph Kabila, the murdered president's son and successor, sat stony-faced throughout. Pride of place next to the young leader's chair went to President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, President Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and President Sam Nujoma of Namibia, whose armies are fighting to defend the Kabila regime in an ugly civil war.
The vast crowd outside the palace cheered and screamed as they caught sight of the three leaders.
For the 31-year-old Gen Kabila, who has no political base of his own in Kinshasa, these three allies are pivotal. After the funeral he held an emergency summit at which they gave him assurances of their continued support.
As Kabila's coffin was paraded through the streets police at times strained to keep back mourners who were venting their anger on whites, accusing them of involvement in the president's assassination.
Kabila's body was laid to rest in a small, white, stone chamber outside the Palace of the Nation.
(Daily Telegraph London)
- Tim Butcher in Kinshasa
