Installation of military leadership delayed as mutiny rocks Kisangani

The installation of leaders of a unified national military in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that was due to take place on Monday has been postponed, while a failed mutiny has been reported in the northeastern city of Kisangani, Orientale Province. No official reason was given for the postponement, although military sources told IRIN that some officers from the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) former rebel movement, now a party to a power-sharing national transitional government, had not yet arrived in the national capital, Kinshasa. The same military sources confirmed the failed mutiny that had taken place early Sunday. Several Kisangani residents told IRIN that gunfire could be heard for more than one hour. The governor of the province, Jean-Pierre Bilusa said loyalist troops subdued the insurgents after an hour-long gun battle that began about 2 a.m. "There were no deaths, but a serious injury was sustained by an officer assigned to the city's protection force," he said. Gen Bora Uzima, an RCD-Goma officer, has been accused of leading the failed putsch – a charge that he has denied. "If I wanted to launch a coup d'etat, I would have had arms," Bora told Radio Okapi in Goma, eastern DRC, where he has been released. "I am being accused of having 45 men, but here I am, all alone." He had been among the candidates RCD-Goma first nominated to share leadership of a unified national military. However, its list of candidates provoked an outcry from President Joseph Kabila and other members of the former Kinshasa government, as well as from the International Committee to Accompany the Transition, known by its French acronym CIAT. The objections were raised because the list included individuals suspected of involvement in the assassination of President Laurent-Desire Kabila, the current president’s father. The elder Kabila was shot dead on 16 January 2001 in Kinshasa by one of his bodyguards. CIAT, which is made up of ambassadors to the DRC and the UN Mission there, known as MONUC, had issued a statement on Saturday expressing its concern over the previous RCD-Goma nominees, noting that they included "persons of a controversial character that did not meet the demands of non-conflictive transition". Bilusa said that an investigation into the mutiny was underway in Kisangani, with the participation of the UN peacekeeping mission in the DRC, known as MONUC. "We are following the situation closely, and we are also keeping an eye on Bora with regard to human rights [violations]," Hamadoun Toure, the MONUC spokesman, told IRIN in Kinshasa. "Our Moroccan contingent conducted patrols and helped to restore calm in the city by protecting civilian populations and preventing pillaging." RCD-Goma has not commented on the failed mutiny. Under a power-sharing accord reached in December 2002 in Pretoria, South Africa, Kabila named on 19 August the officers who would lead the nation's unified national military, incorporating elements from all former armed rebel groups signatory to a national power-sharing accord. Some 31 officers from the former Kinshasa government army, former rebel groups and the Mayi-Mayi militia were appointed to military leadership posts.