IRIN Web Special: The death of Laurent Desire Kabila

The chain of events surrounding the assasination of the president

1. Tuesday January 16

• This is the day before the 41st anniversary of Lumumba's death. - Around 3:00 pm : shots are heard from the "Palais de marbre" . Traffic on the Kitambo / "Palais de marbre" axis is interrupted. Ngaliema clinic, where the president was immediately taken for first aid is surrounded by militaries.
  
  
• President Kabila's camp assistant, col. Eddy Kapend calls on national TV and radio for discipline and loyalty from all the members of the Congolese army. Civilians are asked to go about their business. He announces the closing of all borders.
  
  
• Another radio declares a curfew from 8:00pm to 6:00am.
  
  
• In the evening, foreign radios (RFI, AFRICA no 1) announce the death of the president .

  Death circumstances still unclear
  
  The President is said to have been approached by one of his long-time bodyguard, named Rashidi Kasereka who then opened fire on him with a gun equipped with a silencer.

  Palace workers said Mr. Kabila was shot between 12:30 and 1:00 p.m. on Tuesday after finishing morning meetings with ministers and military officers. After the meetings, "One of his guards approached him, as if to deliver a message," said a man who was in the palace that day. Suddenly the guard pulled out a pistol and fired twice," he said. According to the accounts, Mr. Kabila was hit twice, in the back and in the leg, and fell. As the assassin was running away, he fired a third shot, touching the president's arm. A fourth shot went wide, the reports said.

  However, the killing might as well have happened earlier in the morning; as uncertainty still prevails over the actual circumstances of the death

2. Wednesday January 17

• The day is quiet in Kinshasa. No significant security incident in the city.
  
  
• Rumour says that the president is dead, shot by one of his bodyguards named Rashidi, and obviously, from the eastern part of the country. The other guards immediately killed the latter.
  
  
• Ministers are called for an extraordinary meeting. The following decisions are taken:
  
  
• General major Joseph Kabila (son of the late President) is taking the lead of the government and military forces.
• The curfew is reduced and brought back from 10:00pm to 5:00am.
• Borders are reopened, however with no significant traffic.
  
  
• The town is under the control of Angolan patrols.
  
  
• The death of the president is confirmed by the Zimbabwean press agency.
  
  
• No local newspapers published.

3. Thursday January 18

• The day is quiet in Kinshasa. No significant security incident in the city.
  
  
• 8:00pm Announcement by Mr Sakombi, Minister of Communication:
  
  
• The death of the president is announced officially. The death is said to date back from Wednesday January 17 at 10:00AM.
• The population is requested to be calm and peaceful
• Monday and Tuesday are declared public and paid holidays
• 30 days of mourning also announced
  
  
• Lootings are reported in Kikwit, in circumstances - probably - independent from President Kabila's death.

4. Friday January 19

• No significant security incident in the city.
  
  
• President Kabila is expected to be buried on Tuesday in Kinshasa.
  
  
• Serious attacks between Hema, Lendu and Ngiti in Bunia are reported, although, they are not linked with the events in Kinshasa.

5. Saturday January 20

• No significant security incident in the city. All day long, soldiers and civil servants are paid.
  
  
• Kabila's body is back from Harare to Lubumbashi. The body is exposed on Place du 30 juin where people can pay their last tribute.
  
  
• 16:00PM Press conference in Kinshasa with Mwenze Kongolo minister of justice:
  
  
• Explanations about the circumstances of the President death are given.
• The President 's son is to be confirmed in his new position after his father's burial.

6. Sunday January 21

• 12:00PM: Arrival of Kabila body from Lubumbashi to Ndjili airport with a delegation headed by Yerodia (Minister of Education). The members of diplomatic missions and international organisations get together at Ndjili airport to pay a last tribute to the president.
  
  
• A procession is organised on the main roads of Kinshasa and ends up at "Palais du peuple" where the body will be exposed until Tuesday. No major incident during the three hours procession from the airport to the Palais.
  
  
• Presidents Robert Mugabe, Sam Nujoma and Jose Eduardo dos Santos meet in Luanda. They make a formal appeal to the countries surrounding the DRC to exercise caution and to prevent an exacerbation of the situation. The three countries decide to continue their military support for the new government, and call for a summit of the signatories of the Lusaka Agreement on January 24 in Maputo.
  
  
• The US state department authorizes the departure of non emergency USA government personnel and embassy family members and renews security instructions to its citizens.
  
  
• AFP receives a communiqué from a group of "young resistants" from the conseil National pour la Resistance et la Democratie (CNRD) claiming that they are responsible for L. D. Kabila's murder. The CNRD claims to be a group of army officers and declares, "…people should know that on January 15 at 23:30, 47 young patriots were executed without a trial in the presence of Kabila…"
  
  
• The curfew is lifted from today to Tuesday January 23

7. Monday January 22

• Delegation and officials pay a last tribute to the slain president at "Palais du peuple"
  
  
• United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan states it's too soon to decide whether peacekeeping forces are needed in the Democratic Republic of Congo: "I think on the Congo situation, that there is a new leader, he has just taken over, and we need to wait for the situation to settle.

8. Tuesday January 23

• The president body is taken from Palais du peuple where it was exposed to Palais de La Nation where a statute of a horse riding Leopold II once stood and where the country's independence was also granted in a ceremony in 1960.
  
  
• The burial ceremony of the late President Kabila takes place in the presence of Major general Joseph Kabila, the new President and several foreign delegations including: the Heads of State of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola, Sudan, Zambia; the Former President of Nigeria Gen. Abubakar Abdul salaam; the Vice presidents of the Republic of South Africa and Kenya; the Prime Minister of Togo; the Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium; and other high level officials from Morocco, Gabon, Cameroon, Benin, Libya, Malawi, Congo, Chad, Cuba (represented especially by its Ambassador), Iran; and the Deputy Secretary General of OAU.
  
  
• A huge crowd attended the ceremony. Roads along the route were lined with hundreds of thousands of people mourning their leader's death.
  
  
• Everything went peacefully. The curfew is lifted.
  
  
• The different national authorities ( Catholic Archibichop of Kinshasa, the president of the Islamic Community, the President of the "Assemblée Constituante et législative- parlement de transition", the Minister of State in charge of Interior) who spoke during the ceremony called for the redynamisation of the intercongolese dialogue and the departure of the aggressors from the DRC.

9. Wednesday January 24

"We consider this day that Major General Joseph Kabila is invested with all constitutional powers," said the motion, approved by all 245 present members of the constituent assembly. The representatives also have adopted the following resolutions:

• Joseph Kabila is invested as the new DRC head of state - The late president, Laurent Desire Kabila is declared "national heroe"
  
  
• The Laurent Desire Kabila oath "I will never betray Congo" is adopted and will be carved in all representations of the deceased president.

10. Friday January 26

• "I swear my fidelity to the country and I will respect the constitutionality of the Congolese republic, guarantee its independence, unite the people and the entire country and defend its borders."

  Taking the place of his assassinated father, Joseph Kabila is sworn in as President of the DRC.

  The oath is taken before the members of the DRC's Supreme Court in Kinshasa's Palais de la nation.

• 20:00PM Joseph Kabila on TV delivers his first speech to the nation in French:
• He calls for the "immediate and unconditional retreat of the aggressor states -Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda"
• He asserts that his government will seek a policy favouring dialogue and reconciliation with its enemies. "We invite...our neighbours and brothers to return to better sentiments, to good neighbourliness, to the peaceful resolution of differences and the fruitful