General Joseph Kabila took the oath of office Friday to succeed his slain father as president of the war-wracked and impoverished Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
The 29-year-old general was sworn in by the Supreme Court at the historic Palace of the Nation in Kinshasa two days after being proclaimed president by the provisional parliament.
The assembled guests at the palace erupted in cheers after Kabila, wearing a civilian suit with a blue tie, swore fidelity to the nation and vowed to guarantee its independence and territorial integrity.
The Supreme Court's chief prosecutor had said Kabila would fill a "power vacancy at the summit of the state" created by the "tragic death of the valiant fighter" Laurent Kabila, assassinated by a bodyguard on January 16.
The new president, who was little known outside military circles before his father's killing, was to address the nation -- his first public speech since the assassination -- at 8:00 p.m. (1900 GMT), state radio announced.
Laurent Kabila, who overthrew longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in May 1997 after an eight-month guerrilla war, was buried Tuesday in a mausoleum outside the Palace of the Nation, which sits on the mighty Congo River and was once the residence of Belgian governors.
Kabila is the fourth president of the vast central African country since the then Belgian Congo won independence in 1960.
Chosen by his father's aides, he leads an unelected government and a country still at war despite a mid-1999 peace deal.
The war pitting DRC, Angolan, Zimbabwean and Namibian forces against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda, broke out in August 1998, a little more than a year after Laurent Kabila toppled Mobutu.
The rebels, who control the eastern half of the country, on Thursday called on the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity to refuse to acknowledge Kabila as president, saying he had come to power in a putsch.
Angolan, Namibian and Zimbabwean troops were meanwhile securing the capital against any dissidence within DRC army ranks.
An EU regional troubleshooter, Aldo Ajello, raised hopes that a mid-1999 peace process could be revived for the DRC after talks with Angolan Foreign Minister Joao Bernardo de Miranda.
"It now seems to us that the option of peace over war is essential. Previously there has clearly been a preference for the military option. That's a way to avoid solving the problem," Ajello said -- KINSHASA (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
