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DR Congo police break up banned march in Kinshasa
KINSHASA, June 30, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Police in the DR Congo capital Kinshasa
used teargas Sunday to break up an opposition march and blocked a car
transporting former presidential candidate Martin Fayulu.
Another opposition figure, former prime minister Adolphe Muzito, was also
in the car, an AFP journalist observed.
About 50 police officers surrounded the vehicle in the middle of a main
thoroughfare, Boulevard Lumumba.
The two men emerged from the car to talk to Kinshasa police chief Sylvano
Kasongo as some demonstrators tried to group around them.
On Saturday, DR Congo President Felix Tshisekedi backed a decision to ban
the march, pointing to violence that broke out last weekend.
Speaking in his first major interview since taking office early this year,
Tshisekedi told French media: “We have the impression that there are some who
confuse democracy with anarchy.”
Last Sunday, as opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba flew back into the
country, police fired tear gas at rock-throwing protesters who targeted his
convoy.
Sunday’s march was called by Bemba and Fayulu, who maintains he was robbed
of victory in the December 30 presidential election in the former Belgian
colony.
Their Lamuka coalition said late Friday it would go ahead with the march to
protest the constitutional court’s invalidation of the election of about 20
opposition lawmakers.
Kasongo had warned that any gatherings of more than 10 people Sunday would
be dispersed.
Fayulu accuses Tshisekedi, himself a longtime opposition leader, of being
the “puppet” of his predecessor Joseph Kabila, whose party enjoys a majority
in parliament.
BSS/AFP/RY/1808 hrs