Government names suspects in March coup attempt

The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo identified on Wednesday 13 masterminds behind the March coup attempt in the capital, Kinshasa, many of whom were military and ex-presidential guards.

A government commission, formed to investigate the failed coup, said ex-military officers from the army of the late president, Mobutu Sese Seko, funded the operation.

"There are officers, who are now abroad, who were connected to the people who executed the coup attempt," Theophile Mbemba, the minister of interior, said.

"The funding [for the coup] came through Brazzaville and Brussels," a colonel, who presided over the commission, said. The colonel, who asked not to be named, added that the commission had registered 25 shipments of money. The plotters ultimately used the money, whose value and currency the colonel did not disclose.

A spokseman for the commission said 72 people were in Kinshasa's central prison awaiting trial on charges related to the failed March coup.

Another followed that attempt earlier in June, by members of President Joseph Kabila's presidential guard. The putschits briefly seized the state owned Radio Television National Congolese before loyal government forces routed and arrested 20 of them. However the alleged mastermind, Maj Eric Lenge, remains at large.