Kabila begins visit to the east

President Joseph Kabila began his first visit as head of state to Kisangani on Saturday in the eastern province of Oriental, scene of some of the worst fighting during five years of war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"By beginning with Kisangani, Kabila's visit symbolised national reunification, the end of hostilities and economic revival," Kudura Kasongo, his spokesman, told IRIN.

He will also visit other former rebel-held areas in the east of the country. The route will take him to Kindu, the main town in Maniema Province; Bukavu, the leading town in South Kivu Province; Ituri District, in Oriental Province; and the northwestern province of Equateur.

Bukavu and Ituri had not yet been pacified. In Bukavu, there was fighting between army dissidents and loyalist-government forces in June and the locality of Debomala in Ituri, on 4 October, was where an unidentified armed group attacked a village of the Bira people.

On arrival in Kisangani, Kabila laid the foundation stones of a large modern market, a school of finance and a hospital for female victims of sexual violence, which estimated together, will cost US $1.5 million. Public infrastructure was badly damaged or destroyed during the war by different locally armed factions and by fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan regular troops who backed opposing local proxies.

Kabila told Kisangani residents he had come to take stock of the effects of war on the city. He also called on them to do everything possible to ensure elections would take place as scheduled in July 2005.

"The people are tired of successive evolving situations and do not want any more transitions," he said in his speech, transmitted by state-owned Congolese Radio.

On Monday, Kabila met Monsignor Laurent Monsengwo Pasignya, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Kisangani, who presented the president with a list of requirements by the town’s residents. Their only method of transport is by bicycle.

Kasongo said Kabila would return to the nation's capital, Kinshasa, on Monday before continuing on to Kindu, Bukavu and Equateur.