Bemba issues “final warning” to Kabila

Leader of the rebel Mouvement democratique du Congo (MLC), Jean-Pierre Bemba, says he has issued his “final warning” to President Laurent-Desire Kabila. In a speech in Gbadolite on Sunday to stress adherence to the Lusaka peace accords, Bemba said that “from now on, each new aggression by the Kinshasa authorities against innocent people will provoke a vigorous reaction by the Armee de liberation du Congo [ALC, armed wing of the MLC]”. “If necessary...we will go as far as Kinshasa and chase the dictator from his lair,” Bemba said.

“We are not fighting for power, or for personal enrichment, but for a vision of the country, to regain our freedom which has been taken away, to ensure a future for our children,” he continued. He said the ALC would “spearhead” a new national republican army which would defend the territorial integrity and sovereignty of the DRC. “The country’s unity will never be signed away by the MLC,” Bemba added. He said the only way of ending the “confusion” in DRC was the inter-Congolese dialogue, as stipulated in the Lusaka accord.

In this way, a new political order would be created, he said.