Kabila's death officially announced

The Congolese authorities on Thursday night officially announced the death of President Laurent-Desire Kabila. A statement read over Congolese state television by Information Minister Dominique Sakombi said Kabila died "on Thursday 18 January 2001 at 10:00 [am local time]". "No initiative or attempt was spared or ruled out by the Public Salvation Government and by the doctors in order to save the life of the president of the republic. Alas, these major efforts were unsuccessful and in vain," Sakombi said. In the long eulogy to the late president, Sakombi announced a 30-day mourning period and declared Monday 22 January and Tuesday 23 January - the day of Kabila's funeral - public holidays. He urged the security forces to stay calm and disciplined and "defend the integrity of the DRC [and] cast away the aggressors from the national territory". Kabila's body will be flown back from Harare, Zimbabwe, to Lubumbashi in Kabila's native Katanga province for a private ceremony, before coming to Kinshasa for a state funeral next week. However, speaking on the BBC Friday morning, Zimbabwean Defence Minister Moven Mahachi denied Kabila had died in Zimbabwe, as claimed by the DRC authorities. He said Kabila had died in Kinshasa after being shot by one of his bodyguards on Tuesday, and the body was flown out of the country so that the DRC authorities had time to decide on the next course of action. Meanwhile, Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel said his government had met the DRC authorities on Thursday, now headed by Kabila's son Joseph. "The new Congolese government intends to do everything to end the war, start social and economic reconstruction and promote democracy," Michel told the Belgian parliament, according to IRIN sources in Brussels. Michel said he had requested a meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss implementation of the Lusaka peace accord. Also in Brussels, veteran DRC opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi, who leads the Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), described Kabila's death as a "major political event" in Congo's history. In a statement on Thursday, he regretted the violent manner in which Kabila met his death, but said a "page of our history must now be turned". He called on the Congolese people and members of his party to exercise their political freedoms, which had been curtailed by Kabila, and appealed for national reconciliation as well as implementation of the Lusaka agreement.