Congo’s President Arrives At Kinshasa Heavily Guarded Kabila Has Yet To Address The Nation

Guerrilla leader and self-proclaimed President Laurent Kabila flew into this conquered capital Tuesday night, ending the improbable political and military odyssey he launched more than 30 years ago.

Kabila landed after dark from his eastern military headquarters, and although the large, expectant crowds that gathered in daylight had dwindled, those still along the road cheered wildly as a heavily guarded motorcade rushed him to the residence of the former prime minister.

The aging revolutionary who wrested control from dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in a seven-month civil war declined to talk to reporters at the airport. Aides said they were unsure when Kabila would address the nation he has renamed Democratic Republic of Congo from Zaire.

Kabila, a veteran of bush wars and rebellions dating to the country’s independence from Belgium in 1960, arrived three days after his rebel army completed a marathon march across the heart of Africa and captured this teeming capital.

Members of Kabila’s wartime Cabinet and other civilian officials from his Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Congo-Zaire spent most of the day in closed-door consultations with politicians, community leaders and diplomats to prepare the groundwork for an interim government and what Kabila has promised will be a democratic transition.

Kabila and his aides have assured diplomats the new regime will adhere to international human-rights standards as they consolidate control over the city. But allegations that his men participated in massacres during the civil war have dogged his attempts to win Western support.