| | January 16, 2001 (forty years after the assassination of Patrice Lumumba) marked the murder of the chubby - but not at all cherubic - ruler of the Democratic Republic of the Congo since the culmination of his successful Rwanda and Uganda-backed war against Mobutu Sese Seko in May 1997. Laurent-Désiré Kabila is dead; long live his son Joseph, who after many official denials of his father's death was appointed a few days later. On the eve of the dauphin's inauguration, while the world outside was hoping the newly appointed ruler could break the deadlock keeping the DRC war-torn since the Lusaka Accord was signed (but continuously dishonoured) in August 1999, doyens of capital city Kinshasa were marching in the streets complaining that their country was not a monarchy, so why should Kabila's son inherit the reigns of state? |
