Congo President Kabila Shot; Some Reports Say He Is Dead

President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo was shot in a 30-minute gun battle Tuesday at his residence, and some diplomats and sources in neighboring countries said he had been killed.

Airports and borders were closed, and a curfew was imposed, but Congolese government officials in Kinshasa, the capital, did not confirm that the president was dead.

Kabila’s death would throw into further turmoil a huge, mineral-rich nation racked by nearly 2 1/2 years of civil war that has drawn in at least six other countries, and would threaten to destabilize all of sub-Saharan Africa. The United Nations has 500 troops in Congo, part of a planned peacekeeping force of more than 5,500.

It was unclear whether the attack was an attempt to overthrow the entire government, or simply to get rid of Kabila.

A member of the president’s security entourage said that a bodyguard had shot Kabila in the back and right leg but that the Congolese leader had survived and was being treated by doctors. One unconfirmed report said there had been an internal rebellion among the president’s armed escort, while another said supporters of the late Mobutu Sese Seko, the dictator Kabila ousted in 1997, had staged a putsch.

Shortly after the shootout, Kabila’s army chief of staff appeared on state television to appeal for calm and discipline among his troops, telling them to await further instructions.

Large numbers of troops in armored vehicles and on foot were said to be blocking off roads near the president’s residence.

The foreign minister of Belgium, the onetime colonial power that retains close ties with Congo, said it appeared Kabila was dead. “From three sources, I have that Kabila has most likely been shot to death,” said the minister, Louis Michel, after a Cabinet meeting in Brussels. French Foreign Ministry officials also said they believed Kabila was dead.

Senior U.S. officials cited “credible” and “consistent” reports from African and European sources that Kabila was dead. While Kinshasa was reported to be calm, the U.S. Embassy warned all Americans to remain in their homes.

The Associated Press also quoted John Aycoth, a lobbyist and public relations consultant who acts as Kabila’s spokesman in the United States, as saying the president had been killed.

But news reports from Congo quoted government officials as saying he was still alive. “President Kabila is alive, and everything is OK,” Gen. Francois Olenga said.

Top-level Congolese officials in Kinshasa were expected to make an official announcement today, but the morning dragged on without any formal word of Kabila’s fate.

Kabila came to power in May 1997 after a Ugandan- and Rwandan-sponsored rebellion against Mobutu, who had ruled--and plundered--the nation formerly called Zaire for three decades. The rapturous welcome Kabila received quickly turned sour. He was accused of nepotism, alienating investors and obstructing U.N. investigations into reports that his rebel army had massacred thousands of Hutu refugees. His rule quickly became despotic.

In August 1998, former allies also turned against him, plunging the country into yet another round of war. The current conflict pits Kabila’s government, backed by Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, against splinter rebel groups supported by Rwanda and Uganda. Rebels control a large part of eastern Congo.

The Congolese government accuses Rwanda and Uganda of deploying troops in the country’s north in defiance of a July 1999 peace accord. The agreement calls on Rwanda and Uganda and the three other foreign armies fighting in Congo to withdraw from the country.

But Western diplomats based in the Congolese capital, and a ministerial committee established to oversee the peace pact, believe Kabila has been a major stumbling block to implementing the deal.

The committee, composed of senior officials from all sides in the Congo conflict, warned last year that the peace deal was in danger of collapsing. The Congolese president is said to have prevented a senior negotiator from Botswana from starting an all-party national dialogue on the country’s future and to have done little to create a proper environment for the deployment of U.N. forces.

U.N. resolutions have called for a U.N. force of 5,537, made up of 500 observers and four battalions of armed security forces to protect them. So few U.N. troops have been sent so far because the Security Council has declared that there is no longer a peace to keep.

Instead of lessening, cease-fire violations have increased. Fighting has flared in the northern regions of Congo between Kabila’s forces and the Ugandan-backed rebel Congo Liberation Movement.

The Joint Military Commission set up under the agreement signed in Lusaka, Zambia, and composed of senior military officials from belligerent countries and rebel groups also has encountered setbacks. The group, charged with implementing the cease-fire agreement and investigating any reports of violations, has blamed a lack of money for its failure.

Hundreds of the country’s 51 million citizens have been killed and thousands displaced from their homes. In Kinshasa, residents have suffered biting shortages of food, water and electricity, and the government’s promises of a major overhaul of the infrastructure remain unfulfilled.

Many residents of the capital, a political hotbed, have privately lobbied for Kabila’s overthrow because they say they are worse off than ever before.

In New York, diplomats were scrambling for information.

At the Congo mission, counselor Ileka Atoki said he had been trying all day to confirm news of what happened in his homeland.

“There’s no clear indication of what happened today or who is in charge,” he said. “If we go by the rules, the next highest minister, the minister of the interior, should be in charge. If it’s not by the rules--if it’s a coup--then I have no idea what will happen next.”

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Times staff writers Robin Wright in Washington and Maggie Farley at the United Nations and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Congo Facts

Information about Congo, where President Laurent Kabila was shot in a gun battle Tuesday.

POPULATION: 51.75 million (2000 estimate), of whom 30% live in cities. Ethnic makeup: mainly Bantu (80%), with as many as 250 tribal groups in all.

The official language is French.

The main local languages are Lingala, Kingwana, Kikongo, Tshiluba.

The main religions are Roman Catholic (50%), Protestant (20%), Kimbanguist (10%), Muslim (10%).

CAPITAL: Kinshasa.

AREA: 905,562 sq. miles, making it the third largest African country.

ECONOMY: Gross domestic product: $35.7 billion; per capita income: $710.

HISTORY: Gained independence from Belgium on June 30, 1960; was formerly known as Zaire.

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Sources: Reuters; 2000 CIA World Factboo