Sworn In, Younger Kabila Vows to Seek Congo Peace

Joseph Kabila was sworn in to succeed his slain father as president of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday and immediately promised that he will work to revive a peace deal to end civil war in his country.

“We are going to, in accordance and in consultation with our allies, examine ways to relaunch the Lusaka accords. Not just so that they can take us to an effective cease-fire, but also to arrive at peace in the Great Lakes region,” Kabila said in his first public address to the nation in Kinshasa, the capital.

Fighting in Congo’s civil war has raged on despite a peace deal reached in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, in 1999.

Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola have deployed troops to defend the Kinshasa government against rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda.

Already head of the army, Kabila, 31, was quickly chosen to succeed his father, Laurent, after the elder man was gunned down last week by one of his bodyguards. The reason for the killing has not been explained.

“Our country is going through one of the most painful crises in its history, but I believe that we, all of us together, will be able to overcome it,” Kabila said in his televised speech, which he gave in heavily accented French, the Congolese national language.

He promised free elections, a liberalized economy and the deployment of U.N. forces to oversee the often-ignored 1999 peace agreement.

Kabila also told the nation that his government will lift a ban on the free circulation of foreign money in Congo.

The use of the dollar in commercial transactions was banned in January 1999.