Kabila scarcely glanced up when a guard named Rashidi entered the room from an adjacent courtyard. In his late 20s, Rashidi had been a member of the small presidential-guard unit for more than two years. He walked over beside Kabila as if to whisper something in his ear. The dictator inclined his head toward the guard, who quietly pulled out his service revolver. The first bullet struck behind Kabila’s left ear and exited the right side of his chest, below the nipple. The president fell to the right and Rashidi fired twice more, hitting Kabila in the belly.
Rashidi then dashed for the door that opened back into Kabila’s private residence. A cabinet minister followed, shouting, “He has fired at the president!” Other guards cut Rashidi down in a volley of machine-gun fire. Kabila, perhaps clinically dead, was flown to Zimbabwe for treatment, throwing Kinshasa into confusion. Finally, the government announced that he had been assassinated, and that his son, Maj. Gen. Joseph Kabila, 32, would succeed him.
For most Congolese, there was no reason to cheer Kabila’s murder, nor cause to mourn. When Kabila came to power in 1997, some diplomats and journalists thought his successful rebellion against Mobutu might herald an African dawn. He was seen as one of a new generation of African leaders who were supposed to be broad-minded, ready to cooperate for the common good–and less tribal and corrupt than many of their predecessors. During a 1997 visit, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Kabila had “made a strong start” toward “open markets, honest government and the rule of law.”
The remark reflected Washington’s hopes more than the facts on the ground. Others of this “new generation” later fought terrible wars against each other. Ethiopia battled Eritrea in a conflict that cost tens of thousands of lives. Kabila himself was accused of gross human-rights violations, including jailing critics without trial and ordering aides assassinated. And Kabila’s early African backers–President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda–went to war against him. When Kabila received military help from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia, U.S. and other officials fretted about Africa’s “first World War.” Now several of these neighbor-ing armies are feasting on Congo’s natural resources, including diamonds.
Kabila’s passing could help resolve the conflict. He routinely obstructed implementation of the 1999 Lusaka Accord, which called for a ceasefire, withdrawal of foreign forces and political dialogue. In particular, Kabila impeded deployment of some 5,000 U.N. peacekeeping troops. The junior Kabila may be a better peace partner, particularly if allies like Zimbabwe and Angola want to cut a deal. “The son isn’t a player in his own right, so there’s a chance he will be more malleable,” says a Western official.
One reason the government moved so quickly to anoint Joseph was to ward off chaos. “We couldn’t wait–panic could have seized the population,” says the cabinet source. “We asked ourselves: who is the personality who could be accepted both by the military and by the political sector?” The constitution did not provide for a succession, so the officials settled on Joseph, who was 100 miles away at the time.
At 32, the junior Kabila has a tenuous claim to legitimacy. Born and educated in Tanzania, he is more comfortable speaking English and Swahili than French or any of the indigenous Congolese languages. Upon assuming office, his first directive was to pay Army soldiers and civil servants, who had gone unpaid for several months. That, in the absence of evidence of a larger coup plot, led to speculation that Rashidi killed the president because he was disgruntled about delinquent pay.
Nobody was ready to pronounce a new dawn. But ordinary people and government officials alike did note one point of progress: the immediate crisis was handled peacefully. Iyandi Lubunga, 26, a nurse, said the city felt “a little bit morose,” but he also noted that the lack of civil unrest was a marked change from the past. “The Congolese have grown up. Before, when we had crises, they went wild,” he said. “That is something to celebrate.” Perhaps, but only in a country that has so little to celebrate about.
