Word: kabila
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...Joseph Kabila speaks slowly and deliberately, monitoring each word even as it's forming. When his stern but handsome face breaks into a smile, it lasts just a second or two. A chuckle, and then he checks himself. He doesn't smoke, he says. Or drink. Not even a beer with dinner? "Why should I drink a beer? I drink juice." As a teenager he read novels but now prefers philosophy. "I used to read a lot about revolution, but I believe it's time to read about development, democracy," he says. He's interested in computers and the Internet...
...Kabila has little time for trips to the countryside these days. Since the assassination of his father three months ago thrust him into the presidency, he has toured the world - the U. S., France, Germany and the former colonial power Belgium - to ask for help in rebuilding his shattered country and to promise to abide by a peace deal to end the 33-month war there. He fired the ministers he inherited from his father, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, and promises to install a cabinet that "will work for Congo." Says a senior Western diplomat in the capital...
...father did. When the one-time Marxist Laurent-Désiré - backed by Rwanda and Uganda - ousted the venal Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, he was greeted with cheers and optimism. After three decades of kleptocratic dictatorship, it seemed that Congo could finally begin again. But the senior Kabila's promise of national reconstruction didn't get much further than slogans and billboards. Within a year the country was back at war, and the smiling giant had cracked down on political opponents and postponed promised elections. So when a bodyguard shot Kabila in his office last January, few people...
...Today, says the Western diplomat, "there's a belief, maybe a hope, that this time the Kabila is different." Certainly the capital is a lot less tense than at any time in the past year. Possession of foreign currency, banned by the elder Kabila, is legal again. And his son is negotiating to end a controversial contract granting an Israeli company a monopoly on the export of diamonds. Crucially, "he hasn't just broken the contract unilaterally, as would have happened in the past," says another Western diplomat. "It could be that he's scared of the repercussions...
...resolution was adopted unanimously after a three-day U.N. conference of the six countries and three rebel groups involved in Africa's widest conflict. The plan calls for 3,000 U.N. personnel to monitor the withdrawal until a final timetable is drawn up by May 15. Congolese President Joseph Kabila agreed to the appointment of former Botswana leader Ketumile Masire as regional mediator...