Security Council Reviews Congo's Progress

KINSHASA, Congo -- Congo's president told the U.N. Security Council on Monday he would do his utmost to stop political intimidation and incitement of hatred during campaigning for the country's first national elections in more than four decades, diplomats said.

The council met privately at the presidential palace for an hour with President Joseph Kabila, who is one of 33 candidates for the presidency of this mineral-rich central African nation struggling to emerge from years of conflict.

The council later held separate meetings with Congo's four vice presidents _ three of whom also are running for president in the July 30 ballot.

Campaigning in the presidential and national assemby races officially begins June 29. Congo's independent media regulator accused Kabila and several vice presidents Sunday of jumping the gun and allowing media they control to incite intolerance and hatred in recent weeks.

The vote will be Congo's first since independence from Belgium in 1960. The elections are seen as a key step toward stability in the vast country after decades of coups, war and corrupt military rule.

A U.N. peacekeeping force of about 17,000 soldiers that helped end the 1998-2002 war is now preparing to secure the vote. Its biggest challenge will be in the eastern Congo, where rebels remain active.

France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, who led the council on a 10-day African trip that concluded Monday, said that during the meeting with Kabila members expressed concern about the media inflaming the issue of whether a candidate is Congolese.

"Talk of Congolese identity, divisive talk, words of exclusion are dangerous," he told reporters.

Questions have been raised about front-runner Kabila because he grew up in Tanzania. Kabila took over Congo from his father, Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated by a disgruntled bodyguard in 2001.

Tanzania's U.N. ambassador, Augustine Mahiga, said Kabila told members he didn't want a repetition of media hate campaigns in Rwanda that played a role in the 1994 genocide there.

The election is being organized by a transitional government established in 2003 following peace deals that ended the civil war, a conflict that drew in armies from six nations.

As Security Council and government officials met Monday, police fired in the air to disperse an opposition protest of nearly 4,000 people on Kinshasa's main boulevard. The demonstrators responded by hurling stones, and kept marching. Shop windows and cars were damaged.

Many protesters were supporters of veteran opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, who inititally announced an election boycott claiming the electoral process was flawed and unfair.

But he changed his mind after voter registration closed, and now wants his supporters given a chance to register. Election officials say reopening registration would delay a ballot that already has been pushed back several times since the original target of last year.

France's de la Sabliere said the council's assessment is that "preparations are on track" for the elections, though there may be some difficulties in the coming weeks.