Gunfire as Congo's government puts down coup attempt in capital

KINSHASA, Congo -- Congolese troops put down a coup attempt by a small band of dissidents within the presidential guard Friday, the government said, after heavy gunfire and tank shelling echoed across the central African nation's capital for several hours.

After a chaotic night of clashes around a military base, state media stations and the presidential mansion, President Joseph Kabila declared the attempt had failed.

"Stay calm, prepare yourself to resist -- because I will allow nobody to try a coup d'etat or to throw off course our peace process," Kabila declared in a midmorning address to Congolese on state TV.

"As for me, I'm fine," the 32-year-old Congolese leader, wearing a khaki military uniform, added.

The crisis was the latest -- and the second this month alone -- for Kabila's transition government, pieced together out of loyalists, ex-rebels and opposition figures in 2003 after Congo's devastating 1998-2002 war.

Government security forces backed by a helicopter were pursuing the alleged leader of the coup attempt as he fled south of the capital with the last 21 of his men, presidential spokesman Kadura Kasonga said.

The coup attempt started after midnight local time, when an officer identified as Maj. Eric Lenge abruptly appeared on state radio to declare his forces had "neutralized" the transition government.

Power went off in the city, in a blackout suspected to have been caused by the rebels.

Foreign Minister Antoine Ghonda blamed an "isolated movement" within the security forces, and said dissidents included officers of Kabila's guard.

Dissidents were routed from the state broadcast stations and retreated overnight to a military base within the capital, government ministers said.

Most of Kinshasa's millions appeared to have slept through the first hours of the coup attempt.

At daybreak, however, the capital awoke to gunfire in the city center. Residents and diplomats reported bursts from automatic weapons and tank shelling at the base where dissident forces had holed up.

Western diplomatic officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said loyalist security forces were battling coup forces at the military post.

Congo government and military leaders described Lenge and his followers breaking out of the base and fleeing first to Kinshasa's international airport, then to the south of the city, toward the Bas Congo region.

Security forces had arrested 12 of the fleeing men, Kabila said.

Western diplomatic officials said Lenge had called U.S. and British embassies and the U.N. mission overnight, in a vain attempt to surrender after other security forces failed to join his call for a government overthrow.

U.N. spokesman Hamadoun Toure denied Lenge had contacted his mission.

Two tanks, an armored personnel carrier and troops seen in the city center around daybreak had been Lenge's forces -- looking for escape or a way to surrender, diplomats said.

Simultaneously with the shooting around the base, residents and diplomats had reported heavy gunfire around Kabila's private residence. There was no immediate explanation of the circumstances.

Diplomats said the dissidents expressed grievances about pay, in partial or full arrears for months from Congo's government.

Friday's coup attempt was the second security-force uprising against the transition government led by Kabila, who took power in 2001 after his father, rebel-leader-turned-president Laurent Kabila, was killed by one of his own bodyguards.

Stalled under Laurent Kabila, peace efforts moved forward under Joseph Kabila.

In March, a few hundred soldiers attacked military installations in the capital. That attempt was defeated, and it was unclear whether it was a coup attempt or a more limited mutiny.

On Wednesday, government forces recaptured the eastern town of Bukavu from renegade ex-rebel forces, ending a seven-day takeover that had posed the greatest military and diplomatic challenge to the government.

Kabila's government came under heavy criticism for allowing fall of the town June 2.

Associated Press reporter Eddy Isango contributed to this report from Bukavu, Congo.

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