Thursday, 3 June

Demo5 Originally uploaded by jweatherlake.

Today I got ready to go to the office as usual - everything seemed quiet after the previous evening's demonstration. However, just as I was finishing breakfast the hotel manager told everyone to go upstairs as the demonstrators had recongregated on the main street. From upstairs we could see demonstrators laying siege to the city - smoke rising from various parts of the city and lots of students and other opportunist demonstrators on the street. I spent most of the day eating, watching TV and listening to various rumours. The main target of the demonstration was the UN as well as other Western and government targets. Similar protests have occured in most large towns across the country.
The protesters are angry at the success of Rwandan-backed rebel troops who have taken control of Bukavu, an important town in the east of Congo. The troops were supposed to be part of a recently-formed Congolese army, however, somebody paid somebody and this unit rebelled against the rest of the army. The remainder of the Congolese army fled and the UN peacekeeping force was too small/unprepared to challenge the rebels. The rebel troops have gone on the rampage - looting and pillaging anything they can. These problems are limited to the east of the country. Here in Kinshasa (in the west) things are peaceful apart from the protests. However, the protests are stopping the UN mission from functioning normally.
It was clear from the TV pictures that the protesters had caused quite a lot of damage - burning cars, buildings, looting etc. I heard that the appartement of some of my colleagues had been looted and that the crowd had tried to break in to a UN compound. The UN troops had responded by shooting two protesters as they were looting a UN compound. I heard sporadic shooting throughout the day - most of which must have come from the police as the protesters were mostly unarmed. I later heard that up to twenty protesters may have been killed - though there are many rumours around. We decided that it would be unwise to leave the hotel, so I spent the rest of the day sleeping and waiting for news.