Police, opposition clash in DR Congo

Two people died and police clashed with the main opposition candidate and his entourage Saturday, the final day of campaigning before Monday's elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi was engaged in a stand-off with police at Kinshasa airport for several hours after they blockaded his red Hummer after he tried to defy a ban on political rallies. The 78-year-old politician candidate of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) was confronted with national police chief General Charles Bisengimana and 300 of his officers. Throngs of Tshisekedi supporters brandishing palm fronds had gathered along the airport road to greet the veteran politician with a welcome his party said would be "like Jesus entering Jerusalem." But as he tried to leave the airport for the capital's biggest stadium, a large armoured truck and a group of police pick-ups blocked his path. He remained hemmed in for more than seven hours before police pushed members of his 20-car entourage into their cars with shoves and baton blows and forced the motorcade to drive off. Kinshasa police had called off the last day of campaign rallies after a man was killed after being struck in the head by a rock in campaign-related unrest earlier in the day. Later Saturday, a statement from Interior Minister Adolphe Lumanu said two people had died. Tshisekedi's return to the capital had "unfortunately given rise to some bloody incidents" which had left two dead and several injured, he said. But apart from "a few incidents", the election campaign had passed off peacefully across the country. The decision to suspend the final campaign meetings had been taken to try to maintain calm, he said. Kinshasa governor Andre Kimbuta, an ally of President Joseph Kabila, also said the ban was for security reasons, accusing Tshisekedi supporters of carrying stones, machetes, knives and petrol bombs. Both Tshisekedi's campaign and Kabila's had planned to hold their final rallies at the city's main stadium, raising fears of clashes ahead of Monday's presidential and parliamentary polls. Although the day begun with a festive atmosphere, it quickly unravelled into violence. Near the stadium, as packed trucks spilled Tshisekedi supporters into the street, police fired teargas to disperse them, but left nearby Kabila supporters alone. At the airport, where both Kabila and Tshisekedi were expected to fly in from the previous day's campaign stops, Tshisekedi backers threw stones at Kabila's empty presidential convoy and Governor Kimbuta's car. Police used live ammunition to disperse them -- firing shots both in the air and at crowd level, apparently hitting and wounding at least three people. Officers also used teargas, water cannon and batons. The crowd, which dwindled to a few hundred people at the height of the crackdown, grew again to thousands when Tshisekedi arrived by car. His party said aviation officials had blocked his plane from landing and diverted him to a nearby airport. The violence closes a tense campaign marred by a series of street fights between rival supporters. Amid the chaos of the final day of campaigning, the national election commission also cancelled for the second time a press conference on its efforts to get ballots delivered in a country two-thirds the size of western Europe and with a crumbling and limited road network. The commission has been running behind schedule throughout the process, raising fears the vote could be delayed. Kabila, who was born on the other side of the country, in the eastern province of Sud-Kivu, is not popular in the capital, and would likely have had the smaller rally Saturday. The president speaks little Lingala, the main local language, and grew up in exile in Tanzania with his rebel father, Laurent -- from whom he inherited power in 2001 after his assassination. But Kabila, 40, enjoys more popularity in other parts of the country, and -- as an incumbent running against 10 opposition candidates in a single-round election -- is tipped as the favourite. The elections are only second here since back-to-back wars from 1996 to 2003, the scars of which are still fresh.