By
The Associated Press
KINSHASA, Congo - Along with thousands of other Congolese, Deborah Ngondu waited in line for hours to pay her respects to assassinated President Laurent Kabila, lying in state ahead of yesterday's funeral.
''I won't go home without seeing the president. I must say goodbye,'' the 17-year-old student said Sunday at the open-air Palace of the People. ''I'm very sad. The Americans killed the president.''
Such anti-Western sentiment has skyrocketed in this Central African capital since Kabila was gunned down in his presidential palace last week.
Details of the assassination remain murky. The government - now led by Kabila's son, Joseph - says a lone bodyguard shot the president; but some reports suggest a bitter argument with military brass prompted the slaying.
A host of African countries are supporting the government or various rebel factions in a civil war that erupted in 1998, but frustrated Congolese are increasingly pointing fingers further afield to explain their deeply divided nation's problems.
''The white man is very bad. They don't want blacks to progress,'' said Vital Nutedika, 35. ''Kabila has died because he said no to the white man.''
The West has a brutal past in Congo. The nation, originally formed in the late 19th century as the personal property of Belgium's King Leopold II, was built by slaves, some of whom had their hands chopped off when they did not fulfill rubber harvest quotas.
In the decades after independence in 1960, the West kept friendly relations with heavy-handed ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, one of many anti-communist dictators tolerated by the United States and its Cold War allies.
The West initially welcomed former rebel Kabila as he took power in 1997, hoping he would bring peace and democracy to Congo. But Europe and the United States grew disenchanted as Kabila stalled a United Nations-led peace effort and continued the same dictatorial practices as his predecessor.
European Union foreign ministers said Sunday they were considering imposing an arms embargo on Congo. After a meeting in Brussels, the ministers stressed in a statement that ''lasting peace in (Congo) can be achieved only through a negotiated peace settlement.''
Just three days ago, many Kinshasa residents said they despised Kabila's increasingly corrupt rule. Now, two days after the return of Kabila's body to Kinshasa, people are praising him as a fatherly figure who opened their eyes to injustices perpetrated by Westerners.
Emanuel Okita, a 40-year-old unemployed economist, insisted the faltering economy has nothing to do with the country's leaders, who for decades have plundered Congo's vast mineral wealth. It is the Europeans, he said, who pilfer profits from exports like diamonds, gold and oil while inflating import prices.
''It is the white man's fault. They only gave us political independence. We still depend on them economically,'' said Okita, a father of four struggling to keep his children in school.
Others claim that Westerners are provoking the civil war. The conflict has pitted Kabila's government - propped up by troops from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe - against rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda,
''They interfere in Congolese business in an attempt to re-colonize the country,'' said a jobless teacher who identified herself only as Nutedika.
Okita and Nutedika both welcomed Joseph Kabila as their new leader. They hope he will restart a peace process that stalled under his father's rule - despite reported clashes last week between government forces and Rwandan troops; and the government asking Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi yesterday not to send delegations to Kabila's funeral.
That's what Paul Negengele wants too, but he thinks it's too early to discuss such political issues.
''Speaking as Africans, as President Kabila has died, we have to participate in the funeral,'' he said while selling mangos at a roadside table for 20 cents each. ''After that, we can talk about who should take power.''
