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Gwenn Dubourthoumieu / AFP - Getty Images
Police detain opposition supporters demonstrating in the streets of Kinshasa, Congo, on Saturday.
Violence over disputed Congolese election results rippled through the nation’s capital of Kinshasa on Saturday as well as in London, where 143 protesters were arrested.
Congo police prowled opposition neighborhoods Saturday rounding up young men, who were seen being dragged out of their homes and shoved into waiting cars, a day after the government announced that the country's opposition leader had lost the disputed presidential election.
Gwenn Dubourthoumieu / AFP - Getty Images
A girl cries Saturday after police arrested her brothers on suspicion they were protesting in the streets and throwing stones at the police in Kinshasa, Congo.
Public transport was suspended in this sprawling capital. Tires continued to burn in sections of the city that had voted for opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi, and bus owners ordered their fleets off the streets, fearing vandalism.
Hotels downtown sent notices to their patrons saying there would be no room service because employees could not get to work.
London protesters arrested
In London, Scotland Yard told NBC News that 143 people were arrested in during a demonstration over Congo election results.
Demonstrators who had agreed to hold a protest at a Whitehall location moved and blocked the area, triggering 33 arrests, Scotland Yard said in a statement.
Demonstrators moved into the Trafalgar Square area, where a group moved away from the main protest and began to damage property, including cars and shops, and threatened members of the public. Police said 110 people were taken into custody.
Opposition leader urges calm
The protest came after 78-year-old Tshisekedi took to the airwaves overnight Friday to say he rejected the results issued by the country's election commission, which handed victory to President Joseph Kabila. He proclaimed himself president, saying the election had been manipulated to ensure a victory for Kabila, who finished with nearly 49 percent of the vote.
Observers fear unrest in Kanshasa if the opposition leader orders his supporters to take to the streets. So far, Tshisekedi has called for calm, telling his supporters to await his instructions. That didn't stop angry crowds from setting tires on fire and erecting roadblocks in areas of the city that had overwhelmingly voted against Kabila.
On Saturday, an unmarked police car was slowly advancing along Avenue des Cocotiers, when it abruptly stopped in front of house No. 48. The officers carrying automatic weapons shoved their way through the home's metal gate. They emerged dragging out a young man. His mother stood helplessly by.
The scene, which took place in front of a team of reporters, was repeated a block later. Human Rights Watch senior researcher Anneke van Woudenberg said she is receiving calls from residents in numerous neighborhoods in the capital reporting abductions by the police, though she said it was too early to confirm how many people had been taken.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Earlier Congo election stories:
- Loser in Congo vote rejects results, deepening angst
- 2 arrested at Congo election protest in Canada; vote results delayed in Kinshasa
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Leave a Comment:
The Congo, what a nasty place. Many parts of Africa are still 300 years behind the rest of the world.
So they riot in London?
To the protesters in London: If you don't like your country, then stay, fight and change it! Do not go to another country and protest that this new country is not 'Doing Enough'! If you won't fight to save your country, why should anyone else fight for it?????
This country is unfortunately headed for a bloody civil war. What I do not understand is the protesters in England getting violent and damaging property. Is is not like anyone in England had anything to do with the election or it's outcome. This seems like just a case of people using this as an excuse to create trouble and try and loot and steal from businesses. There are certain elements of society that will use any excuse as a cover to try and take things that they have no right to to enrich themselves at the expense of others who have not done them any harm.
And people complain about the immigrants in the US, I gotta say I think England's got it worse.
That's because in the US if you start destroying peoples property they will shoot and then call the coroner. problem solved.
I feel sorry for the residents of London, having to deal with the bizarre behavior of these people. Go riot and cause destruction in your own country don't bring unnecessary violence to a place completely unrelated to the issues in the Congo.
If they are going to trash a different country, they should go to Belgium.
Mr. 'nutgrape' above, hit the nail on the head. However, he omitted mention of the Congo being a former
colony of Belgium. Sad thing is, is that decades after the Africans got their freedom from Britain, France, Italy, Portugal and Belgium, they have been brutalized by one crazy local dictator after another. I must confess, that I do not have a solution for them...
I really don't care if they ever find a solution, but it is on them, isn't it? Externally imposed solutions are never really that, but simply matters of expediency, say for access to valuable minerals, oil, etc. If the Congo can't solve their own problems, I don't really care, any more than I care about Eastern Europe, South America, or the North Pole, for that matter.
If the demonstrators in London are that outraged, they should go back the the Congo and do something there. Demonstrating in London just shows they have no pride in their country and have run away from the conflict.
Poor England. They're ruined now. They lost so many people in 2 World Wars, birth rates dropped, then many in the '60s became drug addicts. Now they went ahead and let a Slew of immigrants in and it feels all but over for them. Is it too late for them to deport everyone and not allow anymore in? Will the liberals let them, and will the media crucify them if they do?
there was also protests in toronto over the elections in the congo.
But no one burned stuff up during them or looted, did they? Violence in a neutral country is not ever going to fix things "back home". It may be an excuse to vent and may serve to pick up a few things for the new place, but no one can really say that they are rioting in a country thousands of miles from the apparent theft of the election and really mean it.
Poor England with all these useless eaters immigrating to their clean society.
Yes, England could easily deport each of these violent useless immigrants back to their countries.
They should start deporting the ones that were destructive and loud in the s
streets and damaging property. Giving them papers stamped with "not allowed to renter our country."
Yes you are right they are cowards acting up away from their country...mouthing off acting violent.
They need to show their courage and return home and put their hateful actions where the mouth
is in their country. English people do not want them in their country...neither do the majority of Americans.
Why do these immigrants keep invading countries where the people truly do not want them.
Poor Italy also with all those boat people landing on their shores...should have been returned to their
country upon arriving. Also with a bill tacked to their clothing for having to transport all those useless
eaters and useless people.
It seems to be always negroes that force themselves onto others.
They obviously don't like their own people.
Poor England with all these useless eaters immigrating to their clean society.
Yes, England could easily deport each of these violent useless immigrants back to their countries.
They should start deporting the ones that were destructive and loud in the s
streets and damaging property. Giving them papers stamp with "not allowed to renter our country."
Yes you are right they are cowards acting up away from their country...mouthing off acting violent.
They need to show their courage and return home and put their hateful actions where the mouth
is in their country. English people do not want them in their country...neither do the majority of Americans.
Why do these immigrants keep invading countries where the people truly do not want them.
Poor Italy also with all those boat people landing on their shores...should have been returned to their
country upon arriving. Also with a bill tacked to their clothing for having to transport all those useless
eaters and useless people.
their arrival.
England and the US need to not let these people in the country. They can't be civil and create problems wherever they go. We got enough problems with people that have been here for generations much less bringing more unskilled problems.
They come because they know they will get stuff,free apartmant,food, education...It is the racist left,the do gooders that feel they need to rescue everyone from their societies.Then after a decade of help,100,000 plus pounds of aid that they have made little progress in becoming productive citizens in Britian,they will then say it is because British are racist.I love to travel and see different cultures and people,but I don't need them in the nieghborhood.If that makes me racist,fine. If I cared so much about the Congo,I sure as hell am not effecting change by insulting people in Trafalgar Square. Brit's have carried enough burdens on their back over the years.It is time we stop paying the bill for protests we could care less about.
May as well get ready, folks. Obama is sending troops into Africa, and the first thing that will happen is that we will bring hundreds of thousands of "refugees" here. Impoverished, non-English speaking welfare recipients with no job skills, no clue about our culture, and no regrad for our laws or our country.
It happens every time we set foot in a foreign country, and this has been coming since the famine and drought hit. The United States of America, the country that takes care of all, except its own citizens.
It seems as if every country with any standard of living is being swept under by a tide of legal and illegal refugees. At some point the developed nations will have to make very hard choices about this. As a few here have said, it may be true that Britain is a lost cause. There's no question France and much of the Continent is losing the battle against Islam. Here, we have so many illegals that soon we won't be able to support their demands for welfare, education and health care. We need to decide if we really want to maintain our National identity or if, like Obama and his cronies want, we will allow the UN to take us over and make us part of their failed globalist design. The Democrats see the illegal population as a pool of 'yet unregistered voters' to be tapped by legalizing their residency. That would provide the Democratic Party political ascendency for literally decades. Time is running out, think about what you want and vote accordingly.
Good point. That is why the Dems are so against Photo ID's at the voting polls the illegals can't vote as easy for the socialistic/communistic candidates. Sorry, but the argument that it would keep legal voters from voting because of their age and etc. is ridiculous. Most people born before Social Security cards and birth certificates have died.
Now you can see why the rest of the world's ancestors migrated away from Africa....Darwinism here somewhere...
Yeah...keep our troops out of Africa...The last place in the world we need to become a magnet for migration is this godforsaken place....
Troops make girfriends, make wives, make tons of relatives.....
Duhhh?