Hundreds of people queued today to see the body of slain Congolese President Laurent Kabila, brought back to Kinshasa yesterday amid an outpouring of grief and now lying in state ahead of burial tomorrow.
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Laurent Kabila
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Ordinary Congolese trooped past the coffin of the murdered president in the People's Palace, where it lay beneath the blue flag starred with gold that Mr Kabila reintroduced when he toppled the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.
As a line of mourners snaked around the courtyard, some wept softly for Mr Kabila, shot dead by a bodyguard last Tuesday.
According to official accounts, Mr Kabila had been talking to an adviser when the bodyguard came into the room and shot him three times. The stricken president was flown to Harare for treatment, where authorities said he died.
Both today and tomorrow have been declared public holidays, so few businesses were open and the streets were quiet.
Government sources said Mr Kabila was likely to be buried at the Palace of the Nation, a Belgian colonial building on the banks of the River Congo that served as the Central African country's first parliament.
State television said there would be a flypast and a 21-gun salute during the funeral and asked people not to worry.
Reuters