Congolese President Joseph Kabila told the UN Security Council on Monday he would do his utmost to stop political intimidation and incitement of hatred during campaigning for long-awaited presidential elections, council diplomats said.
The council met privately at the presidential palace for an hour with Kabila, who is one of 33 candidates seeking to lead this mineral-rich central African nation, which is struggling to emerge from years of conflict.
On the final day of a 10-day African trip, the council held separate meetings with the nation's four vice-presidents -- three of whom are also running for president.
While campaigning is scheduled to officially begin on June 29, Congo's independent media regulator accused Kabila and several vice-presidents on Sunday of jumping the gun and allowing media they control to incite intolerance and hatred in recent weeks.
France's UN ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, who is leading the council delegation, said that during the meeting with Kabila, members expressed concern about the media inflaming the issue of whether a candidate is Congolese.
"There is in African examples where such campaigns have had a very negative effect and the president shares this view and he thinks that the whole thing should calm down -- that this campaign can be dangerous," de la Sabliere said.
"Talk of Congolese identity, divisive talk, words of exclusion are dangerous," he told a news conference later. "These elections should be a time of unity, not divisiveness. We believe personal attacks should be avoided."
Tanzania's UN ambassador Augustine Mahiga said Kabila told members he didn't want a repetition of media hate campaigns in Rwanda that played a role in the 1994 genocide there.
Vice President and former rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba, who owns radio and television stations, denied that he was involved in any hate campaign.
"You cannot refuse people to say the truth before and during the campaign. But I'm against intimidation," he said.
The election is being organized by a transitional government led by Kabila that was established in 2003 following peace deals that ended the nation's devastating 1998-2002 war, a conflict that drew in the armies from six nations.
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