Congo military court clears 10 of revolt charges

KINSHASA, Apr 30 (Reuters) A Congolese military court today cleared an opposition politician and nine others of charges of inciting an armed insurrection after their trial was denounced by rights groups as politically motivated.

Supporters and family members cheered as the tribunal in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital ordered the acquittal and release of Marie-Therese Nlandu and nine co-defendants. It ruled the charges against them, which included ''possession of weapons of war'', were unfounded.

''This is God's victory,'' Nlandu said after her release.

The 10 were arrested in November following violent clashes outside the Supreme Court between police and supporters of former warlord and defeated presidential contender Jean-Pierre Bemba. The court was set on fire during the violence.

Opposition figurehead Bemba, who was defeated in historic elections last year by President Joseph Kabila, travelled to Portugal earlier this month after his militiamen were routed by government troops in fierce fighting in Kinshasa.

Opposition politicians accuse Kabila's government of waging a campaign of harassment and violence against them in what they call a denial of the democratic goals of last year's elections, the first free polls in Congo in more than 40 years.

At the time of her arrest, Nlandu was one of Bemba's legal team contesting his second-round defeat by Kabila. She herself was an unsuccessful first-round presidential contender.

''I ask the head of state to release all the political prisoners.

In prison, I saw people dying. We are beginning democracy. This must be cleaned up,'' Nlandu told reporters.

US-based Human Rights Watch says more than 100 opposition members and suspected Bemba sympathisers have been unlawfully arrested since Kabila's election win.

''I think justice has been done today. ... It's a good step but many more need to be acquitted and released,'' Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, told Reuters following Monday's verdict.

Last year's presidential and legislative elections in the vast, mineral-rich former Belgian colony were protected by the world's biggest United Nations peacekeeping force and cost the international community nearly half a billion dollars to hold.

They were intended to usher in a new era of democracy and stability after a 1998-2003 war and accompanying humanitarian crisis which have killed at least 4 million Congolese.

But violent clashes during and after the polls between Kabila's forces and opponents of the government have cast doubts on the solidity of Congo's democratic process.

Several hundred people were killed in the March 22-23 gunbattles between Bemba's militia and government troops. Congo's state prosecutor has asked the Senate to lift senator Bemba's immunity so he can face charges over the fighting.

If this occurs, Bemba's stay in Portugal, ostensibly for medical treatment to an old leg injury, could turn into a longer-term exile in Europe.

REUTERS JK RAI2237