Toronto's Congolese protest violence in homeland

Congolese-Canadians protest on University Avenue in Toronto on Dec. 6, 2010. 

 

As many as 200 people turned up for a peaceful protest Saturday over the post-election violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Toronto police monitored the march from Queen’s Park to City Hall, which came four days after they met with Congolese-Canadian protesters in front of the U.S. Consulate on University Avenue.

Two people were arrested and an officer suffered minor injuries during that demonstration.

Earlier Saturday in Congo, at least one person was killed in clashes between opposition protesters and security forces. Election authorities had only a day before named incumbent President Joseph Kabila the winner of a disputed poll.

Gunfire rang out in some cities, including the capital Kinshasa, after Kabila's main challenger, Etienne Tshisekedi, said he rejected the official results and declared himself the new leader of the vast central African state.

"This election doesn't convince us,” an opposition supporter said. “We have been deceived. The people have been really deceived. We are not happy. It has not gone well, there have been too many tricks.”

Congo's Nov. 28 vote was its first locally-organized presidential contest since a 1998-2003 war that killed more than five million people, and was meant to move the country on a path to greater stability.

But the poll was marred by violence, chaotic preparations and allegations of fraud.

Kabila came to power when his father, Laurent, was assassinated in 2001, and later won the country's 2006 election. He has struggled to control marauding rebel  groups in Congo's east despite U.N. backing.