At least 60 people have been killed in two days of clashes between the army and militiamen in DR Congo as an arrest warrant was issued on Friday for opposition leader Jean-Pierre Bemba for alleged high treason.
The former vice president, who was defeated in historic presidential elections last year, sought refuge in the South African embassy late Thursday after heavy fighting broke out between members of his personal bodyguard and government troops in the capital Kinshasa.
"The judicial authorities... have issued an arrest warrant for high treason against Jean-Pierre Bemba," government spokesman Toussaint Tshilombo Send told AFP.
"Bemba committed treason in using the armed forces for his own ends," the spokesman said.
The fighting broke out after Bemba, also a former rebel chief, ignored a government order for his bodyguards to be integrated into the regular army.
Western security sources told AFP that 49 government troops had been killed, while they quoted commanders of Bemba's bodyguard as saying their dead, wounded, missing or deserted approached 400, without being able to give a breakdown of the figures.
Meanwhile officials at various Kinshasa hospitals told AFP that around 10 civilians had been brought to their morgues, while civilian and military wounded in the hospitals were put at 60 at least, not counting those being cared for by the UN mission in DRC.
Bemba insisted Friday that he was the victim of a government onslaught.
"It's me who's been the victim of the attack and encirclement of my residence for weeks," Bemba told Belgian public radio VRT, adding that he believed the authorities wanted to eliminate him.
"You can't turn the roles on their heads. I am truly the victim and am not guilty," he added, insisting that he no longer had control over his troops after they had left his residence.
Shells and mortars rained down on the Congolese capital for 22 hours straight, as a "phenomenal quantity" of bullets ricocheted between buildings, a Western official said.
Businesses, homes and even foreign embassies were ravaged in the fighting.
"The city has been taken over by soldiers from successive rebellions who are accustomed to war looting and for whom the notion of common good or private property does not exist," a diplomat posted in Kinshasa said on the condition of anonymity.
A petrol storage tank was hit by a mortar shell and exploded in flames near Ndolo air base in the northern district of Gombe, where Bemba's residence is located, diplomatic sources said.
A thick plume of smoke was visible from more than 10 kilometres (six miles) away.
The district was later brought "under the control of the Congolese army," according to the spokesman for the UN mission in the country (MONUC), Lieutenant-Colonel Didier Rancher.
"There are still some shots in other districts but the situation has calmed down," he added.
Two French nationals have been wounded by stray bullets but their lives are not in danger, a foreign ministry spokesman said in Paris.
The Greek embassy in Kinshasa was also hit by a shell that shattered windows and damaged the interior, but there were no casualties, the Greek government said.
The violence broke out mid-morning Thursday near Bemba's home, prompting residents to flee their homes and schools.
As the clashes intensified, Bemba took shelter in the South African embassy.
"Mr. Bemba has been taken in temporarily. He absolutely has not made any demand for asylum," South Africa's deputy ambassador Kenneth Pedro told AFP.
"He didn't feel safe in his home. He wanted to be able to continue working. He is our guest. It will be temporary."
Bemba, who refused to confirm Friday that he was hiding in the South African embassy, was elected a senator in January, a position that carries immunity from prosecution during the term of office.
The DRC chief prosecutor, Tshimanga Mukeba, told AFP that parliament would be approached with a request to lift Bemba's immunity.
The international community on Friday expressed deep concern at the renewed violence and called for a ceasefire.
The United Nations peacekeeping force in DRC evacuated more than 600 people from the area caught up in fighting Thursday.
Tensions rose in Kinshasa after the government of President Joseph Kabila announced last week that it intended to scale down the military contingent protecting Bemba and another former vice president, Azarias Ruberwa.
Bemba and Azarias Ruberwa, whose rebel movements battled Kinshasa until 2003, were vice presidents under Kabila during a post-war transition to democratic rule overseen by the United Nations.
The transition ended last year with the first democratic elections in more than four decades. Kabila was inaugurated as president in December following a second round victory over Bemba.
Since his election as a senator, Bemba has refused to have his bodyguard integrated into the regular army, arguing that his personal security could not be guaranteed.
