2006年VOA标准英语-Kabila Sworn In as DRC's Elected President

By Nico Colombant
Dakar
06 December 2006

 
Joseph Kabila reviews the troops at the start of his inaugural¹ ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Kinshasa, 6 Dec. 2006
Thirty-five-year-old Joseph Kabila has been sworn-in as the newly elected post-war president in the Democratic Republic of Congo. VOA's Nico Colombant reports from our West and Central Africa bureau in Dakar.

Wearing a dark suit and raising his right hand, Mr. Kabila said he would only be guided by general interest and act as a faithful servant of the people. The ceremony was held under tight security in Kinshasa.

Mr. Kabila won a five-year mandate² in elections that ended a transitional period that began when he was installed by the military after his father, a former coup³ leader, was assassinated⁴ in 2001.

 
Jean-Pierre Bemba
His second-round election opponent and former rebel leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, was not present. The country's Supreme⁵ Court rejected Bemba's complaint that the election process was marred⁶ by fraud.

International observers said there was tampering⁷ by both sides, but not enough to impact the general outcome.

Mr. Kabila won with 58 percent of the vote, dominating in the Swahili-speaking east, while Bemba got 42 percent, doing well in the Lingala-speaking west.

Recurrent street clashes marred the election process, and required the intervention⁸ of U.N. peacekeepers and a European rapid reaction force.

Mr. Kabila's early challenges will be to integrate soldiers still loyal to former war commanders and stamp out an active low-level rebellion in the east of the country, where a renegade general, Laurent Nkunda, says ethnic⁹ Tutsis are being left out of the post-war process.

Among the dignitaries at the swearing-in ceremony were South African President Thabo Mbeki and the current head of the African Union, Denis Sassou-Nguesso.

Ordinary Congolese who did not attend the festivities also paid close attention.

Clothesmaker Abeho Monga said she hoped the inauguration¹⁰ of an elected post-war president would mark a turning point in Congo's brutal¹¹ and corrupt¹² history.

"Our people are suffering too much since our independence," she said. "Things are very bad in our country. Before the elections, our people, our politicians, they went somewhere, they went in Lusaka, they agreed, they said let us go to elections. After elections, everybody has to respect their agreements."

Another Kinshasa resident Luc Chitera says he hopes Mr. Kabila will give room to the opposition¹³ to avoid any serious unrest. He says historically Congo's presidents have acted in a very authoritarian¹⁴ manner.

"If the opposition, the official opposition, feel that they do not have any power to do their jobs as opposition, I think at that time, they will be coming on local television and radio stations to denounce many things that they do not like, how the government is performing," he said.

English teacher Emery Makumeno says he hopes Mr. Kabila will set the tone for a new Congo, rather than repeat mistakes of the past.

 
Soldiers and local people gather near a United Nations armoured vehicle in Kinshasa, 13 Nov. 2006
"There are a lot of challenges facing the country in the five years to come," he said. "The war has destroyed everything, the infrastructure¹⁵, the education system, the transportation system, I think nothing here is working normally. So this first mandate, this first term will be very important. We hope that the president will make a lot of efforts to ignite a certain progress and start rebuilding the country and start rebuilding the infrastructure."

The international community paid hundreds of millions of dollars for the election process and provided security in hopes of ending chronic¹⁶ conflict, plundering¹⁷, and bad governance that had Congo at its center, but involved the entire Great Lakes region of Africa.

1 inaugural   

adj.就职的；n.就职典礼

参考例句：

• We listened to the President's inaugural speech on the radio yesterday.昨天我们通过无线电听了总统的就职演说。
• Professor Pearson gave the inaugural lecture in the new lecture theatre.皮尔逊教授在新的阶梯讲堂发表了启用演说。

2 mandate   

n.托管地；命令，指示

参考例句：

• The President had a clear mandate to end the war.总统得到明确的授权结束那场战争。
• The General Election gave him no such mandate.大选并未授予他这种权力。

3 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

4 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

7 tampering   

v.窜改( tamper的现在分词 )；篡改；（用不正当手段）影响；瞎摆弄

参考例句：

• Two policemen were accused of tampering with the evidence. 有两名警察被控篡改证据。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• As Harry London had forecast, Brookside's D-day caught many meter-tampering offenders. 正如哈里·伦敦预见到的那样，布鲁克赛德的D日行动抓住了不少非法改装仪表的人。 来自辞典例句

8 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。

9 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

10 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

11 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

12 corrupt   

v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的

参考例句：

• The newspaper alleged the mayor's corrupt practices.那家报纸断言市长有舞弊行为。
• This judge is corrupt.这个法官贪污。

13 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

14 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

15 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

16 chronic   

adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的

参考例句：

• Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
• Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。

17 plundering   

掠夺，抢劫( plunder的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The troops crossed the country, plundering and looting as they went. 部队经过乡村，一路抢劫掳掠。
• They amassed huge wealth by plundering the colonies. 他们通过掠夺殖民地聚敛了大笔的财富。