BRUSSELS Democratic Republic of Congo president Laurent Kabila's assassination was an act of vengeance by child soldiers from the eastern DRC Province of Kivu, AFP quoted the Belgian press as reporting here Friday. Five of the child soldiers, known as "Kadogos" and recruited at the end of 1996 by the rebellion that ousted Mobutu Sese Seko from Kinshasa in 1997, "united to avenge their Kivu brothers executed by Kabila," the daily ********** Le Soir ********* said in a report from Kinshasa. One of those five, *********** Le Soir ******** said, was Kasereka Rachidi, the bodyguard identified as the one who shot Kabila, and who was himself shot and killed immediately after the assassination. ****** Le Soir ******** identified the other four as Georges Mirindi, Bahati Butale, Tshibinga Fraterne and Nshombo Weyan, all of whom were arrested and interrogated by DRC police the day of the assassination. The Kadogos, who with the neighboring Rwanda army engineered the campaign that brought the Alliance of Forces for Democracy and Freedom (AFDF) to power in Kinshasa in 1997, never considered themselves compensated for their military efforts, and many of their chiefs were believed executed. When it was created, the AFDL was headed militarily in Kivu by three men -- Deogratias Bugera, Kisase Ngandu and Anselme Masasu -- the latter two serving to recruit child soldiers. Laurent Kabila at the time was a mere spokesman for the AFDF. Members of Ngandu's entourage say he was killed in January 1997 by the Rwandans, with Kabila's approval. Masasu is believed to have been executed in a purge last November against former Kivu soldiers, including those close to Rachidi, according to *************** Le Soir

*********'s investigative report.