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Congo appears calm after election violence

KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo said Sunday the violence that broke out after last week's elections has been quelled.

Charles Bisengimana, chief of the national police, said four people had been killed in the post-election unrest; however the situation had calmed.

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Radio France International confirmed the streets of Kinshasa appeared quiet late Sunday and the military's presence had been reduced. U.N. peacekeepers were still deployed along highways outside the capital.

Bisengimana vowed to get to the bottom of allegations police took part in looting and abductions after the vote. "We have a list of people who have committed offenses and they will be punished," he said.

Human rights activists told Radio France International it was difficult to predict whether the situation in DRC would deteriorate in the near future, but noted Congolese have a longstanding distrust of the government.

"Congo is always hard to predict," said Anneke Van Woudenberg of Human Rights Watch. "We know that there have been a lot of suspicions of the electoral process."

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