hello, i'm kasia madera, with bbc news. our top story: anguish turns to anger in sri lanka as more details emerge of the prior intelligence the country had on sunday's attacks. even the president says he wasn't briefed about the warnings and has promised sweeping changes to the military and security services. setting off for another summit — this time north korean leader kim jong—un heads to russia, where he'll meet president putin for the first time. and this story is getting a lot of attention on bbc.com. campaigners opposed to president trump say they're planning a major protest when he comes to the uk for his first state visit injune. mr trump's working visit last year also attracted large demonstrations. this time he'll visit buckingham palace as a guest of the queen. that's all. bye— bye.

it is just after half past midnight. now on bbc news — it's time for hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk with me, zeinab badawi. how far can the democratic republic of the congo, a giant of a country ravaged by war, poverty, disease, set itself on a path of peace and reconciliation? well, my guest is martin fayulu, the man who claims he won last december‘s landmark elections that ended 18 years of divisive rule byjoseph kabila when felix tshisekedi was declared the winner. however, mr fayulu says the presidency was stolen from him. is mr kabila still controlling the presidency behind the scenes?

martin fayulu, welcome to hardtalk. thank you, thank you very much. you describe yourself as president—elect of the democratic republic of the congo. that's not recognised. why do you believe the election was stolen from you? i believe just because we had observers, we had the catholic church, we had 40,000 observers, and we also had the leak of results from the electoral commission server. those results, all of them, including ourself, because we had 220,000 witnesses, and then they came out with the same result that i won by 62%, you know. compared to others.

well, your results give you 62%, and felix tshisekedi, who is now president, according to you, won 19% of the vote. so, ok, the catholic bishops, as you say, accept your result and there was an extensive investigation by the financial times newspaper which also verified this. however, we are where we are now. felix tshisekedi is president. you're not. and he said in his inaugural speech that he has respect for you. he said, "you have shared in the struggle for years" and he calls you a brother and a solder of the people. he's been gracious. so why notjust accept the status quo now? yes, he has respect to me. he also called me brother. but to be brothers you have to have the truth. and we cannot, because you are a brother, betray the congolese people. the congolese people went to the poll for the change and today, as you can see, kabila is still in control.

kabila is controlling everything and then i'm seeing tshisekedi, he's ok with the congolese people. he respected the will of the congolese people, this is the question. you say thatjoseph kabila who was president for 18 years is still de facto ruler in the democratic republic of the congo. that's not what felix tshisekedi is saying. he has said, when he went to washington this month for talks with the trump administration, that he will, without fear, as he put it, dismantle the dictatorial system that was in place. that's good. that's good talk. but when he went back, kabila's people, they wrote a strong statement saying to him that he is not right. because he was appointed by kabila. and he came to back and changed what he said in washington. kabila is in control because,

until today, why mr felix tshisekedi doesn't appoint the prime minister? why doesn't he have a government? kabila is still in control. so are the — the americans have done their research. they have their africa experts and they seem satisfied. for example, secretary of state mike pompeo issued a statement saying that president tshisekedi is committed to good governance and respect for human rights, building transparent institutions, and combating corruption in the drc. very good. they don't see a problem. very good. commitment is one thing. but delivering is another thing. let us wait for tshisekedi to deliver. you can commit yourself and you can say anything you want, as tshisekedi's saying, but at the end of the day let us see what he will deliver. because he has already spent 5% of his time in office, if he has to go for five years, and for this 5% time spent in office

what he has achieved already? he has only been a power for a few months. like i said, 5%. ok, you say let us see what he can achieve. so are you implicitly there accepting the fact that he is president? no, no. but what he has... that's what i'm telling you — during this 5% of time he has achieved nothing. and he will achieve nothing because kabila is there. kabila will continue to control everything. kabila has the senate, has the house. kabila controls almost the whole governorship of the provinces. he will have 20 out of 26 provinces. and he controls everything and tshisekedi will be just like a puppet. well, still, the fact of the matter is, i mean, obviously you have a parliament, and as you rightly say, that kabila's party has

3a2 seats out of 500. yeah. an overwhelming majority. he has to govern with that party in parliament. but, nevertheless, felix tshisekedi is president. the africans have accepted this. cyril ramaphosa, president of south africa, has called on all stakeholders to accept the result which has been ratified by the constitutional court in the drc. president uhuru kenyatta of kenya attended felix tshisekedi's inauguration. laughter. the only president. all right. but africa wants to move on, doesn't it? africa, yes, wants to move on. but africa has to move with the congolese people. president ramaphosa will have elections in the coming days in his country. it will not be any other guy to come and assert the result, it will be the people of south africa. the will of the congolese people also should be respected by anyone in the world. well, you contested the result and took it to the constitutional court and the constitutional court upheld the victory of felix tshisekedi.

but let me put this point to you, that perhaps the main goal for the outside world was simply to see the end ofjoseph kabila's presidency. you know, people thought he was going to remain in office, change the constitution so he could extend his time there. and i tell you what one observer, anneke van woudenberg from rights and accountability in development says, she says "one of the critical things is that kabila has lost. he tried to cling on by hook or by crook. it is a significant moment and we must not underestimate that." that's what you're doing. you're underestimating the fact that kabila is no longer president. no, he's, ah... he could have lost totally. but kabila is not there on the chair, but he's there, he has put the mask, that mask is tshisekedi, because kabila controls everything. we wanted kabila to go. this is the will of the congolese people. but if kabila couldn't change

anything, revise the constitution, change the constitution, and remain in office, it is because we were there, because the people of congo said to him "time is up, you have to go". but now tshisekedi revamped kabila. kabila is there, totally there. well, he's not president anymore, that's the point i'm making. but you keep on saying, mr fayulu, that the people of the congo keep on saying that they want you as president and so on. but even internally now there is acceptance, even if it's done with some resignation, for example, one of the influential catholic bishops you've referred to, archbishop fridolin ambongo, has accepted the result and he says he's putting his efforts into supporting president felix tshisekedi to increase his leverage now he that's in government. and he says to tshisekedi "don't forget where you come from, the people, and the people are suffering". surely that's what you should be

doing now, is to put behind you your own personal ambitions and put the needs of the people first and say let's work together. i don't have a personal ambition. in the same phrase of bishop ambongo, what he said before saying that he said that "we are 100% sure that martin fayulu won the presidential election". but we are where we are because he's a bishop. he's not a politician. but i cannot let congolese people, you know. i cannot let them to see that, 0k, we are fighting for power—sharing. they want the poll, they want change, the real change, and today we don't have change.

and i will fight with them. the day that the congolese people tell me, "please, martin, stop," i'll stop. but as of today they really want to change. they have seen the trip i did after the results. how the crowd — felix is touring the country, you see that he has the same crowd that i had? so what are you going to do now then? what i have to do — i have to continue to say that tshisekedi is not the president of congo. tshisekedi was nominated by mr kabila and mr kabila is still in control and the country will not change, will not achieve any, you know, reforms, will not achieve any good thing for the congolese people. we need the truth of the poll and the truth of the poll has to be respected so we can have the legitimacy of our leaders. if not, i don't care about the elite or something, but the masses there, congolese people want the change. so what do you want? i've put it to you that the americans welcomed felix tshisekedi in washington.

africa seems to have accepted him as president. even internally people are saying, well, let's just get on with the job of governing the drc. iwas... what you want to happen now, new elections? exactly. but i'm coming. i was in america myself. i was in america and if i was felix tshisekedi, his trip in america is totally — ah, you know, he failed. he's nothing. and what. .. i mean, you say that but i told you what the us state department said. i was there, too. i discussed with them. it says his change agenda focused on fighting corruption and attracting american investment and so on, it sounds like a pretty strong endorsement. yes, let us see if the americans will go and invest there. i told you that commitment to something. what i want is this — i want us to have this truth of the polls now. do you want a new elections?

exactly, exactly. or do you want the election result that you say gave you 62%? no, no, what i'm... because the constitutional court did a bad thing. they didn't recount the paper. what we have to do, because we are seeing now they have lost everything, we have to redo the election. what we're saying in 12 months we have to sit down, prior to those 12 months, to put in place an institution that will make reforms for the electoral commission, reform on the constitutional court, reform on, you know, how to conduct the country about corruption and so on, reform on security services, and reform on... so have a reform commission to be set up now. exactly. right now.

and then to hold fresh elections in a year's time? exactly. april 2020, is what you are saying. exactly. what i'm saying. first of all, we have to sit down and agree on that, because that is the only way we can give back to the people that sovereignty. reform the institutions and then hold fresh elections. elections that will probably cost anything between $250 million to $300 million to hold again in the drc. exactly. where is that money going to come from? butjust round the opportunity cost. how much is it costing the country today by having this situation? nobody is coming to invest and nothing is happening. tshisekedi is spending the country's money. it's still early days. exactly. tshisekedi is spending the country's money. round up the opportunity cost and you will see if that amount will match the 250 that you are

saying to reorganise the election. you want the international community to pay that? i am telling the international community. they didn't spend money last time, but this is time for them to spend the money. the uk, for example, with dfid, is spending everyday $1 million or £1 million for aid to the congo. that's the department for international development. exactly. now, your government has written a letter to felix tshisekedi saying that we know the result was not the one we were expecting but now, we are the second largest contributor of aid in the congo but the country cannot survive with aid. we need development. when you talk about development, you want investment. you want real direct foreign investment and also the direct

internal investment. you can't have those investments if the country is not in peace. you said it wasjoseph kabila who nominated felix tshisekedi and the eventual outcome was he was president. that wasn't the case, was it? because the opposition all got together at a major conference at the end of last year in geneva, various factions, jean—pierre bemba, former vice president of the drc. moise katumbi, former governor of katanga province, a prominent figure again. adolphe muzito, the former prime minister. and also felix tshisekedi. and too many egos, perhaps, rubbing up with one another and in the end, not one of the higher profile candidates like katumbi or whoever but you emerged as the compromise candidate and people only, factions only accepted you for a few

hours and then felix tshisekedi no, we're not with martin fayulu. i don't know what you mean by high profile but please take the resume in terms of everything including politics, please. you were seen more as the outsider. you spent a long career as an oil executive and your party engagement for citizenship and development is a small minority party. that's what i mean by some of the higher profile candidates — felix tshisekedi from the oldest opposition party in the country, son of etienne tshisekedi, veteran opposition politician. yeah, you're there. felix tshisekedi is the son of the late etienne tshisekedi, that's it. and he has a big party, udps, but i spent three times the time in politics than him. yeah, but the union for democracy and social progress, his party, is the oldest,

longest established party in the drc. i agree with you. so the fact when you say that it wasjoseph kabila who appointed him and so he became president, that's not really true, is it? he has this pedigree. he appointed him because he started discussion with a long time before. they went to italy, spain, paris and a long time ago they started talking, but we responded to the congolese people. the congolese people told us, as opposition in that time, please, guys, we want all of you to be together and to bring to us a common candidate. that's what we did, as you said, in november last year in geneva but 24—hour is later, tshisekedi and kamerhe, they removed themselves from the deal we had, and why?

because they dealt with kabila... look, there are reports now, for example, on the african arguments website that perhaps moise katumbi, prominent opposition person, is thinking perhaps ofjoining the administration led by felix tshisekedi. just rumours, unsubstantiated, unconfirmed. could we see an even greater fracturing of this opposition alliance that had been together before the election? i cannot respond on behalf of moise katumbi. you have to ask him that question. but for me, for the congolese, for lamuka, including katumbi... that's the opposition alliance, lamuka. that's the formal opposition, we are not in the position today because i'm not a member of the opposition. we won the election. let me tell you that we signed a strong statement on march 23

saying that we want to be together because lamuka is not someone‘s business, it's a spirit that the congolese people put in place and we want that spirit to continue. so what do you do now because you have felix tshisekedi president, we've got kabila's party the fcc, the common front for congo, still controlling the security establishment, the majority of seats in parliament, can choose nearly all the senators — they are from his party. we have to accept that his party is part of the picture and felix tshisekedi is president so where does the country go from here? there has to be compromise. i wish i could answer that question. the country is in a mess, a total mess, because as i am saying to everybody, that tshisekedi and kabila will continue to dance, they'll continue to look to see

for this unstable balance so they can continue and run the country with no vision. not the better for the congolese people. that is why we have to stop that. that's why we have two recover the victory of the congolese people. congolese voted for kabila to be removed from power and today, felix tshisekedi helped kabila to stay in power. they not only voted to remove kabila from power, they also voted to see change. exactly. you have an outbreak of ebola in the east, you still have armed militia. you have a broken health and education system. you have political prisoners, discrimination, corruption and so on, and that's really what you should all be pooling your resources together to combat.

exactly. so, as i predict to you, felix tshisekedi has made very conciliatory statements to you and all his former rivals. would you not accept some kind of compromise and join forces to combat all these ills? the only compromise we can accept, as i told you, to put that new institution in place and then to have a new election. because, tell me, why kabila will want tshisekedi to succeed in areas that he failed, totally failed ? he cannot, and we'll continue to have someone being a puppet, directed by kabila and doing what kabila will want and will not have any change. as you said, congolese people voted for change. they voted for a member of parliament. they didn't get them.

they got something else that kabila appointed. and i think that to materialise the vision of the congolese people, that's to have people with dignity, to have prosperity of the country, i think we need good leadership. leadership with competencies. leadership who control a roadmap, who knows the complexity of the country, and put a programme of politics in place to achieve wonders. so finally, what does the future hold for 80 million congolese people? people whose lives have been blighted by starvation, war, disease — millions have died in the last two decades. a resource—rich country but income poor. what does the future hold? the future holds lie on the congolese, on the leadership.

i totally agree with you. you see, ebola — people are dying and this is a disaster and we have to take care of it, and people are starving, as you said, but how can you imagine that the congo with 80 million acres of land, congo can import its food. how? how can you imagine with all those resources and we are starving? how can you imagine that kabila who came 20 years ago in this country with nothing and today he is worth more than $18—billion us. that is your claim? that is not me, i'm reading in papers! well, i'm sure he would deny that, but yes. but you read all the papers, the panama papers and so on. and we need to work for the better,

for the future of the congolese. the future of congolese will improve only if we have good leadership. martin fayulu, thank you very much indeed for coming on hardtalk. thank you very much, i appreciate it. there is a change on the way, it's certainly going to feel a lot cooler, but not really until the end of the week. today, wednesday, it's actually not going to be too bad. temperatures could still get up to around 20 degrees but some of us will need our brollies.

there are showers on the way, there could be some thunderstorms too. a lot of cloud on the satellite image, these are weather fronts, they are heading in our direction and for the rest of the week, we will see a succession of weather fronts approaching us and those will be giving showers. we can still see quite a lot of orange and yellow, that is basically the temperature of the atmosphere. it's what we call the air mass. some warmth there but the colder current of air across the north atlantic, that won't reach us until probably friday, that's when we will really notice the temperatures tumbling. here's first thing in the morning on wednesday, temperatures of ten in the south, six in the north. showers going right from the word go across cornwall and devon. much of the west country into wales as well. some just about nudging into the midlands by around lunchtime. but by two or three in the afternoon, notice that the south coast is actually clear of the showers so the sun may come out again. quite a changeable day from showers, back to sunshine. those showers will continue to drift northwards into the lake district,

eventually later on in the afternoon. those temperatures still managing to get up to around 20 degrees but where you have the cloud and the showers, it's going to feel quite a bit cooler. maybe around 1a or 15 degrees. you can see those blobs of blue, the showers move northwards as we head into wednesday evening. eventually, that warmth or what is left of it will waft away towards the east and this colder air will reach us. thursday and friday, that's where we see those temperatures tumbling away. here is thursday, again showers and the forecast, a little bit more widespread, and some of us that didn't have the showers on wednesday may get them on thursday. temperatures only 13, 1a, 15 degrees. throughout the country, whether you're in the south or the north, may be some sunshine thrown in there. here is fridays weather forecast. breezy as well, showers, could be the odd crack of thunder as well, really feeling quite cool, i suspect by the time we get

to the weekend some northern areas might be struggling to even make double figures. the outlook into saturday and sunday is a showery one. temperatures in the south of around 12—14 degrees. maybe 10 or 11 in the north.

you're watching newsday on the bbc. i'm sharanjit leyl in colombo. the headlines: sri lanka's president admits even he wasn't told of prior intelligence on the easter day bombings and promises a shake—up of security services. meanwhile, the grieving say goodbye. the first funerals take place as dozens of children are confirmed to have been among the 321 people who died. translation: i didn't expect they would die. i'll never see them again. i can't love children like them anymore. i'm kasia madera in london. also in the programme: he's packed up and on his way — north korean leader kim jong—un sets