OWN CORRESPONDENT, Kigali | Monday 1.50pm.
THE leadership of the main rebel movement in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been dissolved and a new interim body put in place, Radio Rwanda reported on Monday.
The government radio said the interim leadership of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) would eventually give way to a new executive, but gave no explanation for the move.
The RCD is currently holding an extraordinary general assembly in its stronghold of Goma, on the border with Rwanda.
The rebels’ Rwandan and Ugandan allies are attending as observers, along with observers from Tanzania, which is active in efforts to mediate the 10-month-old insurgency against President Laurent-Desire Kabila.
The RCD military chief, Commander Jean-Pierre Ondekane, said recently that the movement suffered from leadership defects wich needed rectifying.
“The (DR) Congo has many worthy men who could head a movement like ours,” he said.
The RCD reshuffled its leadership in January.
Sunday 2pm:
THE Democratic Republic of Congo is ready to hold a dialogue with the opposition in a bid to end the conflict in the country, the leaders of six African states said in a statement on Saturday.
The statement said the six leaders who attended the summit in the Libyan city of Sirte have also agreed that the foreign ministers of the countries involved in the conflict will meet in Lusaka to discuss a solution to the conflict and that a summit would be held to “approve the solution.”
Dates remain unknown.
Libyan leader Muammar Gadaffi brought together Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, who chairs the Organization of African Unity, and the presidents of the Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea and Gambia for the second such summit in less than a month.
They were joined by Rwandan Vice President and Defense Minister Paul Kagame; former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, the mediator in the conflict in Burundi; former Algerian president Ahmed Ben Bella; and the United Nation’s special envoy for the DRC, Moustapha Niasse of Senegal.
Rwanda supports the rebels who have been fighting DRC President Laurent Kabila’s forces for eight months.
The summit is part of Gadaffi’s efforts “to put out the fires lit by colonial forces in Africa, so the continent can turn its attention to development and unity, said Libyan news agency Jana.
Kabila, who arrived in Libya on Friday, said he came to the summit “to consult and exchange opinions on the situation in the DRC.”
An earlier Gadaffi-mediated ceasefire has proved ineffectual.
Meanwhile, rebels in the DRC claimed on Saturday to have seized the town of Businga in the northwestern province of Equateur.
“We recaptured Businga from the troops of (President Laurent) Kabila, after they fled under pressure from the people. There was not even any fighting,” said Congo Liberation Movement head Jean-Pierre Bemba.
“After all the murders committed by Kabila’s men and their allies, the people are exasperated. When they can assassinate two or three, they do not hesitate,” Bemba added.
Businga is some 1000kmnortheast of Kinshasa. — AFP