EMSIE FERREIRA, Cape Town | Saturday
THE peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will shift up a gear on Monday when members of government, rebel groups and civil society begin week-long talks on reviving political dialogue.
The much-delayed talks are taking place in the Botswanan capital Gaborone under the mediation of that country’s former president Sir Ketumile Masire and will be briefly attended by DRC President Joseph Kabila.
“Kabila will be here, but just for the opening ceremony,” a representative for Masire said on Friday.
The talks among Congolese rivals are a key aspect of a ceasefire accord and peace plan — signed in Lusaka in July 1999 — which Kabila has helped to revive since taking office in January.
The delegates are due to decide the place and time for the inter-Congolese dialogue. The formal dialogue will in turn pave the way for elections and the adoption of a new constitution, and to decide the manner in which rebels will be disarmed and integrated into a new national army.
The rebels, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, and soldiers have been waging a war that has drawn in half a dozen nations since August 1998 and is estimated to have left 2,5-million people dead.
The fighting began as a rebellion to oust then president Laurent Kabila, who was assassinated by a bodyguard in January.
Since inheriting power his son has endorsed the role of Masire, who was rejected by Laurent Kabila in the belief that he favoured the rebels.
Joseph Kabila lifted a four-year ban on political activity in the central African state in May.
The former Zaire has not seen free elections since 1960 when Belgium hastily ended its colonial rule but has a myriad of political groupings.
Monday’s meeting will group 13 representatives of Kabila’s government, 13 members of civil society, 13 members of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), 13 of the rebel Front for the Liberation of Congo (FLC) and four of the RCD-ML, a break-away group of the RCD, and 14 members of opposition parties. Disagreement has already erupted between the various groups about where the dialogue should be held.
Many, along with Western diplomats, favour the city of Kisangani in north-eastern DRC which is still controlled by the Rwandan-backed RCD despite mounting pressure for it to be demilitarised.
But RCD president Adolphe Onosumba, who will attend the Gaborone talks, has vehemently opposed this, using the excuse that the war-ravaged area does not have the necessary infrastructure to host the event.
Rebels in the east of the country are also reluctant to give up control of the areas they hold, sparking speculation that they will push for the federalisation of the vast country.
Another potential problem for the talks is that they will require a rare willingness from Kabila and his ministers to negotiate themselves out of power.
He said in Malawi on Friday that it was impossible to hold elections in a “country that is divided in half, that is occupied by foreign forces”.
Uganda and Rwanda, which has vowed to protect its border from Hutu extremists who have rear bases in the DRC, still have troops in the DRC, as do Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe to help prop up Kabila.
But analysts this week said the 30-year-old president had so far demonstrated considerable goodwill.
“He has revived talks stalled by Laurent Kabila and he has given Masire standing with the other parties involved by accepting him,” said Hannelie de Beer of the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies.
She added that Masire had been willing to abandon timeframes and “bend over backwards to get the talks going and to keep them going”, mindful that in Africa it is useless to force foes into flawed peace agreements. – AFP