REPRESENTATIVES of 12 Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) opposition groupings expressed the hope on Friday evening that all-embracing talks on that country’s future would resume as soon as possible.
They said they hoped this would particularly include representatives of the DRC government and the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC).
The latter two have indicated they may forge ahead and form a new government.
After two days’ talks in Cape Town, facilitated by President Thabo Mbeki, the opposition representatives told a media conference in Parliament they had reached consensus on a number of issues.
This included that the Inter-Congolese Dialogue (ICD), which had stalled at Sun City in North West province last month, should immediately be resumed under the facilitation of Mbeki, President Levy Mwanawasa of Zambia and former Botswana president Ketumile Masire; and that all foreign troops should withdraw from the DRC in terms of the Lusaka Agreement, United Nations’ resolutions and wishes expressed at the ICD.
They said they accepted the South African government’s willingness to again provide facilities for the continuation of such talks.
The groups also requested the assistance of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the European Union and the United Nations.
They said they would especially like to thank Mbeki for his facilitating role and said they were ”immediately available” for the continuation of talks. The timing would, however, also depend on Mbeki’s agenda.
They said only two disputes had remained after this weeks’ talks in Cape Town, and they had agreed to a plan proposed by Mbeki.
The Cape Town talks had produced a ”new dynamic”.
”It was the first time since the collapse of the Sun City talks that we communicated again.”
Asked what would happen if President Joseph Kabila’s government and the MLC were to continue their plans to form a new government, they said ”there is no other way than for them to come back to the dialogue”.
Mbeki told journalists on Friday morning that opposition groups met ”on their own” at Parliament in Cape Town on Thursday, without the DRC government and its Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) ally.
He said a DRC envoy who saw him earlier this week had told him that the government grouping felt that instead of going directly into substantive talks, they needed to discuss ”modalities”, including the format of meetings and agenda items.
”The others, who had not been part of the agreement between the government and the MLC… felt nevertheless that they needed to meet, because they were not party to that agreement,” Mbeki told journalists at Tuynhuys.
He said he had conveyed this view to the first group ”and left the matter to them to decide how they will respond”.
Mbeki met the opposition groups on Thursday morning, and again on Friday.
Mbeki’s representative, Bheki Khumalo, said on Friday the MLC had in fact promised to send a representative to the talks.
However he would arrive in South Africa only on Saturday ”and that is already too late, because the president is leaving for Norway”.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said earlier this week that the Congolese government had refused an invitation to the Cape Town talks at the last minute, saying they were being held too soon after the failure of previous talks in Sun City.
The rebels and government met at the resort for a month, but were unable to agree on a transitional government.
United States President George Bush on Thursday thanked Mbeki by phone for hosting this week’s talks.
”The president expressed his support for President Mbeki’s continued efforts in Cape Town this week to help the Congolese reach an agreement on the composition of a transitional government,” said Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer. ? Sapa