The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will not be resolved until a global power-sharing pact is struck that includes all parties to the country’s complex parties and allays the security concerns of its neighbours, Rwandan President Paul Kagame has said.
”Until such time as the Congolese set up a stable government including all parties to the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in Sun City … and taking into account the concerns of neighbouring countries, the situation will remain as it is today,” Kagame told reporters in Kigali late on Tuesday.
The government of DRC President Joseph Kabila and the Ugandan-backed rebel movement, the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), struck a deal on the sidelines of landmark peace talks, dubbed the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, that took place in the South Africa resort of Sun City between late February and April.
The Rwandan-backed rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), which controls the eastern third of the DRC, and around 10 unarmed opposition parties did not sign the deal and have formed an alliance, based in the eastern DRC city of Kisangani, aimed at resurrecting the peace talks.
The government-MLC agreement provides for Kabila to remain as president of the DRC and MLC head Jean-Pierre Bemba to take the newly created post of prime minister in an interim government leading up to elections.
It has not prevented a continuation of violence in the vast central African country, especially in the RCD-controlled east.
”The current situation is symptomatic of a country without either a government or even a credible political entity in Kinshasa with which talks can be undertaken,” Kagame lamented, stressing that the peace process needed to be ”unblocked”.
”The problem is the government of Kinshasa, which simply thought it had resolved all the problems by striking a deal on the sidelines in Sun City with the MLC … leaving out all other groups,” he said.
The Rwandan president also denounced the international community for initially backing the accord.
”The best thing to do in Congo is to strike an agreement where all the groups will come together and form a transitional government,” said Kagame.
”Kabila must come down on earth a little and realise that it is time to share power with others.”
As the violence continued, the Rwandan-backed RDC rebel group said on Tuesday it had recaptured the strategic southeastern town of Pweto from traditional Mai-Mai warriors, who are fighting on Kinshasa’s side in the DRC’s complex war.
The conflict began in 1998 as a rebel insurgency against the government of then president Laurent Kabila and soon drew in five African countries. Rwanda and Uganda threw in their lot with the rebel movements, while Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe backed Kinshasa.
”We have taken back Pweto,” RCD representative Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga told AFP by telephone on Tuesday from Goma, the eastern city where the RCD has its headquarters.
”We will keep a military contingent there until we have decided, with the United Nations, on the status of the town,” he said.
Up until June 20, when Pweto was captured by the Mai-Mai, the town was a demilitarised zone run by the RCD.
The UN observer mission in DRC, Monuc, recommended in a recent report the demilitarisation of the town, which is near the demarcation line that separates areas of the DRC controlled by troops loyal to Kinshasa and territory administered by the RCD.
Monuc added that this was ”a recognised position of the Kinshasa government”. – Sapa-AFP