Sun City | Monday
BELLIGERENTS involved in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were poised on Monday to accept a deal to end a row that has stalled peace talks in South Africa, the DRC government said.
”There was a meeting that came up with a compromise and we are debating it this morning to see if the talks can move forward,” said DRC Communications Minister Kikaya bin Karubi.
”If we can resolve this the committees can start their work,” he added, referring to working groups that must draft a new constitution for the war-torn country, prepare for elections and integrate fighters from all sides into a new army.
The deal, drafted at the weekend, is designed to solve a dispute over whether the peace talks, dubbed the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, have the power to designate a new government.
Such an outcome would end of the rule of President Joseph Kabila, who succeeded his assassinated father Laurent Kabila last year and has since revived efforts to end a war that has drawn in five other countries in southern Africa.
The DRC’s rebel movements are insisting that Kabila hand over power to a government of national unity which includes their representatives but the Kinshasa government says Kabila’s position is not negotiable.
Sources at the talks suggested the deal would see the parties accept a vaguely-worded provision from the 1999 Lusaka peace accord, which says the talks should lead to ”a new political order”, and leave a committee of 15 delegates to come up with a more precise definition.
The meaning of the phrase and its implications for the government have been a bone of contention since the parties signed the Lusaka pact in 1999.
The dispute resurfaced last week, becoming the second big row to deadlock the peace talks, which opened in the Las Vegas-style gambling resort of Sun City in northwestern South Africa on February 25.
The talks, which are running more than a week behind schedule, brings together some 350 representatives of government, rebel groups, tribal militia backing Kinshasa, political parties and civil society in the DRC.
It is meant to bring a final end to the war that began in 1998 as a foreign-backed rebellion against Kabila and pave the way for the former Zaire’s first elections since independence from Belgium in 1960.
The talks resumed on Monday in a tent village on the outskirts of Sun City because resort’s only venue big enough to accommodate all the delegates was booked for an entertainment show. – Sapa-AFP