Johannesburg | Monday
THE government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other parties at the peace talks in South Africa hit a new deadlock on Monday, stalling work on a post-war constitution for the country.
Opposition politicians said the government refused to allow work to start on a new constitution until Kinshasa, rebels and other groups involved in the talks had reached ”a global political compromise” on power-sharing – a tall order as it would require them to solve their long-standing dispute on whether Joseph Kabila remains president.
”We are in a deep deadlock on this matter,” Valentin Mubake of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) said.
”We all agreed on Friday that when we meet today we will set up a subcommission that will start on work on a draft constitution, but today the government refused.
”They argue that we first need to agree on a global political compromise before they will participate in the subcommission. We have told them that there is no provision in the agenda for the talks for such a compromise,” he said.
Eugene Diomi Ndongala, the leader of Forces for the Survival of Democracy, said Kinshasa had called for a subcommission to be created to settle the power-sharing dispute.
But the secretary-general of the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), Azarias Ruberwa, told a press conference that the rebel groups would not allow the government to impose the condition of first finding a global political settlement.
Another member of the Rwandan-backed RCD described the proceedings in the political commission, where the row broke out, as ”a wasted morning”.
The commission is the most troubled of five working groups at the 45-day talks under way in South Africa, as it must define how the DRC will be governed during a political transition phase and, therefore, deals with Kabila’s position.
Kinshasa is insisting that he retain his position and lead the country to its first elections in more than 40 years, while the country’s rebel movements say the post, like all others in government, should be considered vacant.
Kabila took over after the January 2001 assassination of his father Laurent Kabila, the rebel leader who overthrew the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997.
The row over Kabila’s status has bedevilled the DRC peace process for years and with only 12 days of negotiations left, a compromise seems distant.
Vital Kamerhe, a government delegate to the talks said late on Sunday the government was prepared to ”cede some of our power to the rebels” who control more than half of the DRC.
He added that the government would ”include the rebels in institutions”.
The RCD and the Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) have, however, so far rejected statements by Kinshasa in this regard, arguing that they were not prepared merely to be integrated in institutions like the cabinet and the army, but wanted comprehensive reform.
The Inter-Congolese Dialogue is aimed at bringing a definitive end to the complex war in the DRC and usher in a new political order. – Sapa-AFP