TROUBLED talks in South Africa on the future of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were ”going much better” on Sunday after Rwandan-backed rebels agreed that President Joseph Kabila could remain as head of state, said DRC Human Rights Minister Ntumba Luaba.
As he spoke, however, the ”Republican Federalist Forces”, reported that a Rwandan military offensive in the east of the DRC had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of Tutsis.
A statement from the organisation, representing ethnic Tutsis in the DRC, said that ”between 4 000 and 6 000 Rwandan troops” had invaded the uplands in the South Kivu province in the eastern DRC with hundreds reported dead.
Rwandan-backed rebels of the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) have been fighting troops loyal to dissident Commander Masunzu there since the beginning of March.
Masunzu, who belongs to the Banyamulenge, Congolese Tutsis who trace their descent from Rwanda, has accused the Tutsi-dominated Rwandan army of betraying the interests of his community and wants the soldiers and the RCD, which controls most of eastern DRC, out of the vast central African nation.
In the South African resort of Sun City however, where 360 Congolese delegates are negotiating a post-war transition, the RCD signalled Saturday that it would let President Joseph Kabila remain in his post, reversing a position that had blocked a political deal for seven weeks.
The rebels’ concession was seen as a sign that Rwanda is prepared to make peace in the four-year-old war, in which Ugandan troops are backing another rebel movement, the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), and Angolan and Zimbabwean troops are fighting alongside Kinshasa’s soldiers.
”There is no way that the RCD could say that without having Kigali’s permission,” said a government source.
Luaba, for his part, said: ”Things are going much better. We have made a lot of progress. We believe the rebels are serious and there is real possibility that we will find an agreement.”
The RCD’s change of heart came after President Thabo Mbeki tabled a proposal for a transition government in which Kabila would remain head of state but cede most of his powers, including control of the army, to the leaders of the RCD and the MLC.
”We are looking at how we can accommodate both rebel groups, we have to come up with something new,” a member of the government delegation said, adding that members of its team flew Sunday to Kinshasa to consult with Kabila.
Archbishop Apollinaire Malu-Malu, a member of the civil society delegation to the talks, said Mbeki’s plan was ”not workable” but designed to push-start talks which had been widely predicted to fail.
”I am totally convinced that the second proposal of President Mbeki was made so that the RCD would not be isolated because if that happened there would never be peace. I also think there has been strong international pressure on all governments in the Great Lakes region,” he said.
”With the help of the international community — who have for once applied pressure on the belligerents — we’re getting somewhere. There has been a real change on the rebel side.”
The DRC war began in August 1998 when Rwanda and Uganda invaded to back a rebellion to oust then president Laurent Kabila, and grew into Africa’s biggest war, killing 2,5-million people.
Laurent Kabila was assassinated in January 2001 and succeeded by his son who has revived talks but failed to end the conflict.
Luaba said Kinshasa wanted a transition government in which the prime ministership went to a member of the rebel groups or the political opposition.
The regime favours an opposition politician for the post, something the RCD acknowledged by meeting with the heads of political parties.
Diomi Ndongala, the leader of the Front for the Survival of Democracy, said the parties were trying to come up with one candidate for the post.
”We will try to nominate somebody amongst ourselves, otherwise we will ask that all 360 delegates here vote to elect a prime minister from our ranks,” he said.
Malu-Malu appealed to the rebels to accept a neutral candidate and warned against concentrating power in a post-war structure in the hands of the MLC, the RCD and the government.
”The rebels have military power but no popular support. It is the non-armed opposition that can mobilise the people if they are left out, and we do not need violence and strikes to paralyse the country in a transition period,” he said.
The talks have been extended to April 18. – AFP