EMSIE FERREIRA, Sun City | Wednesday
ROLLERCOASTER talks on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) hit a low on Tuesday two days before their close as rebels and the Kinshasa regime remained far apart and the facilitator warned a deal might not be found.
“If they continue to argue like they have for weeks then we can forget about coming to a conclusion that can be deemed final,” said former Botswanan president Sir Ketumile Masire.
“It is such a pity. It is all about power-sharing and that it what they cannot agree to do.”
Masire was speaking after berating the government and the Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) for failing to respond, more than two days after a deadline to do so, to a proposal for a post-war government tabled last week by South African President Thabo Mbeki.
The plan, though deemed hugely flawed by most parties, is so far the only document on the table for power-sharing between the rebels, the regime and political opponents in the former Zaire which has since 1998 been gripped by a war that still embroils four foreign armies.
Representatives of the government returned from Kinshasa after consultations with President Joseph Kabila pleading for more time even though the talks are due to close on Thursday.
“We have not responded (to Mbeki’s proposal). We are not in a hurry,” said Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu.
Added Augustin Katumba Mwanke, the presidency minister: “We have asked for more time, we need to have more consultation with all the other parties.
“For 45 days the people here have not really been talking to each other. We need to do that and we cannot put a deadline on it.”
The Kinshasa regime and the MLC have both privately confirmed that the have a draft deal that would see Kabila keep his post and MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba take that of prime minister but exclude the other party to the three-way war the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD).
The RCD has said there would no peace if this happened and observers agree that the war could intensify.
RCD secretary general Azarias Ruberwa came out of the meeting with Masire accusing Kinshasa and the MLC of taking other participants hostage.
“There is no progress here, we have been taken hostage by two groups who refuse to respond to a plan which we already accepted last Friday. Whether it is the ambitions of the MLC or the government that is blocking a deal, they must now come to the table.”
Mbeki’s plan has the vote of the RCD because it would reduce Kabila to a figurehead and give rebels wide powers, including oversight of the army, the economy, the interior and the organisation of the former Zaire’s first elections since independence from Belgium in 1960.
Human Rights Minister Ntumba Lwaba argued on Tuesday however that the “plan is too complex” and the MLC has termed it unworkable.
MLC security adviser Thomas Luhaka said the onus was on the lonely-looking RCD to accept Bemba as prime minister and be content will a lesser role for itself if it wanted to form part of an accord.
“Ultimately it is not wise to isolate the RCD, but the time has come for them to concede. The government is ready to give the post to Bemba, but not to the RCD,” he said.
The talks have yielded accords on economic recovery, the integration of the rebels into the DRC army and national reconciliation but commentators say they will not be implemented if the rebels and Kinshasa failed to agree on overall powersharing.
In the meantime smaller parties to the talks said the discussions would not produce peace if they if all power went to the three internal belligerents in the DRC’s war.
“The population is going to feel that they have been excluded and they will say that if only those who took up arms are considered then maybe they should take up arms,” said Jacques Depelchin of the RCD/ML Kisangani splinter rebellion.
Kinshasa, with the help of Angola and Zimbabwe controls 40% of the country and the MLC and RCD the rest, but neither the regime nor the rebels command strong popular support. – AFP