Pretoria | Saturday
LEADERS of a new alliance between rebels and political parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will next week meet South African President Thabo Mbeki and UN envoys engaged in a peace mission to the Great Lakes, rebel leader Adolphe Onusumba said on Friday.
Onusumba, the president of the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), said the newly formed Alliance for the Protection of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue (ASD) would use the meetings to discuss reopening peace talks on the war-torn DRC.
”We thank the South African government for what President Mbeki is doing to get (DRC President) Joseph Kabila and (prime minister-elect) Jean-Pierre Bemba back to South Africa to continue the Inter-Congolese Dialogue,” Onusumba told a press briefing.
”We will be meeting with president Mbeki on Monday or Tuesday.
By then we will have met with the UN Security Council delegation and we can look for a way forward.”
Onusumba, who is a deputy president of the ASD, was referring to a 10-day UN Security Council mission to eight countries in southern and central Africa to speed up the peace process in the DRC.
The ASD, which is based in Kisangani in northeastern DRC but was formed in South Africa days after the talks ended on April 19, said it would take every possible political step to revive the negotiations in Sun City.
The talks ended with Kabila’s government and the Ugandan-backed rebels of the Congolese Liberation Movement striking a deal on the sidelines.
Under their accord, Kabila will remain head of state and MLC leader Bemba will become prime minister.
It was rejected by the RCD and six opposition parties, five of whom have banded together with the rebels to form the ASD.
They argue that the two-way alliance between Kabila and Bemba is not a full political accord between all the parties in the DRC and will not end the four-year war in the vast central African state.
The signatories to the alliance are veteran opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi of the Union for Democracy and Social Advancement (UDPS), Raphael Katebe Katoto of the Process for a Neutral Transition (DPTN), Franck Diongo of the Progressive Lumumbaist Movement (MLP), Alafuele Kalala of the Rally for a New Society (RNS), Jean-Marie Emungu of the Congolese National Movement-Lumumba, and Onusumba.
”We have come together to address the difficult situation created by the virtual coup d’etat perpetrated by Bemba and Kabila,” said Tshisekedi, who is the president of the ASD.
”We are appealing to the international community to put pressure on Kabila and Bemba to reconsider their action and to return to discussions. We are also taking our own action in this regard. We have the support of the Congolese community who believe that we can end the crisis.”
Onusumba said he believed South Africa would host the talks if and when they resumed.
”President Mbeki has already indicated his willingness to do this,” he said.
The RCD’s exclusion from an accord after eight weeks of talks have raised fears that the war in the former Zaire will reignite. – Sapa-AFP