One of the main Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) rebel groups, the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD) remains upbeat about peace prospects in the war-torn country despite concerns about the motives of President Joseph Kabila and Uganda.
The movement’s South African representative Thomas Nziratimana told a media conference in Sandton on Monday he was hopeful that peace talks would be concluded by late March.
Nziratimana said the next round of talks was scheduled to take place in Pretoria from Thursday and was expected to last a week. At issue is a draft interim constitution, power-sharing and allocation of responsibility in the armed forces and measures to safeguard leaders and institutions during the implementation phase of the peace deal.
”In this regard, we salute the recent resolution by the central organ of the African Union to appoint a troika comprising Zambia, Mozambique and South Africa to oversee the conclusion of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue in conjunction with the special UN envoy Mustapha Niasse. With the UN seeking finality, this may well stop
stonewalling from any quarter,” he said.
Nziratimana said the RCD remained suspicious of Kabila and Uganda.
”The RCD places on record today its deep concern about the Kinshasa government’s tendency to speak peace on one hand while it pursues war at home,” he said.
He said that just days after the signing of the December 17 agreement in Pretoria, RCD forces captured a government transport plane at Baraka in South Kivu province.
They found that it was loaded with weapons ”for negative forces maintaining the war in the east of the DRC”. This is usually a reference to insurgents and militias allied to Kinshasa operating in rebel-controlled areas.
Two more recent provocative actions were the deployment of five battalions of troops to Beni in North Kivu, ”provocatively close to our headquarters in Goma,” and the imminent deployment of two more battalions to Shabunda in South Kivu ”to bolster Mai-Mai elements deployed there”.
Nziratimana also accused Uganda of continuing the destabilisation of the north-eastern regions of the DRC by creating new factions and splintering existing organisations.
He again called on Uganda to pull out its troops from the country, adding that to the best of his knowledge Rwanda, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe have now done so. – Sapa