The European Union (EU) on Tuesday appealed to Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi to maintain ”constructive” relations with Kinshasa as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) seeks to emerge from nearly five years of war.
”The states neighbouring the Democratic Republic of Congo — Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi — must play the game, just like the DRC,” said the EU’s top foreign policy official, Javier Solana.
”It is absolutely necessary that these relations be positive and constructive,” Solana said after lengthy talks with DRC President Joseph Kabila.
”That’s the message that I hope to bring to the Ugandan and Rwandan presidents Yoweri Museveni and Paul Kagame,” said Solana, who is touring Africa’s central Great Lakes region.
Rwanda and Uganda backed rebels who launched a bid in August 1998 to topple the Kinshasa government of Kabila’s father, Laurent, who was assassinated in 2001.
Solana said he discussed with Kabila ”the possibility for the EU to help the transition government at this time when a great opportunity is before the DRC”.
His visit comes as ministers begin taking up positions in a new transition government tasked with restoring peace in the vast central African country and paving the way for democratic elections.
The interim government was set up under a December peace agreement with representatives from the four main parties to the DRC conflict — the two rebel groups, the Kinshasa government and the political opposition.
Solana is also due to visit the northeastern DRC town of Bunia, where a United Nations-mandated EU stabilisation force is in place.
A bloody feud between rival Hema and Lendu ethnic groups has claimed some 50 000 lives in the Ituri region, of which Bunia is the capital, since 1999. – Sapa-AFP