The delayed swearing-in of ministers in Democratic Republic of Congo’s transition government, set up to guide the vast country to free elections, will take place on Tuesday, said the new environment minister.
The swearing-in ceremony had been set for Monday but was delayed without explanation.
Neither the presidency nor the follow-up committee, tasked with setting up the institutions of the DRC’s transition government, gave a reason for the delay.
A source close to the government however said late on Monday that it arose from a unilateral decision by the former rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) to set up three military zones in areas of the DRC that they controlled during the five-year war.
The follow-up committee suspended work on Saturday after learning of the move by RCD leader Azarias Ruberwa, named one of four vice presidents in the new government.
Ruberwa set up the three zones on Thursday in eastern, northern and southern DRC, areas previously controlled by the RCD, the biggest rebel group in the vast central African country.
The follow-up committee declared the zones ”null and void”, while a spokesperson for the RCD said at the weekend that the issue of the military areas was still open to discussion.
”It is a scenario for preparation of a coup by military force,” said one military officer on Saturday on condition of anonymity.
”Ruberwa has caressed the media and the population of Kivu (in eastern DRC) and put things in place to attack from the regions he has created.”
Anselme Enerunga, due to be sworn in as environment minister, said late on Monday that the inauguration would take place on Tuesday at 3pm (1400 GMT).
Each of the main players in DRC’s long and arduous peace process — the RCD, another former rebel group backed by Uganda, the government in Kinshasa and the political opposition — is included in the new government. Each has been given seven ministerial portfolios and four deputy ministries.
All were due to be sworn in on Monday, to allow the new government to get down to the nuts and bolts of restoring peace in the DRC, riven by war since August 1998, when rebels rose up against then president Laurent Kabila’s government with backing from Rwanda and Uganda.
Twenty-seven of the new ministers were in Kinshasa on Monday, ready to take the oath of office, but none of the RCD ministers or their deputies had made the trip from the rebels’ eastern headquarters city of Goma for the ceremony, saying their security demands had not been met. – Sapa-AFP