Rebels' preconditions rule out Rome talks

The rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie(RCD) on Sunday set down "essential preconditions" which effectively ruled out its participation in peace talks scheduled for Friday (30 April) in Rome, news organisations said. The RCD's spokesman in Europe, Jorge Ndondo, told Radio France Internationale that "the conclusion of a ceasefire agreement, and then the "extension of the planned negotiations to other internal players in the conflict" must precede any talks. Ndondo said the RCD rejected President Laurent-Desire Kabila's designation of participants and that it would only attend if four groups it considered essential were "constituted in a balanced manner". The four groups included: the Kabila regime, the internal opposition, the armed opposition and civil society -"comprising all the truly representative political and social forces".