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A facilitator for the proposed inter-Congolese national debate said on Saturday that preparations for the debate will move forward now that the Lusaka agreement has been signed by all warring parties, Reuters reported.
The facilitator, former president of Benin, Emile Derlin Zinsou, told Reuters at the Francophonie summit in Canada that all parties had agreed to attend the round-table talks some time ago but that everything had been put on hold until the ceasefire accord. "In the coming days we will be contacting the groups by phone," Zinsou said.
The agenda, participation and venue for the talks still had to be worked out. "Some hope it will be Rome, some want Nairobi. I'll go wherever they agree to," Zinsou was quoted as saying. The other facilitator is Padre Matteo Zuppi of the Roman Catholic Sant'Egidio Community. Under the Lusaka accord, all-inclusive inter-Congolese negotiations on the political future
of the DRC are to begin 45 days after the signing of the agreement.
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