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The Goma faction of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) on Thursday rejected three proposed facilitators of the national debate on the political future of the country agreed under the terms of the Lusaka peace deal. "The RCD cannot accept them as mediators", spokesman Lambert Mende told Reuters, in reference to Father Matteo Zuppi
of the Rome-based missionary community, Sant Egidio; former President of Benin, Derlin Zinsou; and former OAU Secretary-General, Edem Kodjo of Togo. RCD-Goma, led by Emile Ilunga, wanted "a college of facilitators composed of African personalities whose moral integrity and independence
are not questionable", Reuters quoted Mende as saying. Ernest Wamba dia Wamba's Kisangani faction of the RCD had on Wednesday stated its preference for Sant Egidio as the sole neutral facilitator of the inter-Congolese talks.
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