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OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim and DRC talks' facilitator, former Botswana president Ketumile Masire, have said that efforts to organise inter-Congolese negotiations faced "financial and logistic problems", an OAU press release stated. It said Salim and Masire met in Addis Ababa on
Thursday to discuss ways of promoting the dialogue called for in the Lusaka ceasefire agreement to decide on a new political dispensation for the DRC. "They expressed the hope that the contributions pledged to support the mission of the facilitator shall be provided," the OAU statement said, adding that the UN had opened a trust fund to support implementation of the Lusaka accord. Masire briefed Salim on his consultations with DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila, other Congolese parties and regional leaders. Masire's stated hope that the dialogue
could begin "within one or two months" appeared extremely optimistic in the face of a resource shortage so severe that it reportedly precluded even the translation of relevant documents, regional analyst Filip Reyntjens told IRIN.
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