EU envoy urges warring parties to eliminate obstacles to peace agreement

European Union (EU) envoy to the Great Lakes Aldo Ajello on Saturday appealed to parties in the DRC conflict to work harder to eliminate all obstacles to the implementation of the Lusaka peace accord. The Congolese television quoted Ajello as saying that although the agreement had been signed a long time ago, the conditions for the implementation of the accord have not been met for several reasons. "Besides, one should understand that if we want to broker peace, then the military option should be abandoned," he said. "So long as the military option is there,
it will be difficult to move forward," Ajello said.

Concerning DRC government's position not to attend the proposed
inter-Congolese talks to be held in Benin, Ajello said he would ask the talks' facilitator Ketumile Masire to choose another venue for a meeting with the Congolese authorities. In the DRC, Ajello met the country's foreign minister Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi and Leonard Ntwaremba Onfre who is the government's appointee as MONUC's general commissioner .