Kinshasa groups say passports seized

Civil society groups in Kinshasa have confirmed that their representatives were prevented from leaving the capital to attend preparatory talks for the inter-Congolese dialogue in Contonou, Benin. In a statement, received by IRIN on Wednesday, Baudouin Hamuli who coordinates the Campagne nationale pour la paix durable, said members of civil society groups and opposition political parties had their air tickets and passports confiscated by government officials at N'djili international airport on Monday night. The statement expressed its deep concern over the attitude of the DRC government, which has refused to attend the Cotonou meeting. The statement expressed the support of civil society for President Laurent-Desire Kabila's recent initiative in meeting Rwandan President Paul Kagame, and said it could not therefore understand "why he is preventing the internal process from moving on in the same way". Fifteen of the 27 invitees to the Cotonou meeting turned up, an official from the facilitator's office told IRIN. She confirmed the presence of representatives from Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de liberation congolais (MLC) and from the RCD-Goma.