Assembly inauguration postponed

President-Laurent Desire Kabila on Thursday established Lubumbashi as the seat of parliament of the DRC state when he signed a presidential decree to that effect, Reuters reported. However, the inauguration of the Constituent Assembly originally scheduled for Tuesday next, 25 July, has now been postponed to 7 August, it quoted Justice Minister Mwenze Kongolo as saying. He cited delays with the arrangements required to accommodate it and its deputies in the southeastern city as reasons for the delay. There has been speculation, however, that the somewhat surprising delay was mainly due to controversy over the agenda of the inaugural session and the make-up of the ‘transitional government’ set to be announced by Kabila, diplomatic sources told IRIN. The assembly is scheduled to have 300 members, 240 chosen from among 10,000 applicants and another 60 chosen directly by Kabila. The UN Security Council on Thursday cited as a “cause for concern” indications of the government’s lack of commitment to a national dialogue that was “fully participatory, as called for in the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement.” Thursday’s decree by Kabila also confirmed Kinshasa as the nation’s capital and provided for the Supreme Court to be moved to Kisangani - now deep inside rebel-held territory - as soon as the DRC conflict came to an end, Reuters reported. Kongolo, in announcing the decree, had declined to confirm suggestions that the Congolese military headquarters would be relocated to the country’s diamond mining capital Mbuji-Mayi, but said it was “not impossible”, it added.