RCD regrets delayed UN deployment

The rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) has deemed the refusal by the DRC government to allow UN deployment in government-held areas as a violation of the Lusaka peace agreement. RCD-Goma spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba said his movement regretted that the UN ‘blue helmets’ would not be arriving in Kisangani in the next few weeks, and suggested that the DRC stance appeared to be linked to the arrest warrant on incitement to hatred charges issued by Belgium against the DRC Minister for Foreign Affairs Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi, ‘Radio France Internationale’ reported. “He knows that four other ministers and himself are targeted [by Belgium],” Mulumba added. The latest obstacle to the deployment of UN peacekeepers did not help the RCD at all, contrary to some reports, since it had never violated the Lusaka accords and remained faithful to them, Mulumba said. By contrast, the government was “attacking in all directions” and had gunboats on all the Congolese rivers, he said. Meanwhile, the RCD has appointed new provincial and municipal officials in Kisangani, rebel-controlled RTNC radio reported from Goma on Thursday. The new governor for Province Orientale, Justin Yogba, and mayor of Kisangani, Willy Tchoko, along with a number of lesser civil officers, were introduced to the public by the RCD’s first vice-president Jean-Pierre Ondekane - who is on a working visit to the city - at a rally in front of the post office in Kisangani on Wednesday, the report said. RCD forces remained in a state of high alert in Ikela, Equateur Province, where the government was allegedly continuing its offensive, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported on Wednesday. “To hide their warlike strategy they are accusing us of reinforcing our positions in this zone but, in fact, Kabila is in an active military phase,” it quoted RCD spokesman Kin-Kiey Mulumba as saying.