Kabila expected to announce DDRR plan

The President of the Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to make an announcement this week on disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation and reintegration (DDRR) of Rwandans who have been fighting in the DRC, according to British officials. The British Minister for Overseas Development Clare Short who was in Kinshasa last week has said that her government is ready to work with the government of DRC when it announces plans to take forward DDRR. “My officials have been talking with officials of the government (of DRC), and there’s now some detailed planning going on,” she said.

The British government would also help the UN Military Mission to the Congo (MONUC) with DDRR in parts of Congo that the government does not control. Short stressed that her government strongly supported implementation of all aspects of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement. She said the disengagement envisaged in the Kampala and Harare plans had gone well and was almost complete, barring “a couple of movements” that Jean-Pierre Bemba’s forces still had to make. Short said it was clear from her discussions with opposition politicians that they all wanted the inter-Congolese dialogue to go ahead.

So far however government spokesmen have declined to comment on suggestions that their president is planning an announcement on DDRR for Rwandan Hutu rebels.