French minister optimistic about dialogue

French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, has pledged more support to the implementation of the Lusaka Peace process after holding separate talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba in Kampala. Vedrine, on a last leg of the tour of the Great Lakes Region, said on Monday that his government and European Union members would pay more attention to the peace process in the DRC after he met key leaders of countries involved in the war. He arrived in Uganda on Sunday and met Bemba, the embattled leader of the Uganda backed Front pour la liberation du Congo (FLC) on Monday. He later met President Museveni. The French Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, Bernard Valero, confirmed that during the meeting with both Museveni and Bemba, Vedrine was confident the peace initiative was taking the right direction.

He said Vedrine who had been to Kinshasa, Tanzania, and then Uganda was optimistic that the planned inter-Congolese dialogue will lead to a new political dispensation in the DRC. He left for Rwanda after the talks in Kampala. “The minister told Bemba that it was important to have meetings with all parties involved and every one has to contribute. He also noted that the implementation of the Lusaka peace accord was at an important stage in view of the fact that the inter-Congolese dialogue is about to start” the spokesman said. The preliminary session of the dialogue has been set for 20-24 August.