SADC appeals for funds for inter-Congolese dialogue

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) appealed to the international community on Monday for US $5 million to support the inter-Congolese dialogue, due to be held in South Africa in early 2002. "We are appealing to the international donor community to assist us," Albert Muchanga, deputy executive secretary of the 14-national economic alliance, was quoted by SAPA as saying at the end of a week-long SADC diplomatic meeting. The SADC secretariat said that international donors had not provided the sum required for the national peace and reconciliation forum, and have become impatient with the lack of progress made by the parties to the talks, the Financial Times of London reported. The money is needed to fly some 330 delegates from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to South Africa, and to pay for their accommodation, meals and conference facilities. The talks, chaired by Ketumile Masire, former president of Botswana, got off to a false start in mid-October in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, due to insufficient funds to accommodate all delegates. The delegation of the DRC government of President Joseph Kabila left the talks after a few days, calling the gathering unrepresentative. Masire then adjourned talks until further notice. Last week, the European Union reported that they had already spent $1.72 million on the inter-Congolese dialogue this year, with another $334,000 allocated but not distributed, AP reported. An additional $888,000 can be used for the South African talks, but this amount falls short of the funding required. Observers at a recent meeting held in Abuja, Nigeria, told IRIN that the inter-Congolese dialogue would likely be held later than the end of January, the period previously set. A spokesman for the facilitator of the dialogue, Mory Toure, said that delegates were unhappy at the venue chosen by South Africa for the talks. "They have learned that Sun City is the gambling capital of South Africa and as such they do not think it is appropriate," he said.