Talks on transitional government stall over army

Disagreements over command and control of the army constituted the factor causing talks on a transitional ruling body between the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the former rebel Mouvement de liberation congolais (MLC) to stall on 5 June.

"We want to avoid the new army being at the service of one man. We want it capable of protecting all the nation's institutions and the public," Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the MLC, said from his "fiefdom" at Gemena, Equateur Province.

He added that the future army should operate in accordance with decisions reached by consensus by the National Security Council. However, the government wants overall control vested in the chief of staff. The government's spokesman, Kikaya bin Karubi, said a situation in which the army would be given a choice of which leader to obey was a recipe for chaos.

The Roman Catholic bishops have seized on the impasse reached at the talks, held in Matadi, western DRC, from 6 June to 5 July, to call for expanded discussions on a transitional government which would also include the Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), Etienne Tshisekedi's Union pour la democratie et le progres social and other opposition parties.

Agreement on forming a transitional government was reached in Sun City, South Africa, between DRC President Joseph Kabila and Bemba in April. But the RCD, which was not party to the agreement, described it as "a joke".

Meanwhile, the bishops are to meet separately with Kabila and Bemba to try to resolve their differences on the formation of the transitional government.