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A key rebel group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has said it is not ready to participate in the next round of inter-Congolese talks due to open on Friday in Pretoria, the South African capital.
The leader of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma), Adolphe Onusumba, said on Monday his movement would be tied up restoring its hold on the town of Uvira on the shores of Lake Tanganyika until Monday when the talks, announced by UN Special Envoy to the DRC Moustapha Niasse, are due to end.
RCD-Goma recaptured Uvira on Saturday from government-allied Mayi-Mayi militia forces. RCD-Goma had previously suspended negotiations with the government after accusing it of supporting the Mayi-Mayi's 12 October attack on the town.
The other major rebel faction, the Mouvement pour la Liberation du Congo (MLC) led by Jean-Pierre Bemba, has said it is ready to participate in the talks.
The Congo's commissioner-general to the peace process in the Great Lakes region, Vital Kamerhe, has accused RCD-Goma of using the situation in Uvira as a pretext to avoid the talks. "RCD-Goma had announced that it would take part in the negotiations thinking that the government was going to refuse. Now that we have accepted, it has found an excuse," he said.
The principal belligerents in the conflict - the government, RCD-Goma and MLC - are expected to meet at the weekend to give their final views on the issue of power-sharing, which the civil society groups, political parties and other belligerents will be asked to examine. The government and RCD-Goma appear to have agreed on there being one president and four vice-presidents in the country, while MLC favours one president and two vice-presidents.
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