Tshisekedi rejects Libreville talks

In a letter dated 14 December to the president of Gabon, Omar Bongo, the leader of the Union pour la Democratie et le Progres Social (UDPS) opposition party in the DRC, Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba, expressed “surprise” at Bongo’s support for the meeting to be convened by DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila in the Gabonese capital, Libreville, from 22 to 28 December. In the letter, Tshisekedi described the meeting as “an attempt to bypass the inter-Congolese dialogue in Lusaka”.

The UDPS leader stressed that it was the role of the facilitor, as a neutral outsider, to initiate dialogue between Congolese forces. Tshisekedi urged Bongo to convince Kabila to take part in the Lusaka peace process and to accept former Botswanan President Ketumile Masire’s position as facilitator. The Lusaka agreement represented “the ultimate course to deliver [the DRC] from the terrible crisis which it is caught up in”, Tshisekedi said, “especially at a time when the entire international community, and particularly the Organisation of African Unity [OAU], have thrown their weight behind it”.