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Rebels ponder debate proposal

    NAIROBI
    A faction of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) is considering whether to accept the Rome-based Catholic Saint Egidio Community as a facilitator for the inter-Congolese negotiations called for in the ceasefire agreement, news agencies said on Tuesday. "We met Saint Egidio Community's delegation and we discussed their proposal to be the facilitator in the future national debate...We will give our response to their initiative in the coming days," RCD-Goma vice-president Moise Nyarugabo told Rwanda News Agency (RNA). Under the peace accord, a neutral facilitator acceptable to all Congolese parties was to have been selected 15 days after the accord's coming into force, to lead up to six weeks of negotiations on the political future of the DRC. Meanwhile, Father Matteo Zuppi of Saint Egidio has arrived in Kinshasa to help plan the national debate, together with another proposed mediator, the former president of Benin, Derlin Zinsou, news agencies said on Tuesday. "We have come to listen and to nudge all sides towards formalising their positions so that we can get to work," Zuppi told state television. A third facilitator suggested by Kinshasa last week, former OAU secretary-general Edem Kodjo of Togo, had not arrived. The government and its opponents have yet to agree on the venue or agenda for the talks.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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