"Aggressors" use peace accord as delaying tactic, UN assembly told

Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda are using the Lusaka ceasefire agreement as a pretext to "prolong indefinitely" their presence in the DRC, Foreign Minister Yerodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday. As soon as the agreement was signed, "our aggressors and their Congolese creatures, pompously called rebels, resumed their diversionary tactics to delay as much as possible the implementation of the accord," Ndombasi said. The Joint Military Commission (JMC) has not started work because the rebels have not designated their representatives, the choice of facilitator for the national dialogue remains unresolved, and Rwanda and Uganda continue to mass troops and weapons around Mbuji-Mayi and other mining towns, he stated. Their ultimate objective was to make off with Congo's immense resources, Ndombasi said in New York. "Today, Congolese cobalt, gold, diamonds and wood, arriving from Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda and all stained with the innocent blood of the DRC's children, are being sold unscrupulously at the Stock Exchange," he told the Assembly.