Rebels reject offer

The three DRC rebel groups on Tuesday dismissed Kabila's offer, saying "he should seek amnesty himself". "It is nonsense," RCD-Goma's security chief Bizima Karaha told IRIN. "It is totally in breach of the Lusaka agreement." MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba described the offer as a "joke". "He cannot do it alone," he told IRIN. "Who is he to be giving an amnesty?" RCD-ML leader, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, for his part, accused Kabila of "trying to disorientate us from what is going on in the implementation of the peace agreement". He said the amnesty decree "makes
no sense". "He [Kabila] is trying to reopen negotiations and he wants his government to be the transitional government, it is all manipulation," Wamba said, adding that the idea of amnesty was good but had to come after a national dialogue. He accused Kabila of trying to pre-empt the process.