Masire blocked from visiting rebel-held areas

The facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue provided for by the Lusaka agreement, former President of Botswana Ketumile Masire, was on Wednesday prevented from travelling from Kinshasa to rebel held areas by the Congolese authorities, according to a BBC report. In a interview with the BBC on Thursday morning, Congolese Foreign Minister Yerodia Ndombasi said Masire had informed the government of his travel plans beforehand, and that a meeting had been scheduled with him to sort out the confusion.

Masire was scheduled to travel to Gbadolite, headquarters of Jean-Pierre Bemba’s Mouvement de liberation congolais (MLC). From there, he was set to meet officials of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie - Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML) in Bunia, and of the RCD in Goma. “This shows you that Kabila is a real problem to the peace process. Masire was coming here to get the views of the Congolese. Who is Kabila to stop him? These are not encouraging signs and the international community should take note of this; otherwise, we are back to nothing,” an MLC official told IRIN on Thursday.