Talks’ facilitator plans for 3 July start

The DRC government, opposition and civil society representatives will meet the facilitator of the inter-Congolese negotiations, former Botswana President Ketumile Masire, from 5-7 June to work out details for the holding of the full negotiations, now slated to start on 3 July, Masire said on Tuesday. “We will get together somewhere and decide on the venue,” Masire told IRIN. He said the June meeting, to include only “a few” people, would also decide on the representation and number of participants for the negotiations.

Masire said he would be travelling to Goma, Bunia and Gbadolite, starting on Wednesday, to meet the leaders of the two RCD groups and the Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC) as part of the “consultative process” leading up to the full negotiations. He was then planning to return to Kinshasa to meet President Laurent-Desire Kabila. While the DRC government wanted the negotiations to be held in Kinshasa, the rebel movements and most unarmed opposition and civil society groups would prefer it to be held elsewhere, Masire said.

Other proposed venues included Lusaka (Zambia), Gaborone (Botswana), Port St. Louis (Madagascar), Maputo (Mozambique), Nairobi (Kenya), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Cairo (Egypt), he said, adding that he was confident the parties’ different views on the venue would not “break” the dialogue. “I think at the end of the day, they’ll be flexible.” Masire said.