Dialogue delegates could be reduced for lack of funds

Former Botswanan president and facilitator of the inter-Congolese peace and reconciliation dialogue, Ketumile Masire, has suggested a reduction in the number of delegates who would attend, at least in early stages of the talks.

"I wouldn't want to have the same meeting we had at Gaborone, with just 30 delegates, but we may want to have a smaller meeting", he said in Kinshasa before flying to Goma on Thursday.

However, Masire spokesman George Ola-Davies noted that this "was just a hypothesis, it was not a categorical statement. Any categorical statement that [Masire] is going to make will come on Sunday when he has consulted all the parties."

Masire also suggested that the issue of representation for the Mayi-Mayi Congolese militias, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie - Mouvement de liberation (RCD-ML) armed opposition movement, and churches might be agreed at a preliminary stage of the dialogue. "However, he would prefer to settle that before going to the dialogue," Ola-Davies said.

He dismissed media speculation in Kinshasa that Masire wanted to reduce the meeting to just one or two people for each of the component groups - namely, the Kinshasa government, armed and unarmed opposition, and civil society.

"That would mean there would be no one at all for some of the committees," he said.

A larger figure of 70 was cited in one Kinshasa newspaper as Masire's suggestion for the preliminary stage but Ola-Davies did not comment.

Meanwhile, DRC Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu confirmed reports that disputed RCD-ML leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba had returned to Congo seeking audience with President Joseph Kabila to discuss the restoration of peace.