Congolese urged to facilitate peace process

Veteran Congolese opposition politician Etienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba has urged all parties to the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo to overlook their private interests in order to make the rebuilding of their country easier.

"I adhere to the new political order and national reconciliation agenda that is a key to endow our country with lasting peace," he said on Monday in his New Year's message to the nation.

Tshisekedi, who is president of the Union for Democracy and Social Progress party, said all Congolese must now prioritise "the supreme interests of our nation and our people", urging Congolese belligerents and their backers to stop massacres, crimes and genocide, as well as the pillage of the country's natural resources.

He pledged his "unshakeable faith" in the Lusaka Peace Accord (signed in July and August 1999) and the organisation of the inter-Congolese political dialogue. However, he went on to "categorically denounce" the reintroduction of European Union development aid to the Congo. Stopped in the early nineties, the EU voted to resume aid in December 2001 and will sign an agreement, or National Indicative Programme, for the Congo later in January.

This move had been opposed by the EU commissioner for external affairs, Chris Patten, and the EU aid commissioner, Poul Nielson. Both men are in favour of postponing the reopening of aid "pending clearer signs of a reopening of political dialogue" from the Kinshasha government, The Guardian, a London newspaper, reported on Wednesday.