Bemba boycotts opening of inter-Congolese dialogue

Four hours later than scheduled - and after a two-year delay - the inter-Congolese dialogue opening ceremony took place on Monday evening in the glitzy Sun City resort in South Africa, despite the absence of representatives from two main groups - the unarmed opposition and the rebel Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC).

However, a spokesperson for the Office of the Facilitator told IRIN on Tuesday that the talks had been suspended until the following day, because "many issues had yet to be solved", including that of representation.

Uganda-backed Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the MLC, who was conspicuously absent at the opening ceremony, was said to be staying at a nearby hotel in Sun City. SABC radio reported that he had had private talks with South African President Thabo Mbeki.

Bemba has refused to attend out of support for the unarmed opposition groups, saying that many of the groups present are not true opposition parties, but fronts for President Joseph Kabila's government.

Ugandan Minister for Regional Cooperation Kahinda Otafiire told IRIN on Tuesday that Uganda would not put pressure on Bemba to attend the dialogue. "We can only advise, we cannot put him under pressure," he said. "It's not in our interest to put pressure on him - we have helped him, but we are not his godfathers," Otafiire said.

"If we put pressure on him, he will negotiate half-heartedly. Ultimately it is his responsibility," he added. "If he has grievances, he should air them within the dialogue."

Mbeki told delegates at the opening of the dialogue on Monday that the talks were about the future of the African continent. "The Democratic Republic of Congo [DRC] is central to the achievement of the objective of an African Renaissance," he said. "The sovereign decisions you will take about your country will help inform the answer to the question whether we, as Africans, have the will and the capacity to pull our continent and our peoples out of misery, indignity, poverty and underdevelopment."

The facilitator of the dialogue, Ketumile Masire, warned the Congolese delegates that it was their duty to set up democratic institutions and an independent judiciary, and if they did not do this "history will judge the Congolese to have been the architects of their own misery. A great responsibility is on you to deliver your own country from self-annihilation," he said, warning that there was "no winner-takes-all" in the talks.

A copy of the speech Kabila was supposed to have given - but did not - was obtained by Reuters: "How is it that at the start of the third millennium, we live in a country of vast riches, but our population is one of the poorest and most miserable," he asked.

All the foreign countries involved in the DRC war - specifically Uganda and Rwanda fighting against the government, and Angola and Zimbabwe on Kabila's side - have been accused of looting the DRC's vast reserves of gold, timber, diamonds, coltan and timber.

Reuters quoted some Congolese delegates as commenting that the killing last week of the Angolan UNITA rebel leader, Jonas Savimbi, might have removed one obstacle to peace in the DRC. Savimbi had bases and supplies in DRC, which had encouraged Angola to enter the war in a bid to cut his supply lines, the agency reported.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council has reiterated its call for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the DRC. No major change had been observed in the positions of countries which had their forces deployed in the DRC, and Uganda had even announced its intention to send troops back into the northeastern part of the country, the Council observed.

The Council also requested the UN mission in DRC (known by its French acronym MONUC) to make an initial assessment of the number of armed Rwandan groups in the DRC, and to report back by the end of March. "Based on this assessment, the Council will examine whether any further support should be given to MONUC in the execution of this task."

It called for the disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, resettlement and reintegration of armed groups in DRC. "The failure so far to repatriate the Rwandan combatants from Kamina [southeastern DRC] is a source of concern, and the Secretary General calls on the Government to use all its influence to promote the early return of all Rwandan combatants now on its territory."

In a cat-and mouse-game, Rwanda has repeatedly refused to withdraw its troops from the DRC until rebel forces (including those responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda) have been disarmed by the DRC government, which in turn refuses to disarm them until Rwanda withdraws.

None of the foreign belligerents present in DRC have been invited to the inter-Congolese talks.

The dialogue opens two years after it was scheduled in 1999 by the Lusaka peace agreement. Last October the first round opened in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, but collapsed due to a lack of delegates, and to financial difficulties.