Accusations of spying at the inter-Congolese dialogue

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government negotiators at the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD) in Sun City have demanded the expulsion of Rwandan and Ugandan security chiefs from the holiday resort.

DRC Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu said he was astonished that Rwandan and Ugandan officers were present at the site of the inter-Congolese negotiations, and were "freely and blatantly making contact with their proteges".

Okitundu demanded that the South African government and the organisers of the dialogue remove the Rwandan and Ugandan officers from the site, on the grounds that their presence was a threat to the security of the Kinshasa delegation, and because they were not among the agreed categories of
observers.

He recalled that under an agreement among the parties to the dialogue, only representatives from the United Nations, the Organisation of African Unity, the European Union and Zambia were to be
authorised to be present at the site of the negotiations as observers.

"Interference" by Rwandan and Ugandan political and security authorities was "intended to block the start of sessions and prevent the Congolese [from] resolving their problems among themselves", he said. DRC Information Minister Kikaya Bin Karubi said there was "an army of spies and soldiers" from Rwanda and Uganda at the talks.

A spokesman for the Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) dismissed the government's demands as a diversion from real issues. "It's ludicrous," he said. "An army of spies? They have to prove it. We're told there's a Zimbabwean officer here, but we don't regard that as a threat to our security. If the Zimbabweans and Angolans are watching what is going on we wouldn't mind at all."

Zimbabwe and Angola are allied to the Kinshasa government, while Rwanda and Uganda are allied to the rebel movements, the RCD and the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC), respectively, which control vast swathes of the east and north of DRC. None of the foreign belligerents involved in the DRC conflict were invited to attend the talks. The organisers of the ICD said late last week that they could not comment on the matter.

Meanwhile, the Congolese opposition leader, Etienne Tshisekedi - who has declared himself a candidate for presidency of DRC - said in an interview with Radio France Internationale on Friday 1 March that he was hopeful that a solution could be reached to the impasse regarding the delegation representing the unarmed opposition.

He said members of the opposition were unhappy that the list of delegates to represent them at the ICD had been drawn up by the facilitators of the talks, without consultation. "The problem is to be able to respect the autonomy of the political opposition, that is to say, to enable the political opposition to choose its own delegates," he said. Thanks to the intervention of the South African authorities, however, he thought a solution had been found in allowing the undisputed opposition leaders to choose the other candidates in their group themselves.

"Everybody must be happy... each group must feel comfortable. No group should feel prejudiced by some dispositions which do not conform to the normal standards," Tshisekedi said.

The ICD has been stalled since 26 February, following the opening ceremony the day before, due to objections from members of the unarmed opposition and the RCD and MLC regarding the opposition delegates. A number of them, it was said, were fronts for DRC President Joseph Kabila's government, and not "real" opposition delegates.