Debate on Joseph Kabila's position at dialogue

On Thursday evening, after the first full day of talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) government and its opponents, the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD) appeared deadlocked over the issue of 30 year-old president Joseph Kabila's role in a transitional government.

The DRC government insisted that the post of president of DRC was not vacant. Any suggestions to the contrary were not in the Lusaka Cease-fire Accord, the basis for the inter-Congolese negotiations in Sun City, argued DRC Human Rights Minister Ntumba Luaba.

The peace accord, signed in 1999 between three Congolese warring parties and five countries with troops in the DRC, spells out a "new political order" and "new political institutions" as agenda items for the ICD talks.

"The status of the president is included in the new political order," said Catherine Nzuzi Wa Mbombo, leader of the Mouvement populaire de la revolution, one of the country's main opposition parties. "Perhaps Joseph Kabila might be able to come back, but not by trickery," she added.

"The Congo has no constitution," said a rebel spokesman, Olivier Kamitatu, secretary-general of the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC). "For sure, we must discuss the new key players as part of the agenda. It's quite obvious if we're talking about new institutions adopted by consensus among 360 participants."

But according to the government, Joseph Kabila must remain as head of state until elections take place, as "guarantor of national unity and territorial integrity at a time when the country is invaded and occupied", Luaba said. "The other parties want to focus on certain political posts before we convene the dialogue. They want to spend two or three weeks debating this, but it is a very bad move."

"Around the head of state we can have a redistribution of roles," Luaba conceded, but added that all new ministers would have to be designated by Kabila.

DRC Communications Minister Kikaya bin Karubi echoed a similar point: "The government is prepared to include people from other parties in new structures, in a parliament and an electoral commission. But we are not here to elect a new president. There is a government in place," he told AFP.

Joseph Kabila came to power in January 2001, following the shooting and death of his father, the late President Laurent-Desire Kabila. The DRC has lacked official rules to govern the transfer of power since 1997, when the elder Kabila - who led a rebellion to oust Mobutu Sese Seko from the post he had held since 1965 - suspended the constitution.

The only democratically elected leader of present-day DRC was the nationalist Patrice Lumumba, following Belgium’s 75 years of colonial rule, which ended in 1960. Lumumba, who was one of the key figures in ejecting colonialism, was overthrown only months after taking office and murdered in February 1961.