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The leaders of the various militia groups that have been fighting in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are to meet this week in the northeastern city of Kisangani, according to the UN Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC.
"The meeting is principally to build confidence among the militias at a time when they are fighting in the east and northeast of the country," Mounoubai Madnodje, a spokesman for MONUC, said on Monday.
The groups invited to attend the meeting, which is being convened by MONUC and leading Western ambassadors in the capital, Kinshasa, are the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC), the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie-National (RCD-N), and the RCD-Kisangani-Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K-ML). They signed a ceasefire agreement on 30 December, which they violated the following day.
The chiefs of staff of the government military and that of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie are also invited.
The sponsors of the Kisangani meeting had decided to convene it in Kisangani, Madnodje added, because the city had been the scene of several battles, the last of which took place in May 2001. At least 200 people died there when the Rwandan army put down an uprising within the ranks of its local ally, the RCD.
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