Kampala, Kinshasa keen on regional cooperation, says minister

The governments of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda are in regular contact over regional cooperation, Ugandan Foreign Minister James Wapakhabulo announced on Thursday. He said Uganda was set to send a diplomatic mission to the Congolese capital, Kinshasa. "We can't name a definite date yet because our premises [there] were vandalised and they need to be repaired," he said. "As soon as this is done, we can open our embassy." He told IRIN that the Congolese transitional government was looking more united than anyone could have expected when it was formed a few months ago He said that his recent meeting in Kampala with Congo's new minister for regional cooperation, Mbusa Nyamwisi, was "the most encouraging I have yet had". "Contrary to what many thought, they [Kinshasa's new ministers] are not going into this simply representing their sponsors," Wapakhabulo said. "I think for the first time, they are going into this representing the Congolese". He said relations between Ugandan and the DRC would flourish because of this. "After our meeting I spoke to my colleague over the phone and we discussed the way forward," he said. He said cross-border security arrangements between the DRC, Rwanda and Uganda were being worked out by a joint commission mechanism, and that a conclusive deal was expected soon. He added that the eviction of Taban Amin, son of the late Ugandan leader Idi Amin, from the Ugandan embassy in Kinshasa was the final hurdle to normalising relations with the Congo. "I think this is a crucial step. We wanted him out of our premises. Now we can set about normalising relations," Wapakhabulo said. Amin had been occupying the derelict embassy, which was closed after 1998 shortly before Uganda and Rwanda launched a joint attack in an effort to topple Congo's newly installed president, Laurent-Desire Kabila.