Kinshasa absent from tripartite meeting to ease regional tensions

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) effectively cancelled a high-level inter-government meeting scheduled for Thursday with Rwanda and Uganda to develop mechanisms by which they could peacefully work out their differences and ensure the security of their respective borders. "Before talks can be held we insist that Rwandan troops withdraw from our territory," Simon Tshitenge, Congo's deputy minister for information, told IRIN in Kinshasa. "Our country is at war. This is not the moment for us to leave it," he added. DRC, Rwanda and Uganda had signed a tripartite security agreement in October, which would put in place a commission to deal with diplomatic and security issues. But since the agreement was signed tensions have heightened in the region. In November, Rwanda's president, Paul Kagme, announced that his troops might invade eastern Congo to disarm Rwandan combatants who were responsible for the 1994 genocide in his country. Despite numerous reports of Rwanda troops having invaded, the reports remain unconfirmed. The permanent secretary in Uganda's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Julius Onen, told IRIN on Friday that after the Congolese delegation failed to turn up, the Uganda and Rwanda delegations held "informal" consultations with the mediator of the tripartite arrangement, US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto. Yamamoto arrived in Kinshasa from Kigali on Friday for talks with President Joseph Kabila. "We hope that Mr. Yamamoto will clear [the impasses] and that the next [tripartite] meeting scheduled for January in Kinshasa will take place," Onen said.