RCD explains changes and divisions

The RCD has clarified the recent changes within the movement. In a press release, received by IRIN on Thursday, it noted that former leader Ernest Wamba dia Wamba was removed by a 66-strong convocation of RCD founders because of a “series of crises” brought about by his leadership style. These included “aggravating incipient divisions” and “decamping to Kisangani without valid reason where he remained incommunicado”.

The statement said that while in Kisangani, Wamba created a new institution - the General Secretariat of the RCD - and surrounded himself with a private military faction which was not under the control of the RCD military command. Wamba’s actions, the statement claimed, “are directly attributable to the subsequent tensions between the RCD military and our Ugandan brothers and allies in Kisangani”.

However, it stressed that the RCD still regarded Wamba as a “loyal Congolese of integrity and dedication...and a valuable member [of the RCD]”. The RCD had reorganised itself so that structures were more efficient, adaptable and less personalised, the statement said. There was now a Congress, a Council and an Executive with the latter two headed by the same person, the new RCD leader Emile Ilunga. In the past, each institution had been headed by different people. The Assembly no longer existed.

The statement ended by listing conditions for a cessation of hostilities in the DRC, including the “clear identification of the belligerents as the RCD and the Kinshasa government”. Foreign forces must be withdrawn and the “fascist and genocidal forces” mobilised by President Laurent-Desire Kabila “neutralised”. The statement also called for a government of national unity.