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Dialogue facilitator’s office closed

Police in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have closed down the Kinshasa office of the inter-Congolese dialogue mediator Ketumile Masire, Reuters reported on Tuesday, quoting Congolese state television. It said police boarded up the office and sent home two members of staff. “The divorce between the government of DRC and the facilitator Ketumile Masire is complete,” the television report stated. “We don’t really have anything say about this, as yet,” a source close to the facilitator told IRIN on Wednesday. He said the facilitator’s office got the information on the closure of the office, which had been supported by the Canadian government, just after Masire had briefed members of the diplomatic corps on the obstacles on the inter-Congolese dialogue. Masire had indicated that he would carry on with the dialogue as he waits for a decision from the signatories of the Lusaka accord “who appointed him”. On Tuesday, DRC’s Foreign Minister Yerodia Abdoulaye Ndombasi accused Masire of, among other things, “deciding unilaterally, without any consultation, without making any contact with us whatsoever, to go to Cotonou [in Benin]” for preparatory consultations on the inter-Congolese dialogue. “The best inter-Congolese dialogue, the level of dialogue we should reach, is to reach the stage where we will be able to organise elections,” Ndombasi said. These claims were “entirely untrue” and the government was consulted at all times, the source close to Masire’s office said.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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