Government to use "natural right" of defence

The DRC government has warned that it will use its "natural right" of defence to chase foreign "aggressors" from its territory. In a statement, received by IRIN on Monday, Information Minister Didier Mumengi accused the UN mission in DRC, MONUC, of "ambiguity" in carrying out its functions. "The government therefore informs the international community that from now on, the DRC will make full use of its natural right to legitimate defence, both individually and collectively, under article 51 of the UN Charter, to chase from its national territory those who are unanimously considered as the aggressors and butchers of the Congolese people," the statement said. Mumengi accused the UN of failing to impose a timetable for the withdrawal of Rwandan and Ugandan troops from the DRC, while ordering the DRC government to cooperate "with a facilitator we object to". Stating that the facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, Ketumile Masire, had "lost the confidence of the Congolese people", Mumengi said such a dialogue was a "Congolese problem". He accused some "big countries" of trying to use the inter-Congolese dialogue to get rid of the government and "rehabilitate the Mobutists in the name of national reconciliation".