Belgium resumes bilateral cooperation

“Your suffering has lasted long enough,” Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told the Congolese people during a speech to mark the Democratic Republic of Congo’s 41st independence anniversary on Saturday. Verhofstadt, leading a delegation of 100 Belgians, including Foreign Minister Louis Michel, on a two-day visit to Kinshasa and Kisangani, is the first Belgian premier in 13 years to visit the DRC, IRIN sources accompanying the minister noted. “The message I bring today, on behalf of my country, is to mobilise all our energy, all our convictions and all our faith in the Congolese people,” he told DRC President Joseph Kabila, ahead of announcing the resumption of bilateral cooperation between the two countries. Apart from four agreements worth US $18 million, Verhofstadt announced two new agreements as well as the liberalisation of state loans frozen since 1990. The agreements will allow the provision of electricity to “millions of inhabitants in Kinshasa, Kisangani and Kananga”, he said, adding that “we are also determined to quickly examine cancelling the bilateral debt”, in keeping with the recent Great Lakes Action Plan, adopted by the Belgian government. “Since the beginning we have adopted an impartial attitude”, Verhofstadt stressed, adding that “being impartial, does not mean we lack critical judgement”. Although he recognised the importance of the national conference on human rights held recently in Kinshasa, Verhofstadt considered that “unacceptable abuses are still being committed”. He said that any strengthening of cooperation would depend on positive steps being made in the inter-Congolese dialogue and restoring a state of law in the country.