EU aid commissioner meets Kabila, rebel forces

The European Union’s development commissioner Poul Nielson on Friday travelled to Goma in rebel-controlled eastern DRC to meet leaders of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma. News organisations said he sought guarantees of DRC unity before the EU releases more development aid. “This is really the question I am here to raise,” he told Associated Press. “Without a clear, positive answer to this, it is in fact, very difficult for donors from outside to do anything that is meaningful.” “We had a very positive meeting,” RCD-Goma spokesman Kin Kiey Mulumba told AP after meeting Nielson. “We confirmed our will to settle our problem by dialogue ... We told him that we are nationalists, we are for one, united country.” Nielson said he was also pleased with the meeting. “We had a sincere and honest exchange of views. It is a point in time where progress is crucial,” Nielson was quoted as saying. “It is moving in the right direction.” Earlier, Nielson met DRC President Joseph Kabila when he also stressed the need for unity in the county. The EU froze development aid to the DRC in 1992 because of human rights abuses during former president Mobutu Sese Seko’s three-decade rule. In March, the EU council of ministers agreed provisionally to grant the DRC 120 million euros (more than US $100 million), for spending on health, roads, education and justice, but Nielson indicated this would be conditional on progress with an inter-Congolese dialogue. Nielson noted that some of these funds would be earmarked for reintegration of armed groups in eastern DRC.