Congolese diaspora urged to participate in dialogue

The facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, Ketumile Masire, on Tuesday urged the Congolese diaspora to seek participation in the dialogue, a statement from his office said. According to him, the diaspora could participate by joining or aligning itself with either the government, the armed or unarmed opposition or civil society, the four sides recognised by the Lusaka agreement. Masire said that the Congolese signatories to the Lusaka agreement, namely the government, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD), and the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) had at a recent meeting in Gaborone, Botswana, emphasised that the Lusaka agreement on which the inter-Congolese dialogue is based, did not provide for the representation of the diaspora as a particular grouping. The signatories had thus urged the diaspora to seek representation in the dialogue through either government, the armed or unarmed opposition, or civil society, the statement said. “We certainly acknowledge and appreciate their commitment and contribution to the dialogue process. It is, however, true that the Lusaka agreement does not provide for any particular representation of the diaspora as a group,” Masire said. “I would thus also urge them to join hands with movements in the DRC and seek representation through them,” he added. He also called on the political movements in the country to bring in members of the diaspora to the dialogue saying that their importance to the success of the talks and reconstruction of the DRC could not be doubted.