Annan hails preparations for dialogue

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday said that he was encouraged by the preparations under way for an inter-Congolese dialogue in the DRC and urged that women be fully represented throughout tye process, a statement from the UN spokesman’s office said. Annan said he hoped the preparatory meeting set to begin on 20 August in Gaborone, Botswana, would successfully pave the way for the actual dialogue. He also expressed his full support for the appeals to the Congolese parties by the facilitator of the process, Ketumile Masire, that women should be more fully represented in their delegations to the preparatory meeting as well as the dialogue, and that gender issues should be included in its agenda. “I am deeply concerned that women may be inadequately represented at the preparatory meeting,” Masire said in a statement last week. “I have appealed to the Congolese signatories to the Lusaka agreement to increase their quota of female representation in an aim to address this serious imbalance and to ensure gender issues are addressed at the dialogue,” he said. He also appealed to Annan and to the UN Security Council for “urgent support in this regard”.