Opposition party disputes selection of delegates to dialogue

The Movement for Democracy and Development (MDD) opposition party of the DRC on Friday expressed its “dissatisfaction” with the designation of participants to the inter-Congolese dialogue and accused dialogue facilitator, former president of Botswana Ketumile Masire, of “forcing his will upon the Congolese people,” MDD secretary-general and spokesman Emmanuel Bamba Jr told the official RTNC TV. “How can the Masire office dare disregard DRC political party law by sending to [the pre-dialogue in] Gaborone political actors whose political parties are not recognised by the 001/2001 Law of 7 May 2001 on the organisation and running of political parties and groups? The MDD believes that Mr Masire has forced his own will on the DRC people, when the inter-Congolese dialogue issue is first and foremost political and legal. It should also be added that representation in the Gaborone pre-dialogue does not make any of these political parties legal.” In addition, Bamba said that the MDD was “scandalised” that the DRC government had been “deceived” into agreeing to a higher representation of the armed allied opposition. “In concrete terms, the armed allied opposition has 30 delegates, while there are only 19 government representatives. How can the government accept this situation?” Bamba said the MDD was calling on Congolese people “to be vigilant so as to thwart any attempt to partition our country” and demanded “the immediate, unconditional withdrawal of all the forces of aggression, in line with the relevant UN security council resolutions [in order to] enable the Congolese people to settle their problems on their own.”