Groups hold informal talks after dialogue adjourns

Rebel delegates and opposition leaders from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) met informally on Monday in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, after the indefinite adjournment of the inter-Congolese dialogue, AFP reported.

Rebel representatives, politicians and civic leaders were meeting on the sidelines, since several groups said they wanted to keep working, to "harmonise their viewpoints" on the agenda, procedural issues and the difficult question of who should take part in the dialogue, a source told AFP. "The outcome of this work could be to ease the duties of the [facilitator]," who was not taking part, the source added.

On Sunday, the dialogue facilitator, former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire, officially announced the postponement of the national peace and reconciliation talks, envisaged as a key aspect of the peace process under the Lusaka peace agreement.

It is widely believed that the talks will resume in November in South Africa, whose government has offered to assume a large share of expenses. A spokeswoman for the DRC government delegation at the talks told IRIN last week that Durban was the most likely venue. Pretoria had earlier offered to help meet the cost of accommodation and transport. Telecommunications links are far superior in South Africa, from where televised sessions of the meetings could be relayed to the DRC.

Armed opposition groups, who have been fighting the DRC government with the help of troops from Rwanda and Uganda, accused Kinshasa of impeding progress after its delegation walked out of the Addis Ababa talks on Friday. However, speaking at a news conference in Kinshasa on Saturday, DRC Foreign Minister Leonard She Okitundu said: "The government was totally opposed to holding cheap talks at any conditions ... the dialogue should be held under the conditions prescribed by the Gaborone [preparatory] meeting, namely, with the 320 delegates in attendance, as well as the representatives of the groups identified during that meeting".

Due to financial constraints, only 70 delegates were present in Addis Ababa rather than the 320 expected, which Okitundu said was contrary "to ensuring the inclusive nature of the national dialogue". Giving assurances of the DRC government's commitment to peace, he said that the dialogue's financial problems could be solved "thanks to an offer by South Africa which is prepared to host the national dialogue within one month and defray most of the related costs".

On Sunday, a coalition of traditional authorities said they wanted to be included in any national peace talks. Speaking to Radio France Internationale on Sunday, their spokesman, Emery Kalamba, said: "This conflict is characterised by land occupation. Land, in reality, belongs to traditional authorities. I do not see, therefore, how these issues can be discussed without involving traditional authorities ... everybody knows that there cannot be any solution if traditional authorities are sidelined. The current resistance in the east of the country against foreign occupation is rooted in traditional authorities." There are some 7,000 traditional chieftaincies in the DRC.

Meanwhile in Kinshasa, AFP reported that a movement known as the Differential Non-Armed, Non-Allied Opposition (ODINA) has proposed that the dialogue take place in the DRC capital, much as rival parties this month began talks in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire. "The example of our Ivorian brothers gives us ground for hope that such an initiative could lead to national reconciliation," AFP reported ODINA as saying in a letter sent to DRC President Joseph Kabila, to Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the Ugandan-backed rebel Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC), and to Adolphe Onusumba, leader of the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma). ODINA said the talks might take place in a conference centre built by former ruler Mobutu Sese Seko, which has fallen into ruin but could be repaired, at "far less cost" than abroad and with "a beneficial effect on the local economy". ODINA chairman Andre Atundu said that "in a city of six million people, surrounded by the misery of the whole country, the participants would have a sharpened sense of responsibility and no desire to behave like tourists".

ODINA also suggested the talks be facilitated by "a central African head of state who knows the parties in the crisis and is familiar with the Congolese situation", though it gave no names.

For his part, Okitundu appeared favourable to continuing talks in Kinshasa. Speaking at a news conference in Brussels on Monday, attended by IRIN, Okitundu said that all the delegates of the Joint Military Commission, including Rwandans and Ugandans, were now in Kinshasa, where the JMC is to be settled. "That shows that the dialogue could be held in Kinshasa, for an appreciably lower cost than elsewhere abroad," he said.

The Lusaka peace agreement, signed by the parties to the war in July 1999, called for an "inter-Congolese dialogue" to pave the way for new political solutions following a civil war. Rebel groups backed by Uganda and Rwanda rose up in 1998 against Kinshasa, which enjoys military support from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.