Rebels, opposition denounce government walk out at talks

Congo's rebels and opposition parties said on Monday they deplored the Kinshasa government's walk out at the inter-Congolese dialogue in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, which had raised hope among the Congolese of a settlement of the country's political and security problems.

The Democratic Republic of Congo's government delegation to the launch of the talks blocked agreement on rules for debate, then walked out a plenary session, leaving Addis Ababa on Friday.

Three movements of the armed opposition, nine opposition political parties and a civil society delegate signed the communique, which took a-day-and-a-half to prepare and called for new security services and the holding of the dialogue in South Africa in 30 days.

The three armed movements were the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD-Goma), the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo and the RCD-Movement of Liberation: the three main armed opposition movements. An early draft of the statement called for the appointment of a DRC president at the talks. However, in the final version this was changed to suggest "the creation of new national and provincial institutions whose office holders should be chosen by consensus". The status of president Joseph Kabila and of his team during a transition is one of the more controversial issues at stake. Hitherto the rebels had said that the presidency would be up for reappointment.

On the issue of how the pro-Kinshasa Mayi-Mayi guerillas should take part in the dialogue, the communique stated that "the question had been dealt with in consensual fashion", but without saying how. Observers at the meeting said that Francois Lumumba, son of Congo's first prime minister and leader of an opposition party with some Mayi-Mayi support, had opposed the rebel movement's demand that the Mayi-Mayi be integrated with other delegations to the talks.

Nine unarmed opposition parties signed the communique on Monday. Three days earlier 13 signed a joint communique of the unarmed opposition. The names missing from the list were mainly of small parties, recently formed with government support, but one well known opposition party, the Social Democratic and Christian Party, had also not signed Monday's statement. An "observer" signed for civil society.

The document condemns any prospect of renewed war, notably in North and South Kivu provinces, and particularly at Kanyabayonga, where the Mayi-Mayi are confronting the rebels.