Parties to dialogue agree to speed cooperation

Parties to the inter-Congolese dialogue, scheduled to begin in South Africa in early 2002, agreed on Wednesday to a number of measures to accelerate their cooperation, the office of the dialogue facilitator reported on Thursday.

The agreements came within the context of the Republican Pact, signed by parties to the dialogue during a meeting in August held in Gaborone, Botswana. The pact is an effort to implement a number of confidence-building measures in advance of the actual dialogue. The latest agreements followed two days of meetings that began Tuesday in Nairobi among delegates to a committee established to follow up this pact.

With regard to the free circulation of people and goods, the parties agreed to ease procedures for travel among all provinces of the country, both government- and rebel-held. This could include the resumption of commercial flights, according to a statement from the office of the facilitator, former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire.

The committee also called for acceleration in efforts, before the start of the dialogue, toward the restoration of goods illegally confiscated.

Delegates to the meeting also supported the decision of the Kinshasa government to pay the salaries of civil servants throughout the national territory, and expressed their hope that all authorities to be involved in this process would cooperate.

Participants also decided to conduct a mission throughout the DRC to disseminate information on the Republican Pact and to verify its proper implementation.

The mission, which could be ready by mid-January, would be comprised of representatives from the government, the Ugandan-backed Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) armed opposition movement, the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement, the Ugandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie - Kisangani - Mouvement de liberation (RCD-Kisangani-ML) armed opposition movement, political opposition groups and civil society.