RCD welcomes new Mbeki plan, dialogue extended

The Rwanda-backed rebel movement Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) on Thursday
gave a cautious welcome to an amended blueprint for the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) proposed by South African President Thabo Mbeki. "We can discuss them," said Azarias Ruberwa, secretary-general of the RCD, referring to the latest proposals. "The powers and attributions of new institutions and office holders are better defined in this version," he said.

The initial version of Mbeki's proposals was rejected by both rebel movements on Wednesday.
The major difference with the new proposals is that the latter assign to the rebel leaders national responsibility for defence, security, finance, economy and the holding of elections throughout the country. Another difference is that they drop a commitment to appoint a minor rebel leader (who opposes the two main rebel movements, RCD and the Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo, MLC) as a vice prime minister.

The latest proposals also spell out clearly that the Council of State, the highest authority for issues relating to reunification, would only include the president, Joseph Kabila, the two rebel leaders - Adolphe Onusumba of the RCD and Jean Pierre Bemba of the MLC - and a prime minister to be chosen by the unarmed opposition. The Council of State would also take decisions by consensus.

The new proposals have not pleased the DRC government. On Thursday morning, its spokesman, Vital Kamerhe, said that as far as the government was concerned the dialogue was over, as it had lasted the scheduled 45 days. But in the afternoon, the government announced that its delegation would remain at Sun City, after the dialogue facilitator, Ketumile Masire, announced a seven-day
extension of the talks until April 19.

Meanwhile, the government and rebel groups announced on Thursday that they had agreed to integrate their armed forces, removing one of the main stumbling blocks at the ICD. Moise Nyarugabo, head of the justice department of the RCD, told Associated Press that the government still needed to work out the size of the new national army, its command structure and commanders, and the proportion of rebels and government soldiers in its ranks. He added: "The government finally abandoned its insistence that rebel forces be absorbed into its army and accepted that our forces would be integrated as equals."

In a separate development, the Permanent Representative of the DRC to the United Nations, Ileka Atoki, wrote a letter to the UN Security Council on Monday to complain that Rwandan troops had neither demilitarised the city of Kisangani (northeastern DRC) nor withdrawn from Pweto (southeastern DRC), "in flagrant violation" of relevant provisions of Security Council resolutions.

Atoki noted that at its extraordinary meeting on 20 March 2002, the political committee on the implementation of the ceasefire agreement in the DRC had called on Rwanda to demilitarise Kisangani by 6 April at the latest. The failure to demilitarise was also inconsistent with the decisions of the fourth summit meeting of signatories to the ceasefire agreement held in Lusaka, Zambia, on 3 April, he added.

Atoki said that even more serious than the presence of troops in Pweto, was the fact that, "according to information reaching us, [the Rwandan Patriotic Army - RPA - is] instead reinforcing their positions in Pweto, thus jeopardising all prospects for peace in the region".

He also drew attention to "intense fighting" taking place in the high plateaux region around the city of Uvira, reportedly involving RPA forces and helicopters.

In a press conference on Wednesday, the force commander of the UN observer mission in the DRC, Gen Mountaga Diallo, told journalists that the demilitarisation of Kisangani had to be undertaken by the RCD, and that RCD also had to remove its administration and police from Pweto. He also confirmed that fighting was taking place between Banyamulenge (Congolese Tutsi) allies and RCD/Rwandan soldiers, southwest of Uvira, in Minembwe.