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Ex-rebel leader returns to government

[DRC] The secretary-general of RCD-Goma, Azarias Ruberwa in Kinshasa, 30 April 2003. IRIN
Azarias Ruberwa, un des quatre vice-présidents de RDC et leader du RCD-Goma
    KINSHASA

    Four days after officially suspending his participation in the coalition transitional government of Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Azarias Ruberwa, one of the four Congolese vice-presidents and leader of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has announced he will return to the capital, Kinshasa.

    "The vice-president [Ruberwa] will return to his usual duties tomorrow, [Saturday]" Francis Bedi Mabele, the RCD-Goma secretary-general, told IRIN on Friday. Ruberwa is also scheduled to meet with South African President and mediator of the DRC crises, Thabo Mbeki.

    Ruberwa had quit the government after a massacre on 13 August of 160 Congolese Tutsis, known as Banyamulenge, who in June had fled across the border into neighbouring Burundi following a wave of violence in the eastern DRC.

    Ruberwa, who is a Munyamulenge, described the massacre as "a genocide" saying the transitional process needed to be paused and re-assessed.

    On Tuesday, DRC President Joseph Kabila announced on national television that he opposes any renegotiations. "I can also say that for me [Ruberwa's] demands to renegotiate the accords are a joke," Kabila said.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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