Ministers’ meeting deemed crucial

Officials from countries involved in the DRC conflict began meeting on Monday in the Zambian capital Lusaka to prepare for a ministerial meeting on Wednesday and a planned heads of state summit on Saturday, news agencies said. Chief SADC mediator, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, on Sunday called on the concerned governments to empower their ministers to make decisions to advance peace prospects, news agencies reported. “I am asking my brother presidents to please give full mandate to their ministers not to be afraid to do that which is rights,” Chiluba was quoted by AFP as saying at an interdenominational church service. Rebels “very optimistic” about talks The second vice president of the rebel Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) in Goma, Moise Nyarugabo, told IRIN he was “very optimistic” about this week’s peace talks. However, he said that for the talks to be successful, DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila would have to refrain from coming up with “fanciful preconditions,” and the SADC mediators would have to take the RCD’s interests fully into account. The rebels had to be part of the process and it would no longer agree to “proximity talks,” Nyarugabo said. Meanwhile, Nyarugabo denied the existence of different factions within the rebel movement. He told IRIN that Kisangani was not a divided city, and there had been a “rapprochement” between the RCD and the rebel Mouvement de liberation congolais (MLC) of Jean-Pierre Bemba. “Bemba is close the RCD,” he said, adding that negotiations between the two groups were underway. Buyoya cautious about talks outcome Burundian President Pierre Buyoya said on Friday that “nothing concrete” had resulted form the meeting of regional leaders held last week in Pretoria, South Africa, to discuss DRC peace prospects. Buyoya told Radio Umwizero in Bujumbura, monitored by the BBC, that the planned Lusaka summit was not certain. “Let us wait and see if it will take place in the first place,” Buyoya said, adding that “things that are planned in this framework are later postponed or cancelled.” Meanwhile, a South African government source told IRIN on Monday that the holding of Saturday’s head of state summit would depend on what emerged from the ministerial meetings starting on Wednesday. Rebel leader alleges bombing of civilians Emile Ilunga, leader of the Goma-based RCD, on Saturday accused Zimbabwe and Sudan of having bombed civilians in the southern town of Kalemie on Friday, killing at least three and wounding others. The southeastern town of Kongolo was also reportedly bombed on Saturday. “Kabila and his allies must target the military and not civilians”, Reuters quoted Ilunga as saying. The RCD leader said the attacks, which could not be independently verified, jeopardised rebel participation in the Lusaka meetings to negotiate terms for a ceasefire. Government claims rebels “in disarray” in Manono Meanwhile, DRC Interior Minister Gaetan Kakudji said in a radio broadcast on Sunday that the rebels were “in disarray” after Congolese government and Zimbabwean planes had “heavily bombarded” the southeastern rebel-held town of Manono and sunk a boat-load of rebel soldiers as they made their way across Lake Tanganyika from Burundi. The RCD-Goma group denied the reports.