October 9, 2001
Marathon talks aimed at bringing lasting peace to the Democratic Republic of Congo officially begin in Addis Ababa next week, but the first formal plenary session has been delayed by a lack of funds. The United Nations' Economic Commission for Africa said in a statement that "the inter-Congolese dialogue will open here at the UN Conference Centre on Monday October 15."
The vital political talks among domestic parties to the DRC conflict have been the object of haggling over participation, as well as the shortage of funds. Under the vague terms of a 1999 ceasefire accord -- which has yet to be properly implemented -- the expected fruits of the 45-day dialogue should be a "new political dispensation" for the DRC, good governance, democratic elections and a new constitution.
DRC government forces backed by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe have been fighting rebel groups supported by Rwanda and Uganda since August 1998. When in full steam, the talks are meant to bring together 330 delegates drawn from the government, opposition, rebel groups and civil society, but facilitator Ketumile Masire, a former president of Botswana, has asked that Monday's gathering in the Ethiopian capital number no more than 70.
Masire explained that available funds were just a fraction of those required.
Delegates will "adopt procedural rules and establish an agenda for debate, before a large plenary session is held in one month's time in Addis Ababa -- if financial backers have come up with funding by then," one diplomatic source said.
The role of the initial gathering will be to "discuss the internal rules of the dialogue and to undertake preliminary work for delegates in each commission," another diplomat said. But, as a source in the facilitation team told AFP, nothing is certain. "We are meeting people every day. We have briefings every day. The format is changing regularly..."
On Monday, the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD), backed by Rwanda, accused Kinshasa of procrastination a day after the government insisted the Addis Ababa event would not signal the real start of talks. Another reason for the delay in the dialogue proper is disagreement over how to accommodate the Mai-Mai, militias who mostly back Kinshsasa but who are also being wooed by rebel groups backed by Uganda and Rwanda.
Different Mai-Mai groups, not necessarily working in unison, claim to control much of rural eastern DRC, especially the resource-rich Sud-Kivu province outside big towns, which are in the hands of rebels backed by Rwanda.
Kinshasa has coopted many of the Mai-Mai groups into its war effort, but such loyalties tend to be fleeting in the DRC, especially when there is money to be made from resources such as coltan and timber. For weeks, the Mai-Mai have demanded their own delegation to the dialogue, a proposal backed by Kinshasa but opposed outright by the rebels, who would rather see the militias integrated into other teams according to their alliances.
In March, the Uganda-backed Congo Liberation Front, which operates mainly in northern DRC, announced it would train eight Mai-Mai brigades and integrate them into a joint peacekeeping force.
In Kinshasa on Tuesday, there were calls for moving the dialogue to South Africa, which has in the past intimated it would be willing to host and pay for the meeting. Reliable sources told AFP that some figures within the DRC government object to South Africa as a host to the talks out of a feeling that Pretoria would not be impartial.
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