Global Policy Forum

By Ola Awoniyi

The government and rebels from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo have made a "major breakthrough" in meetings in the Nigerian capital, opening the way to full peace talks next month, the United Nations said Sunday.

Representatives of DRC President Joseph Kabila and the two main rebel movements in the country at war since 1998 agreed on who would be allowed to attend the talks in January in South Africa, UN Assistant Secretary General Ibrahim Fall told AFP.

"It went well," Fall said. "The delegations were able to adopt positions on the participation of the different segments of Congolese society to the Inter-Congolese dialogue. "With the adoption of that position... Now the way is open for the inter-Congolese dialogue to resume," he added.

"This is a major breakthrough," he said. The announcement followed three days of gruelling talks at the main UN office in Abuja between representatives of Kabila, the Ugandan-backed Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) and the Rwandan-backed Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD).

A representative of Botswanan former President Ketumile Masire, who chairs the inter-Congolese talks, was also present, but representatives of the four main foreign countries also involved in the conflict were not present. The DRC, a giant country in central Africa, has been at war since 1998 despite a peace accord signed in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, in 1999.

Since 1998, a total of seven countries have been involved in the conflict, with the main foreign protagonists being Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Angola. One international humanitarian organisation has estimated the death toll resulting from the conflict since 1998 at 2.5 million. Officials in the Congolese capital told AFP Saturday the talks in Abuja were bogged down by splits within the rebel MLC and between the MLC and the RCD. But Fall declined to discuss such details.

"I cannot go into details. We have a success," another UN official said.

The rebels launched their insurgency in the mineral-rich DRC in August 1998 with the backing of Rwanda and Uganda, and opposed by Zimbabwe and Angola who support the Kabila government.

Peace moves have gained momentum in the DRC since Kabila took office in January after the death of his father Laurent Kabila, who came to power in 1997 having overthrown long-time dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

Most parties to the war have, since the junior Kabila took power, withdrawn from the frontlines, paving the way for UN peacekeepers to deploy across the vast nation to implement the Lusaka peace accord for the country.

But progress on further implementation of the accord has been slow.

The government delegation in the Abuja talks was led by Kabila's cabinet chief, Theophile Mbemba and included Presidency Minister Augustin Katumba Mwanke, a senior army officer and two members of a panel charged with preparing the talks in South Africa next month.

The rebel movements were represented by senior rebel leaders. On the RCD side, the delegation was led by the movement's secretary-general Azarias Ruberwa.

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