Date , 2002
The United Nations Security Council on Tuesday voiced its backing for an upcoming meeting of parties to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), urging all concerned to participate constructively in the talks, a statement from the UN News Centre said. It quoted the current Council President, Ambassador Adolfo Aguilar Zinser, as telling journalists after closed-door consultations that the members planned to adopt a formal presidential statement on the DRC in the near future.
"However, in view of the imminent opening of the meetings which are scheduled to start next Monday in Sun City, South Africa, members of the Council wish to take a stand today [Tuesday] on the inter-Congolese dialogue," Zinser said. He said that Council members expressed their "full support" to facilitator, Ketumile Masire, and his team. "They launch a solemn appeal to all parties to participate in the Sun City meeting in a constructive spirit," he said.
However, news organisations on Tuesday quoted the leader of the rebel Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), Jean-Pierre Bemba, as telling journalists in Paris that his group would not send representatives to the Sun City meeting because of a disagreement over the representation of the unarmed opposition. "We shall not go to Sun City. Not on a whim, but because we find that there is lack of openness in the process organised by the facilitators on the make-up of the non-armed opposition parties which will be represented," AFP reported him as saying.
"We are unfortunately on the eve of a meeting that has already failed," Bemba said, adding that among the 20 opposition parties which had been accepted "several are bogus opposition groups and allies of President Joseph Kabila". The Gabonese Africa No 1 radio on Monday quoted the political opposition as giving the facilitation team a six-day deadline to review the additional list of the political opposition "if they want to see the delegates of that group to be present in Sun City on 25 February".
"We are saying that, if from now to 25 February a solution conforming to the basic texts and the proceedings agreed on and approved, which we have used till now, cannot be found, the political opposition... which have been involved in this process from the beginning, since Gaborone [Botswana], then Addis Ababa [Ethiopia], before leaders of the world, will not be present on 25 February in Sun City," it quoted the chairman of the Federalist Christian Democracy, Zenon Kipassa, as saying.
The rebel-controlled radio from Goma, however, reported that the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) would attend the meeting. It reported that the deputy head of the group's communications and culture department, Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, had confirmed this on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the office of the facilitator of the dialogue was "all set for the inter-Congolese dialogue to resume in Sun City on Monday", the facilitator, Ketumile Masire, said in a news release on Wednesday. He said he was confident that the political dialogue, which is scheduled to take 45 days, would succeed. Masire said his team had been in contact with the non-political opposition, religious groups and the Mayi-Mayi, and that most of their concerns had been taken into consideration.
Masire said the success of the Sun City meeting depended largely on the Congolese themselves, and he therefore urged them to put all personal interests aside and commit themselves to achieving peace for the war-ravaged country. "This is the time for all parties involved to demonstrate true commitment, statesmanship and responsibility for the sake of their fellow Congolese," Masire said. He also noted that the bulk of the pledges towards the talks had been honoured.
A spokesman for Masire's office dismissed claims that the office had been responsible for the selection of representatives of any of the groups designated to attend the dialogue. "These people were selected by their respective groups, nobody was hand-picked by the facilitator's office," the official told IRIN on Wednesday. "For the civil society groups, our team visited 11 provinces last June in an effort to bring them together so they can choose their own representatives. Political parties also did choose their own after the Gaborone meeting," he added.
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