April 25, 2002
The UN envoy to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has urged the government and other signatories to a recent power-sharing deal to renew talks with Rwandan-backed ebels who have rejected the pact.
"I encourage the signatories of the Sun City accord to start talks with the (rebel) RDC as soon as possible. I also invite the leaders of that movement to keep an open mind because the results of the (peace) talks... are a good basis for discussion," UN envoy Amos Namaga Ngongi said.
The Kinshasa government and the Ugandan-backed rebel Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), which controls the northern third of the former Zaire, reached a deal on a transitional power-sharing government last week after lengthy peace talks in the South African resort of Sun City. Under the pact, President Joseph Kabila is to remain as head of state and the armed forces, while MLC leader Jean-Pierre Bemba is to become prime minister.
But the deal, designed to end the DRC's bitter four-year civil war, only offered minor posts to the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD). The RCC, which controls the eastern third of the vast former Belgian colony, rejected the pact as a "joke", leading to fears that the country would plunge back into all-out war.
"In order to widen the consensus over the Sun City agreement and smooth its implementation, the accord between the government and the Congolese Liberation Movement must include the RCD and the political parties and other personalities who did not wish to sign it," Ngongi said. He welcomed a recent pledge by the RCD not to renew fighting for the present time, adding: "Evidence has shown that a military solution is neither possible nor viable."
The UN Security Council is to send a delegation to the DRC and neighbouring countries next week, which will seek to give "new impetus" to the DRC peace process. The delegation is due to arrive in Kinshasa on April 29, after which it will visit Angola and Zimbabwe, which have backed the DRC government in the war, rebel supporters Rwanda and Uganda, as well as Burundi and Tanzania.
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