Global Policy Forum

The Democratic Republic of Congo's (DRC) government will meet representatives from rebel groups and the political opposition in Sun City this week, in talks aimed at sealing peace and power-sharing accords after more than four years of civil war. The talks at the luxury South African resort on Tuesday and Wednesday should pave the way for the first democratic elections in the vast central African country since those on independence from Belgium four decades ago.

Former Botswanan President Ketumile Masire, the facilitator in the Inter Congolese Dialogue process, has brought in some 365 delegates to attend the Sun City session, which should agree a two-year transition government to lead the country towards democratic elections. The war in DRC broke out in 1998, one year after the fall of the hated dictator Mobuto Seke Seso, and has claimed some two and a half million lives directly or indirectly through disease or starvation. All the neighbouring countries were drawn into the conflict, with Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia supporting the government forces, and former allies Uganda and Rwanda backing the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) and the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) respectively.

The government and these two main rebel groups are expected to take the lion's share of the posts in the transition government, but a fourth vice presidency seat is set aside for the political opposition, which has yet to agree on a candidate. Up until now, the country's leaders have only ever changed in the bloody post-independence era through rebellions, coups or assassinations.

Current DRC President Joseph Kabila himself came to office after his father Laurent, who ousted Mobuto from power, was murdered by one of his bodyguards in January 2001. "The DRC is finally on its way to democracy. There will be many other votes to finally give a voice to the Congolese people," said a delegate at the session from South Africa.

The new constitution for the DRC, a country with enormous potential mineral wealth, should be put into force by Kabila on April 6, initiating the start of the transition to democracy. But the build-up to the Sun City talks has been clouded by accusations of "gross violations" in the eastern DRC of the ceasefire accords signed in July 2002 and July 1999.

All the belligerent parties in the DRC have in recent weeks accused their rival factions of attempting to unleash war in the east of the country once more. "We're in a situation where the protagonists consider that war is more satisfying than peace" said Filip Reytnjens of the Belgium-based Centre for Studies of the Great Lakes Region.

Reytnjens believes that the final session of the talks "won't have any negative impact on the peace process, which has already gone off the rails" but that "it won't serve any useful purpose" either. "It'll just be a big ceremony which will enable the facilitation team to show that the work has been done", he said in a recent interview.

The Sun City talks also come after the RCD signed an agreement Saturday over a high command for integrated armed forces in the DRC. However, even though six rebel groups negotiated the agreement in Pretoria, the RDC said it was the only movement to sign the deal, which was not a prerequisite for finalising the Inter Congolese Dialogue process.