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DRC: Wrangling hits dialogue again over leadership roles

SUN CITY/NAIROBI, 16 April (IRIN) - Last week's convergence around a set of proposals from South African President Thabo Mbeki seemed in danger of falling apart on Monday when a plenary session of the inter-Congolese dialogue (ICD) failed to take place, then postponed until the following day. Meanwhile, the parties to the dialogue have submitted to the facilitators of the dialogue objections and counterproposals to Mbeki's blueprint for the transition period.

"We are drafting a document with all the different groups' proposed amendments to Mbeki's proposals that can be debated on Tuesday," AFP quoted a spokeswoman from the office of the facilitator as saying.

The rebel Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC) has taken a position closer to that of the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) at the expense of its former ally, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD). The MLC spokesman, Imana Ingulu, said on Monday that the movement now wanted its leader, Jean-Pierre Bemba, to take the job of prime minister, as the government had been understood to have proposed.

Mbeki proposed last week that Bemba, RCD leader Adolphe Onusumba, and a prime minister from the unarmed opposition should join the current president, Joseph Kabila, in an executive authority, or Council of Sate.

A South African official said that despite the apparent agreement last week among rebel leaders that Kabila should remain president throughout the transition period, his position was still being contested by the civilian opposition.

The RCD, which welcomed the proposal tentatively, has talked of Kabila remaining president, but with greatly reduced authority. "We could envisage a presidency like that of Switzerland," said an RCD colonel, Jean Bivigete, on Monday.

A diplomat in Sun City commented to IRIN that while the RCD supported Mbeki's Council of State
idea in principle, a major problem remained for the rebel group. "Their problem is that the real leader of the RCD is Azarias Ruberwa, but, because he is an ethnic Tutsi, they have not been able to present him as leader. The question is whether they should have their figurehead leader, Adolphe Onusumba, or their real leader, in the Council of State."

Other observers told IRIN that Rwandan backers of the RCD were also worried that Onusumba might prove unreliable, whereas Ruberwa, as a member of the same tribe as the Rwandan leadership, would be more dependable.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for the one of the DRC's oldest and largest opposition political parties, the Union pour la democratie et le progres social (UDPS), Bongua Justin Mayunga, has denied reports that the UDPS is planning to take up arms in order to gain a greater role in a transitional government.

"The media is blowing it all out of proportion," Mayunga told IRIN on Monday. "Some members merely expressed their frustrations and raised the issue, but UDPS is still a nonviolent party." He noted that any change in this status would have to be approved by the party's governing congress.

In a separate development, a survey undertaken in Bukavu, South Kivu, has found that most people there are ill-informed about the ICD. Of the 1,548 people asked between 5 and 7 April by the Centre for the Transformation of Conflicts, a Kinshasa-based nongovernmental agency, 70 percent considered themselves ill-informed. A further 70 percent were reported to believe that the dialogue was not progressing well.

In answer to the question "What are your principal hopes of the dialogue?", 89 percent said either peace or the departure of Rwandan, Ugandan and Burundi troops from the country. Only 1.5 percent hoped for a criminal tribunal for the DRC.

In reply to the question "Who do you think is blocking the dialogue?", 52 per cent blamed the rebels, 16 percent the Rwandan government, 11 percent the international community, 11 percent former politicians (from the Mobutu era), 2 percent the government, and 0.7 percent the DRC's ethnic Tutsis, the Banyamulenge.

To the question "In case the dialogue fails, what do you propose?" 69 percent proposed a popular war, 11 percent a UN trusteeship for the country, and 11 percent another dialogue.

Radio Okapi, a UN radio network with a particular focus on peace-making efforts, noted that due to technical difficulties, it has been unable to broadcast on shortwave. Radio Okapi was launched in the DRC 25 February to coincide with the convocation of the inter-Congolese dialogue. It has since been broadcasting news programmes in French, Lingala, Swahili and Tshiluba, including reports on the ICD, three times per day on FM stations in the cities of Kinshasa, Kisangani and Goma. Within about two months, this situation should have been rectified with broadcasts available on 9550 KHz throughout most of the country.

[ENDS]

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