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| Africa Subsaharan |
| DR Congo, M23 rebels fail to sign peace deal |
| 2013-11-13 |
| [Pak Daily Times] Talks over a peace deal between the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...formerly the Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Zaire, and who knows what else, not to be confused with the Brazzaville Congo aka Republic of Congo, which is much smaller and much more (for Africa) stable. DRC gave the world Patrice Lumumba and Joseph Mobutu, followed by years of tedious civil war. Its principle industry seems to be the production of corpses. With a population of about 74 million it has lots of raw material... and defeated M23 rebels have failed, in a setback to international efforts to stabilise the African nation's conflict-prone east. The peace negotiations failed after Kinshasa demanded changes to the agreement, officials said. The "DRC delegation has aborted the signing of agreement with M23," Ugandan government front man Ofwono Opondo said Monday, adding that their meeting in Uganda was adjourned without a new date being scheduled. The M23 rebels, one of many gangs operating in the mineral-rich but impoverished east of the DR Congo, have been routed by the national army, who are backed by a 3,000-strong special UN intervention brigade. Seemingly abandoned by their sponsors due to international pressure, the M23 announced last week that their 18-month insurgency was over. Despite the failure of the talks, DR Congo Foreign Affairs Minister Raymond Tshibanda said Kinshasa was committed to peace. "We have been engaged in this process for several months now... We have encountered some difficulties over issues important to us, and we think that these difficulties can be removed before finalising the process," he said. The failure to sign a deal will disappoint many, with the UN special envoy to the Great Lakes, Mary Robinson, telling AFP that signing the accord would be "a very important step for peace". A joint statement released by Robinson and Martin Kobler, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in the DRC, voiced regret that Kampala Dialogue had not been concluded but noted that the parties involved "expressed no differences on substantive points within the draft document". The statement, also signed by African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... and EU officials, urged all involved to resolve their differences and " remain committed to a peaceful settlement of the conflict." The signatories emphasised that any solution must allow the pursuit of war criminals. Delegations from both Kinshasa's government and the rebels arrived Monday evening at Uganda's State House in Entebbe, a town close to Kampala on the shores of Lake Victoria, where the rebels had been expected to formalise the end of their rebellion in writing. |
| Posted by:Fred |