DR Congo: Predictable in some ways

" In a world with no systems, with chaos, everything becomes a guerilla struggle, and this predictability is not there. And it becomes almost impossible to save lives, educate kids, develop economies, whatever. "

Bill Clinton

The Daily Monitor ( Uganda ) reports

DRC threatens to cancel talks

Talks between the M23 rebels and the Kinshasa government started on a bad note in Kampala yesterday, with the Congolese government threatening to pull out of the negotiations.

The trouble started when the secretary general of the rebels, Mr Francois Tuyihimbaze Rucogoza, who is heading the delegation, accused the DRC government of tribalism, xenophobia and killing Kinyarwanda-speaking government soldiers.

Good to see things off to such a positive start.

“M23 is a Congolese movement but we are called foreigners because there are some Kinyarwanda-speaking leaders. The current president (Kabila), has signed several agreements but he has not implemented any. We want the regional leaders to establish a mechanism to follow up whether this agreement will be implemented,” Mr Rucogoza said.

It is hard to see how regional leaders will be able to do so with out Kinshasa's authority. 

Accusations
Mr Rucogoza also accused the Kinshasa government of corruption and failing to improve the living conditions of people in eastern DR Congo.

Congolese Minister Raymond Tshibanda, who had given his remarks before Mr Rucogoza, asked Uganda’s Defence minister Crispus Kiyonga, who is mediating the talks, to respond to the accusations, saying the M23 were using the platform to “taint the image” of his government.

“It’s unacceptable for people who have AK7 as their legitimacy to taint the image of those elected by the people Congo. We request to be given the same opportunity to respond or else we will not continue with these negotiations,” Mr Tshibanda said.

So we appear to have agreement on both sides to withdraw from negotiations.

He had calmly presented his speech and promised that they were open to talks. But he said the DRC government would not allow rights abuses and sovereignty in their territory.

Dr Kiyonga promised to give equal opportunity to both parties but adjourned the meeting to today. He said the meeting was to set ground rules before holding more talks in Goma.

Good fucking luck with that Dr Kiyonga.