SPECIAL ENVOY SAYS UN-BACKED CONGOLESE PEACE TALKS WILL RESUME SHORTLY

SPECIAL ENVOY SAYS UN-BACKED CONGOLESE PEACE TALKS WILL RESUME SHORTLY
New York, Feb 12 2009 5:10PM
Peace talks between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the mainly Tutsi rebel group which last year launched a devastating offensive in the eastern region of the country are expected to restart soon, the United Nations envoy leading the negotiations announced.

The talks between the Government and the National Congress in Defense of the People (CNDP), which began in Nairobi in December, seek to bring an end to a conflict which has uprooted an estimated 250,000 people since August, on top of the 800,000 already displaced in the region, mainly in North Kivu province.

After holding consultations with both parties yesterday in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region and Chief Mediator for the talks, Olusegun Obasanjo, announced that negotiations would soon resume.

In January, the two sides had settled on a document establishing the ground rules for substantive discussions, stating the outcome of the dialogue should incorporate the January 2008 Goma agreement, which included a commitment by rebels to withdraw their troops and to either disarm or join the brassage process, whereby ex-combatants from armed militia are retrained to form part of the national army.

The talks, slated to restart at the end of January, were postponed to an unspecified date after the African Union summit, which ended at the beginning of this month.

While encouraging other armed groups involved in the fighting in eastern DRC to join the talks, Mr. Obasanjo said that the current participants would like negotiations to continue on Congolese soil, but that he would prefer the meetings remained in Nairobi, Kenya.

Mr. Obasanjo arrived in DRC on Tuesday to assess the current conditions on the ground in the war-ravaged eastern region of the country, visiting areas most affected by recent clashes.
Feb 12 2009 5:10PM
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