DRC talks on military end without agreement on structure of forces

PRETORIA (AFP) Mar 17, 2003
Talks on future armed forces in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) ended in Pretoria Monday with goverment and rebel representatives failing to reach agreement on the structure of an integrated force.

The talks ended a week before the final session of the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, set to adopt peace and power-sharing arrangements for the DRC, are to be held in South Africa.

Rebel and government representatives said they disagreed on the composition of the high command, with both the DRC's two main rebel groups wanting a chief of staff and two deputies, while the government wanted a chief of staff and three deputies.

"We want a chief of staff and two deputies," said Thomas Nziratimana, spokesman for the main rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD).

"We and the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) have accepted that the chief of staff will come from the government forces with the deputies coming from the RCD and the MLC.

"They (the government) are selfishly trying to secure a second post in the high command," Nziratimana said.

But, said Bene M'Poko, DRC ambassador to South Africa: "Our current system has three deputies to the chief of staff and it works well. We believe that having only two deputies would overload them."

The delegates, who met at a military installation outside the South African capital from last Monday to Saturday to try to flesh out details of the new army for the DRC, agreed on the establishment of a neutral force in the two- year run-up to elections.

It was agreed that the UN Security Council would determine the neutral force's composition and its precise number to guard politicians and state institutions during the transitional period.

Mojanku Gumbi, a legal adviser in the office of South African President Thabo Mbeki, said the disagreement on the structure would not affect the final session of the dialogue, to conclude at the luxury Sun City resort northwest of the capital next week.

Gumbi said the detailed military talks were part of "follow-up work" and not integral to the dialogue.

"We thought it good to get them started on it, but it was not necessary at all to get agreements by the chiefs of staffs before the final session," she said.

The DRC war broke out in August 1998, and at its height drew in more than half a dozen African countries. The conflict has claimed some 2.5 million lives directly or indirectly through disease or starvation.

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