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UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: Ceasefire talks for North Kivu rebels to resume on Wednesday

KINSHASA, 18 June 2003 (IRIN) - Negotiations to reach a ceasefire among various armed groups in North Kivu Province of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) were due to resume on Wednesday in Bujumbura, capital of Burundi, a UN official said.

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative to the DRC, Amos Namanga Ngongi, told a news conference in Kinshasa on Wednesday that talks would take place among the Kinshasa government, the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) rebel movement, and the RCD-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K/ML) - a rebel group allied with Kinshasa.

The talks, over which Ngongi presides, were interrupted earlier this week by Burundi government authorities, who complained that they had not been consulted.

"This time, with the approval of the Burundi government, all Congolese participants involved in fighting in North Kivu have agreed to ceasefire talks," he told reporters before his departure for Bujumbura on Wednesday.

He called the fighting near the towns of Kanyabayonga and Alimbongo, located some 120 km north of the eastern city of Goma, "unacceptable and embarrassing". He said that the UN Mission in the DRC planned on establishing a base in Kanyabayonga to verify accusations the parties were trading as to who was responsible for initiating the attacks.

"We intend to demand the demilitarisation of Kanyabayonga," Ngongi said.

He added that he was optimistic about the belligerents reaching a ceasefire since the previous round of discussions, which had been interrupted, had already made significant progress.

Fighting between RCD-Goma and RCD-K/ML erupted in North Kivu in April.

RCD-Goma has accused the Kinshasa government and RCD-K/ML of using Interahamwe militias - ethnic Hutu fighters largely responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda - and has admitted to capturing Kanyabayonga and Alimbongo.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

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