• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

DRC: Ministers from former rebel movements refuse oath of office

KINSHSA, 18 July 2003 (IRIN) - Transitional government officials designated by the two principal former rebel movements in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) refused to take the oath of office on Friday because it included swearing allegiance to President Joseph Kabila.

Each of the two former rebel movements - the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) and the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC) - has been accorded seven ministerial and four vice-ministerial positions in the two-year transitional government leading to national democratic elections.

"We are no longer in the era of the personalisation of power as has been reflected in the text of the oath," the MLC's Jose Endundo, minister of public works designate, said. "We do not accept to swear allegiance to President Kabila, but rather to the institutions and the laws of the country."

"The text of the oath of office accords Kabila a status that he neither has nor should have according to the global [peace] accord and the constitution of the transition," Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, the RCD-Goma spokesman, said. "The outgoing government negotiated for Kabila to remain the head of the government, but now we have this text."

[For the draft constitution of the transition, go to www.dfa.gov.za pdf Format]

The two former rebel movements also said that the oaths of office for ministers and deputy ministers designate were not the same as those taken by the four vice-presidents sworn in on Thursday, in which they vowed to "safeguard the unity and indivisibility of the country".

"We will accept to take the oath of office if the text is changed," Lola Kisanga added.

Of the four vice-presidents, only Arthur Z'Ahidi Ngoma of the unarmed political opposition and Kabila ally and former Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi were present alongside Kabila for the swearing in of the remaining ministers and vice-ministers.

Azarias Ruberwa of RCD-Goma and Jean-Pierre Bemba of the MLC were absent.

The calendar for the transitional government had called for a preliminary meeting of the ministers and deputy ministers on Saturday, but whether it would proceed as planned remained uncertain on Friday.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday that he welcomed the swearing-in of the vice-presidents and called on Congolese leaders "to fulfil their responsibilities in meeting the daunting challenges of transition and steering their country onto the path of reconciliation, recovery, as well as free and fair elections".

Annan added that the UN "stood ready to play its part in assisting the Congolese consolidate the hard-won gains in the peace process".

Theme(s): (IRIN) Governance

[ENDS]

The material contained on this Web site comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post any item on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All graphics and Images on this site may not be re-produced without the express permission of the original owner. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003