• 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: Confusion remains over partition of military regions

KINSHASA, 30 July 2003 (IRIN) - The Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) has called for the intervention of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in resolving disagreement over the partition of responsibilities for newly-created military regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The protest by the former rebel movement comes only days after the recent inauguration of a two-year power-sharing transitional government.

The current proposal, accepted by all parties but RCD-Goma, allocates control of three military regions to the former Kinshasa government; two regions to RCD-Goma and the Mouvement de liberation du Congo (MLC), another major former rebel movement; and one region each to RCD-Kisangani/Mouvement de liberation (RCD-K/ML) and RCD-National (RCD-N), two smaller former rebel movements.

However, RCD-Goma said on Tuesday that it would continue to oppose this plan.

"There is no way you can allocate one military region each to the RCD-K/ML and to the RCD-N, which are allied to the [former] government and the MLC," Jean-Pierre Lola Kisanga, the RCD-Goma spokesman, told IRIN. "It's the former government who will control the majority of territory owing to the alliances it forged."

Following more than four years of war, Congolese parties reached a power-sharing agreement in April that called for the formation of a unified national army. However, an impasse in deciding the military posts delayed the inauguration of the transitional government.

Faced with the stalemate, the Follow-up Committee of the inter-Congolese dialogue called on Mustapha Niasse, the UN Secretary-General's special envoy, to help with the formation of a unified national army. Niasse succeeded in breaking the deadlock on 29 June.

Earlier in June, RCD-Goma had stirred controversy when it unilaterally created three military regions in territory under its control. The move was condemned by the International Committee to Accompany the Transition, which asked RCD-Goma to rescind its decision. However, the then-rebel movement refused.

"We did that for reasons of internal organisation," Moise Nyarugabo, the RCD-Goma representative, said at the time. "The decision will not be changed, as we are waiting for President Joseph Kabila to name the leaders of the new national army, the delay in which is blocking everything."

Themes: (IRIN) Conflict

[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