DRC rebel new FA minister
2004-07-23 20:29
Kinshasa - President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has named a new foreign minister, Raymond Ramazani Baya, formerly of rebel ranks, to replace a man sacked for inefficiency, officials said.
In a decree published late on Thursday, Kabila gave the job of minister of foreign affairs and international cooperation to a man presented by the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) led by Jean-Pierre Bemba.
Since the official end last year of the latest devastating war to wrack the vast central African country, former rebels and other opposition forces have joined a transitional government and parliament.
Before his appointment, Ramazani was diplomatic advisor to Bemba, whose MLC was backed by Uganda during the 1998-2003 conflict which brought in the armies of more than half a dozen African countries.
Ramazani, 61, also held government office under the late dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, who was ousted in a 1997 rebellion by Kabila's late father. He had once been information minister and ambassador of the former Zaire to France.
In a press statement, the MLC said Ghonda had been dismissed for "poor management of administrative services and embassies, confusion over the delivery of passports, the unavailability of his cabinet members to meet the concerns of diplomatic missions, and a lack of preparedness and the following up of business".
Bemba's movement was determined to give priority to "professionalism rather than show" in diplomatic affairs, "with more tangible and lasting results".
Ghonda said however, through Friday's press, that he had been sacked because he had had a row with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni during a mini-summit on the DRC held on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addbis Ababa on July 6-8.
- SAPA