Mbeki meets with DRC leaders
2005-05-16 12:28
Kinshasa - President Thabo Mbeki was present on Monday for a ceremony at which Congo's legislature was to officially adopt a constitution paving the way for elections after years of war.
Mbeki — who was instrumental in helping end Congo's 1998-2002 war — arrived on Sunday and held closed-door meetings with three of Congo's four vice presidents, presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo said.
On Monday, he was to join Congolese President Joseph Kabila at the constitutional session in parliament.
Monday's ceremony comes a day before the anniversary of former rebel leader Laurent Kabila's 1997 march into Kinshasa, officially ending the three-decade reign of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko. Kabila, who became president, was assassinated by his own bodyguard in 2001, thrusting his son Joseph Kabila into power.
Once parliament approves the new charter, it will be put to a national referendum within six months. The constitution mandates presidential elections by June 2006, and lowers the minimum age for candidates from 35 to 30 — allowing Kabila, 33, to seek re-election.
The new constitution replaces a transitional constitution adopted in South Africa in 2002 at the end of the war.
Election scheduled in June unlikely
Elections were scheduled to take place June 30, but poor organisation and legislative foot-dragging have made that unlikely. When organised, they will mark the first elections in Congo in over 40 years.
Congo's transitional government is attempting to piece the country back together after a war that aid groups say killed nearly 4 million people, mostly through hunger and sickness.
The new, 226-article constitution also gives a president up to two five-year terms in office, and promises free primary education to all children.
It sets up a system of checks and balances between the president, prime minister and parliament, and recognises all ethnic groups living in Congo at the time of independence in June 1960.
The article on ethnicity is intended primarily for residents of ethnic Tutsi origin, who were brought mainly from neighbouring Rwanda when Congo was a colony of Belgium.
Tutsis are a minority in both Congo and Rwanda, and have been the target of attacks for years.
- AP