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DRC rebels rejoin peace process
05/03/2008 08:17 - (SA)
Kinshasa - The Democratic Republic of Congo rebel force led by ex-general Laurent Nkunda has rejoined a ceasefire process and meetings to follow it up in the east of the country, an European Union diplomat says.
The DRC's two Kivu provinces benefited from a peace deal signed in the regional capital, Goma, in January, but Nkunda had pulled out of the monitoring process after being accused by the United Nations of involvement in a massacre of civilians in Nord-Kivu.
"After a meeting on Monday in Kirolirwe with the chairperson of the CNDP (Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People), Nkunda agreed to participate in the 'acts of engagement' process agreed in Goma on January 23," said Jean-Michel Dumont, the political advisor to the EU's special representative to the African Great Lakes region.
CNDP demands independent inquiry
Nkunda had pulled out of the process on February 22. The return of his CDNP delegation to the panel monitoring the ceasefire was confirmed on Tuesday by Nkunda's camp.
Dumont sits on the international delegation to this panel, which comprised signatory parties, along with foreign facilitators from the EU, the UN and the United States.
The return of Nkunda's militia to the ceasefire process came after the CNDP had sent a letter demanding an independent inquiry to establish the truth about the civilian massacre in and around Kalonge and surrounding villages between January 16 and 20.
It accused the UN of "flights of fancy" and claimed it was deliberately trying to damage the CNDP's reputation. Politically, Nkunda had proclaimed himself the protector of eastern DRC's minority Tutsi population against armed hostile forces in the east.
According to a CNDP spokesperson on the UN-sponsored Radio Okapi, the movement had obtained guarantees that there would be such an independent inquiry in the "very near future".
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