Congo Rebels Set Conditions For Goma Withdrawal
https://nigeriaafrica1.blogspot.com/2012/11/congo-rebels-set-conditions-for-goma.html
Rebels in Democratic Republic of Congo said on Tuesday they would withdraw from the eastern city of Goma if President Joseph Kabila agreed to their demands, which the Congolese government was quick to dismiss as a farce.
The deadlock threatens to prolong a crisis that regional officials had hoped they could prevent from descending into all-out war in a region dogged by nearly two decades of conflict.
The M23 rebels, who have said they want to overthrow the government in Kinshasa, captured Goma last week after Congolese soldiers withdrew and U.N. peacekeepers were forced to give up defending the city.
The Ugandan military, which has been coordinating talks with M23, said earlier on Tuesday that M23 leader Colonel Sultani Makenga had agreed to withdraw from Goma with no conditions.
But the political chief of M23, Jean-Marie Runiga, told reporters in Goma his forces would withdraw if Kabila held national talks, released political prisoners and dissolved an electoral commission, a body accused by Western powers of delivering Kabila a second term in 2011 in a flawed election.
"The withdrawal, yes. If Kabila agrees to our demands then we'll go quickly," Runiga told reporters in a hotel in Goma, flanked by senior M23 officials in civilian clothes and rebels in military fatigues.
The conflicting statements indicated a quick solution to the latest insurgency in eastern Congo, which has displaced thousands of civilians, was not close.
Lambert Mende, Congo's government spokesman, quickly dismissed M23's demands.
"It's a farce, that's the word. There's been a document adopted by the region. If each day they're going to come back with new demands it becomes ridiculous. We're no longer in the realms of seriousness," Mende told reporters from Kinshasa.
The M23 rebels, who have said they want to overthrow the government in Kinshasa, captured Goma last week after Congolese soldiers withdrew and U.N. peacekeepers were forced to give up defending the city.
The Ugandan military, which has been coordinating talks with M23, said earlier on Tuesday that M23 leader Colonel Sultani Makenga had agreed to withdraw from Goma with no conditions.
But the political chief of M23, Jean-Marie Runiga, told reporters in Goma his forces would withdraw if Kabila held national talks, released political prisoners and dissolved an electoral commission, a body accused by Western powers of delivering Kabila a second term in 2011 in a flawed election.
"The withdrawal, yes. If Kabila agrees to our demands then we'll go quickly," Runiga told reporters in a hotel in Goma, flanked by senior M23 officials in civilian clothes and rebels in military fatigues.
The conflicting statements indicated a quick solution to the latest insurgency in eastern Congo, which has displaced thousands of civilians, was not close.
Lambert Mende, Congo's government spokesman, quickly dismissed M23's demands.
"It's a farce, that's the word. There's been a document adopted by the region. If each day they're going to come back with new demands it becomes ridiculous. We're no longer in the realms of seriousness," Mende told reporters from Kinshasa.
