The UN peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) is confident of the Nairobi negotiations between the government and Tutsi rebels, according to the chief of the mission.
Alan Doss, who heads the mission known as the MONUC, sounded upbeat ahead of the resumption of talks on Wednesday in the Kenyan capital between Kinshasa and the National Congress in Defense of the People (CNDP).
The MONUC chief expressed confidence in the results of the talks after meeting Prime Minister Adolphe Muzito on Tuesday. Doss said the premier has turned to issues of security in the east region and the country's economic and social situation.
"The discussions which resume Wednesday in Nairobi will be unfolded under the auspices of former Tanzanian president Benjamin Mkapa," he said, adding a regional summit will be held in Nairobi on Dec. 21 to hear reports by mediators on the contacts.
The Nairobi talks are chaired by UN special envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, who is also former Nigerian president, and Mkapa who represents the African Union and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.
Doss said he has contacted a number of regional politicians in search for a peaceful solution to the conflict in the DR Congo, including those in Goma, the capital of the troubled North Kivu province, and the leaders of neighboring Rwanda and Uganda.
The Nairobi talks began on Dec. 8, but were adjourned three days later, when Obasanjo declared "steady progress towards agreement on the ground rules for substantive discussions."
Citing Kenya's Jamhuri Day ( Independence Day) celebrations, Obasanjo said the talks were suspended until Dec. 17.
Meanwhile, a high-level delegation was dispatched by the two envoys to meet rebel leader Laurent Nkunda in North Kivu to discuss issues that bottlenecked the talks.
The CNDP delegation insisted on discussions of all issues in the DR Congo, instead of the conflict in the east, a demand Obasanjo said beyond his mandate.
A lack of decision making power was also reported on the side of the CNDP because of absence of Nkunda from the Nairobi talks.
More than 230,000 people have been displaced in North Kivu by the recent flare-up between the government forces and the CNDP, which resumed hostilities in August after signing a peace deal with Kinshasa in January.
The escalation of tensions prompted a UN-backed African summit last month in Nairobi where UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the international community would never allow another Congo war to topple the stability in the Great Lakes region.
The Congo war between 1998 and 2003 embroiled several neighboring countries. More than 5 million people died in the bloodshed.
The UN Security Council has decided to add 3,100 troops to the 17,000- strong MONUC in a step to contain the clash in the vast central African country.
Source:Xinhua
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