KENYA: U.N.-brokered peace talks in Nairobi between Eastern Congo rebels and the government get underway

Record ID: 361115

  • Title: KENYA: U.N.-brokered peace talks in Nairobi between Eastern Congo rebels and the government get underway
  • Date: 9th December 2008
  • Summary: FORMER NIGERIAN PRESIDENT, OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, FORMER TANZANIAN PRESIDENT BENJAMIN MKAPA AND KENYA'S FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTER MOSES WETANGULA ARRIVING AT NEWS CONFERENCE CNDP (NATIONAL CONGRESS FOR THE DEFENCE OF THE PEOPLE) DELEGATES LOOKING ON (SOUNDBITE) (English) FORMER NIGERIAN PRESIDENT, OLUSEGUN OBASANJO, SAYING: "Our aim is to seek consensus on the way forward and
  • Embargoed: 24th December 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kenya
  • Country: Kenya
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3FZVY5XD852B8ADUQXY2X52L
  • Story Text: U.N.-brokered peace talks in Nairobi between Eastern Congo rebels and the government started on Monday (December 08) despite worries that the Tutsi group were not prepared to sit down with other insurgent groups.
    The talks follow weeks of fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province which has displaced more than a quarter of a million civilians.
    A UN official said all sides were enthusiastic about the talks.
    "They are underway, there's a lot of enthusiasm for the talks and all the parties have access to the goings on so they can bring peace to the region," said UN information officer, Nasser Ega-Musa.
    These are the first face-to-face talks between warring sides; Laurent Nkunda's National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) Tutsi rebels and President Joseph Kabila's government, although neither leader is at the talks.
    "Our aim is to seek consensus on the way forward and to carry out our mandate of establishing and sustaining a comprehensive ceasefire,"
    said U.N. appointed special envoy to DRC and former Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo.
    "We believe that time is of the essence and we must keep up the momentum, a military solution is not an option but nor is a status quo an option," he said.
    The talks begun amid differences that raised fears talks would fail before they had even started. Over the weekend, Congo's government said it was expanding the talks to include another 20 armed groups operating in North Kivu, angering the rebels, who said they wanted only to negotiate directly with Kabila's government.
    Obasanjo said the door was open to all sides.
    "But the door should not be, is not and will not be closed against any armed group or any group for that matter who want to prefer a path of dialogue over that of conflict," said Obasanjo.
    Diplomats have cautiously welcomed the meeting as a first step towards defusing tensions that have threatened to escalate into another regional war.
    Congo's 1998-2003 war sucked in six neighbouring armies and caused more than five million deaths.
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