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afrol.com, 27 March - Gabonese President Omar Bongo functions as mediator in neighbouring Congo Brazzaville, where reconciliation is slow and the opposition boycotts a national dialogue. Now, for Congolese non-governmental organisation (NGOs) appeal to Bongo "to place himself above the mess" and push for a fair process. The four NGOs, Thomas Sankara Panafrican Association (APTS), the Association for Humans Right and the Prison Conditions (ADHUC), the National Human Rights Convention (CONADHO) and the Congolese Human Rights Observers (OCDH) published a joint declaration, calling for pressure on the Brazzaville government to embark on a "national dialogue" with the domestic and exiled opposition. Gabonese President Bongo is mediating to achieve reconciliation after three successive civil wars in Congo Brazzaville. Although more than a year has passed since militia groups and the Congolese Armed Forces laid down arms, the former combatants remain unable to carry out the "national dialogue" specified in the December 1999 cease-fire agreement. Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso's government insists on organising the dialogue on its own in Brazzaville, co-chaired by mediator Omar Bongo, while the exiled opposition claims the Brazzaville government does not have the right to convene the dialogue. As the national reconciliation conference was opened on 17 March, the exiled opposition, represented by the Coalition of Pro-Dialogue Parties and the Patriotic Front for Dialogue and National Reconciliation, called for a boycott. The call was followed by the principal leaders of the domestic opposition, represented by a collective of 16 political formations. The reconciliation conference is supposed to debate the projected, new constitution, worked out by the government, preparations for presidential and legislative elections, reinforcement of the national army and a reorganization of the police force. The talks were meant to open for a return of the exiled opposition and the establishment of democracy. In their communiqué, the Congolese human rights groups lament the lack of progress of the national reconciliation. The NGOs say they "require from the international mediator to place himself above the mess and to carry out his mission objectively and in an impartial way." The communiqué further places "the responsibility for the wars of 1993, 1997 and 1998-1999" in the hands of "the principal political leaders, who are president Denis Sassou Nguesso, his predecessor Pascal Lissouba, the former Prime Ministers Bernard Kolélas and Joachim Yombi Opango and others, which organized and maintained the militia in order to settle the political disagreements." The groups call for international pressure to bring the reconciliation process back on track mainly hits President Nguesso's government, which has been unwilling to bow for opposition demands to let mediator Bongo chair the process. Opposition members maintain their calls for letting Omar Bongo call both the government and the opposition to the bargaining table. "When you're an illegal, illegitimate government, you cannot invite the country's patriotic forces to a kind of party conference," exiled opposition leader Nguila Moungounga Nkombo earlier told IPS. Omar Bongo, Gabonese President since 1967, over the last years has started filling the role of an elder statesman and has been active in conflict mediation and promoting panafricanism and the Francophonie. He was also suggested as mediator to the conflict in Congo Kinshasa (DRC), but this was rejected by Rwanda and Uganda, finding him to close to the positions of Paris and Kinshasa.
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