Congo Brazzaville
In Congo Brazzaville national dialogue proves elusive

Misanet.com / IPS, 9 February  - In troubled Congo Brazzaville, northwestern neighbour of the Congo of Kabila (DRC), national reconciliation is slow. Although more than a year has passed since militia groups and the Congolese Armed Forces laid down arms, the former combatants still cannot agree on how to get together for the national dialogue called for in the cease-fire accords. 

The cease-fire agreement was signed in December 1999 by the Congolese Armed Forces (FAC) and the National Resistance Council (CNR), an umbrella organisation for the militia groups which had fought the regular army and the army's own partisan militias. The cease-fire agreement specified that a national dialogue be held, in addition to the collection of arms and war munitions, the redeployment of government troops in former combat zones, and the social integration of ex-militiamen. 

Most of the provisions in the accord have been fulfilled or are in the process of being implemented. However, the sticking point is the failure of President Denis Sassou Nguesso's government to agree with cease-fire partners on how to properly organise a national dialogue. 

Government authorities believe that the dialogue, which was scheduled for March, should take the form of regional consultations culminating in a national convention in the Congolese capital of Brazzaville. "The initial phase will be devoted to decentralised regional and village citizen debates. It will allow citizens to comment on and participate in a pilot study on a Constitution and on peace and reconstruction accords for the Congo." 

- The second phase will be devoted to seeking out a national consensus on the values of peace and reconstruction for the Congo. An inclusive national dialogue on a national scale will take place in Brazzaville, stated Minster Ibovi. 

The government also announced that it will be setting up a preparatory committee, whose members will be chosen according to an as yet unspecified criterion. The preparatory phase is to take place from 1 to 15 March. The dialogue will be co-chaired by the conflict mediator, Gabonese President Omar Bongo, and Sassou Nguesso, and attended by international observers. 

The announcement of plans to diplomatically resolve the Congolese conflict has brought forth numerous reactions. The Coalition of Pro-Dialogue Parties and the Patriotic Front for Dialogue and National Reconciliation believe the Brazzaville government does not have the right to convene the dialogue. 

In a joint declaration, the two political groups said that according to Article 13 of the cease-fire accords, the convening of the dialogue and the setting of its time, place, and agenda, are solely within the purview of the mediator, President Bongo. 

Indeed, according to the terms of Article 13, it is the role assigned to the international mediator to pursue peace efforts through organising, at as early a date as possible and with the assistance of the international community, an inclusive national dialogue intended to bring about a lasting and durable peace and return democracy to the Republic of the Congo. 

According to the Coalition of Pro-Dialogue Parties, dialogue's agenda cannot be set by the Congolese government. If so, the government puts itself in the position of being both judge and judged. The Patriotic Front for Dialogue and Reconciliation believes that the dialogue should bring all Congolese citizens together for real national reconciliation. 

Opposition members in exile since Sassou Nguesso came to power in 1997, say the government's plans exclude the mediator, who alone has the authority to convene the dialogue. It has also requested that any such dialogue take place outside of the Congo for security reasons. 

The president of the Coalition of Congolese Exiles and Democrats (CEDEC), Nguila Moungounga Nkombo, has protested that the chief-of-state's plans to convene the meeting are unacceptable. "When you're an illegal, illegitimate government, you cannot invite the country's patriotic forces to a kind of party conference. Their plan totally disregards the provisions of Article 13. They're acting as mediator, participant, and sole organiser, all in one," stated Nkombo, the former Minister of Finance under the deposed president, Pascal Lissouba. 

Former militia groups agree. "It's the international mediator's job to call both the government and the CNR to the bargaining table. The government cannot use its advantage to organise the dialogue," added Florent Godelive Nkounkou, political counsellor and spokesperson for the CNR's president, the Reverend Frederic Bitsangou, also known as Ntoumi. 

Ntoumi says he is agreeable to meeting in the capital if security issues can be worked out. However, he has not ruled out attending a dialogue abroad, if security problems persist in Brazzaville for the other participants, especially those in the exiled opposition. 

- Security has not yet been well enough worked out in Brazzaville so we can hold an inclusive national dialogue, Ntoumi stated. "The opposition in exile and all its party chiefs need to participate in the dialogue, because they are the ones who got us into this mess. They need to sit down around the same table and talk to each other," he added. 

Edouard Ambroise Noumazalay, interim president of the United Democratic Forces (FDU), a political movement close to the present government, recently announced that Lissouba, his former prime minister, Bernard Kolelas, and others implicated in the bloodbath in the Congo would not attend the dialogue. Lissouba and Kolelas were convicted by the Congolese courts of plotting to assassinate President Sassou Nguesso, and of kidnapping, torture, and intentionally injuring civilians and soldiers during the war of 5 June 1997. 

The government insists that the dialogue will take place in Brazzaville and that the president is within his rights to organise it. "In accordance with the Brazzaville accords, President Sassou Nguesso has the responsibility of overseeing supervision of the dialogue. All the rest are practical details. The dialogue will definitely take place in the capital," Ibovi maintained. 

The invitation list will be based on impartial criteria established by a broad survey of groups of all political, activist, and religious stripes. "If some want to intentionally exclude themselves, they'll only have themselves to blame since the dialogue, which will be held in Brazzaville, will be national and inclusive," the government spokesperson added. 

The crisis mediator, President Bongo, has said that he has no intention of organising negotiations so that people could come back home and re-ignite the war. 

In his speech on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of independence last 15 August, President Sassou Nguesso articulated the main goals of a national dialogue. He said that the dialogue was intended to allow the Congolese people to get together and boldly reflect on reorganising the life of the country and its institutions. Other topics to think about, he said, are the balance of power and the exercise of freedom within the country. 

By Lyne Mikangou, IPS

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