Talks to secure peace in the Democratic Republic of Congo's conflict-torn eastern regions opened on Sunday amid warnings by the Catholic Church against a "Balkanization" of the vast African country.
"Territorial integrity, the inviolability of borders and national unity of the Democratic Republic of Congo are not negotiable," the Roman Catholic Conference of Bishops wrote in a statement echoed earlier by other religious leaders.
It warned against what it called the "balkanization" of the country violence through the creation of mini-states.
Government ministers, law-makers, international officials and representatives of various armed groups in the eastern Nord and Sud-Kivu regions bordering Burundi and Rwanda were among the 600 delegates gathered for the meeting.
Called by Congolese President Joseph Kabila, the nine days of talks are taking place at a regional university in Goma, the provincial capital of Nord-Kivu.
But several key players, including the bishops and Kabila himself, have warned that the meeting should not be used to change the country's political and geographical status quo.
In opening remarks, Congolese Interior Minister Denis Kalume called on all renegade Congolese armed groups to "lay down their weapons and either opt to integrate into the [government's] armed forces or for the disarmament, demobilization and reinsertion program."
But the meeting suffered an early blow when representatives from Congolese civil society announced they were suspending participation. They said the organizing committee had failed to respect an agreement to include two civil society members in its ranks.
"We're giving the conference 48 hours to resolve the question," said Goma Kibiswa Kwabene Naupess, head of the civil society's executive secretariat.
The eastern region has been torn apart by a tangled conflict that pits rebels led by renegade former general Laurent Nkunda against government forces, but which is complicated by the presence of other militia groups.
In his opening address, Kalume called for foreign militia to join a voluntary disarmament program that would lead to their repatriation "under the protection of the international community."
Nkunda spokesman Seraphin Mirinid said the peace talks would only succeed if their demands were taken into account.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS