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.
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