Rwanda warns of more war

Rwanda has warned that the exclusion of the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD-Goma) and other rebel groups from Kinshasa's planned interim government is a recipe for more war in the Congo.
It said the deal signed in Sun City on Wednesday by the Congolese government and Jean Pierre Bemba's Movement for Congolese Liberation (MLC) rebel group was bound to fail because it left out a principal player in the conflict.
"This so-called peace accord does not only leave out the RCD but all the other parties," Patrick Mazimhaka, President Kagame's senior advisor and Congo envoy said. "It is more like a provocation likely to cause more problems than to solve them."
Mazimhaka added that by leaving out a big armed group controlling big territory, Kabila and Bemba's deal could not bring peace to the country but looked more like "a war posturing".
Kigali, which backs RCD-Goma, accuses President Joseph Kabila of reneging on the spirit of the latest heads of state summit in Lusaka that asked Kinshasa to be open and allow the Inter-Congolese Dialogue to map out institutions for a new dispensation in Congo. Rwanda says the Congolese government abandoned the Inter-Congolese Dialogue and signed an accord outside the confines of the inter-party talks.
Ugandan officials were, however, tight-lipped on the deal at the weekend, saying they were still studying its implications. But one official close to the presidency said if any party to the Lusaka peace accord was left out, then peace would not return to the DRC.
Under the deal, the Uganda-backed Bemba would become Prime Minister and head of government, while Kabila would remain president for a 30-month transition period ending in nationwide elections. The MLC and RCD-Goma each hold about a third of Congolese territory and had equal representation in the Sun City talks.
Col. Charles Kayonga, a defence advisor to President Paul Kagame and spokesman of the defence ministry, said: "That deal can't work when the RCD is out. It is one side that has signed yet there are many players in the DRC."
Mazimhaka said Bemba was historically helped by the RCD to control his large territory so he should not be used to undermine the RCD's interests. When the rebellion broke out against the late President Laurent Kabila in August 1998, Uganda and Rwanda backed the RCD, but in October that year Uganda helped form the MLC. The RCD later split into two, with each country supporting a faction.
The Rwandese officials said this was the wrong time for Kabila's government to abandon the talks, and said they would speak to stakeholders to ask the government and the MLC to return to the negotiating table in Sun City.
There were fears that with the RCD out of the peace deal, fighting would escalate in eastern Congo. For over a month now, the RPA and the RCD have been fighting renegade RCD fighters under 'Commander Musunzu' who are opposed to RPA presence in the area.
Sources said the fighting in eastern Congo was likely to worsen following an alliance between the Banyamulenge and Mai Mai militia who have always opposed Rwandese presence in the area. The Banyamulenge uprising was also said to be massively supported by the locals in the Uvira and Bukavu area.