Congo rebel leader sneaks into Kampala

KAMPALA

Top Congolese rebel leaders are said to have met senior security officials in Kampala on Thursday as presidents from the Great Lakes region started arriving for today’s meeting over the crisis in the eastern DR Congo.

Details of the meeting were scanty. However sources indicated that the meeting probably took place in Bombo army barracks, near Kampala.Foreign affairs officials said they could not confirm reports about the meeting but said they could not rule it out either. “I am not aware of their presence in Kampala. It is our defence and security colleagues who could be in the know,” Amb. James Mugume, the permanent secretary in the ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the Saturday Monitor. “But I would not be surprised because we are trying to get a solution to this crisis and definitely the M23 have to be involved.”

M23 rebel spokesperson, Col. Vianney Kazarama was supposed to address a press conference in DR Congo on Thursday but he abruptly called it off, saying they wanted to consult their leader, Sultani Makenga, who he said was in Kampala.

Presidents Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, Joseph Kabila of DR Congo and Paul Kagame of Rwanda are expected to meet in Kampala today for emergency talks to find a solution to the renewed fighting in DR Congo.
Presidents Museveni, Kabila and Kagame met earlier in the week and called on the M23 rebels to withdraw from Goma, the strategic town in eastern DR Congo that they seized from Congolese government soldiers.
The rebels have since rejected this call.

At least 10 presidents are expected to attend the meeting to be chaired by President Museveni at the Commonwealth Resort Hotel in Munyonyo. Some of the presidents were already expected to arrive in Kampala to attend the Heads of Summit meeting for the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (Comesa) trade bloc.

Mr Mugume said they were using “proximity diplomacy” to engage the rebels, adding that the rebels would not be allowed to attend the summit. “The parties involved will not sit on the same table. It is the emissaries who keep them in touch,” he said. But Mr Mugume said Makenga cannot lead talks because the United Nations has levelled sanctions against him and ordered for the freezing of his properties.

The M23 rebels on Thursday demanded to have peace talks with President Kabila before they end the offensive. Kinshasa has rejected talks although President Kabila has left the door open to “contact” with the rebels.
US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland early this week called on Uganda and Rwanda to use their “influence on M23” and end the hostilities.

The UN Group of Experts has accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels, who accuse President Kabila and his government of failure to implement terms of a peace agreement signed with them in March 2009.
Both Uganda and Rwanda deny the allegations.

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