A laudable start to Kinshasa-M23 talks

Both Kinshasa and the M23 rebels must use these talks to give hope to the people of the DRC, the East African region and the international community.

The much-awaited talks between the DR Congo government and the M23 rebels started at the weekend in Kampala on a promising note. We commend both parties for accepting the invitation by the Uganda government, which holds the rotational leadership of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region.

This is a good start, considering that many such planned talks in the region never take off. The Kampala talks are the latest in a series of attempts to end a crisis that has claimed hundreds of lives and forced hundreds of thousands of people in North Kivu Province of the eastern Congo to flee their homes.

Earlier, reports indicated that Kinshasa had threatened to pull out of the negotiations intended to bring peace to the troubled region. The two parties traded accusations and counter accusations, with the government alleging that the rebels were taking advantage of the talks to malign Kinshasa through the media.

On the other hand, the rebels accused President Joseph Kabila of ignoring the problems bedeviling the North Kivu region. However, what the parties exhibited on the first day of the talks is openness, which is commendable.

However, one key message both the Kabila administration and the rebels need to understand is that walking out on the talks at this point is not the solution to the conflict in one of Africa’s potentially richest countries with immense resources, but, which has been ravaged by civil unrest for too long.

Both parties should, therefore, use this opportunity to engage in honest discussions and iron out their differences once and for all. The time to end this conflict is now. While both parties will present a raft of demands, they must also appreciate that they need to listen to each other’s concerns carefully, show commitment and avoid threats.

This latest DRC crisis has led to widespread atrocities and sparked fears of an all-out regional conflict that has even sucked in Rwanda and Uganda. A leaked UN experts’ report accuses Kigali and Kampala of supporting the rebels, though the two governments have vehemently denied the claims.

It is crucial that the parties in the DRC conflict work together to ensure that the future of the chronically volatile east is rid of insecurity. Both Kinshasa and the M23 rebels must use the talks to give hope to the people of DRC, the East African region and the international community that it is possible to forge peace in this region.