M23 peace talks with DR Congo deadlocked

[Mirror]

M23 rebels and the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo have suspended peace talks only days after the rebels spoke of "major breakthroughs".

The two sides have been meeting in Kampala, the capital of neighbouring Uganda, which is brokering the peace talks. The suspension of talks on Monday comes just hours after UN envoys warned of the dangers if a deal was not agreed soon to end the year-and-a-half-old rebellion ravaging the Democratic Republic of Congo's volatile east.

Lambert Mende, the Congolese government spokesman, said the talks had been suspended because of disagreement over the extent of an amnesty for the M23 army mutineers and their reintegration into the national army. Last Saturday, M23 released a statement saying there had been "major breakthroughs" as a result of "the heavy involvement of the international community in the dialogue".

The rebels take their name from a peace agreement they signed with the DRC government on March 22 2009, paving the way for their integration into the national army, but they mutinied in April 2012 over poor salaries and living conditions, renewing an armed rebellion in the country's mineral-rich east. Mende said Congolese Foreign Minister Raymond Tshibanda had returned home to Kinshasa, the capital, but added that his departure was "not definitive".

Roger Lumbala, an M23 delegate, said there was a "blockage" but insisted the rebels were ready to go back to the negotiating table any time. "We have agreed on the content of 13 articles of a peace accord and two remain to be settled, concerning security measures," M23 delegation chief Rene Abandi told the AFP news agency, indicating that measures to take back rebels into the Congolese army were undecided. Backed by the international community, DR Congo's government is refusing to give amnesty to about 80 leaders of the M23 and to enlist these men into military ranks.

A government official had earlier warned that the negotiations, which resumed in September under pressure from regional leaders, were "heading slowly but surely towards failure".

Source: M23 peace talks with DR Congo deadlocked