UNION
POUR LA DÉMOCRATIE
ET LE PROGRÈS SOCIAL

STATEMENT OF THE LEADER OF THE NON ARMED POLITICAL OPPOSITION IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

(English translation from the French by Raph KASHALA)

In our position as leader of the non armed political opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we pay tribute with a real satisfaction to the designation, by the OAU, of his Excellency Ketumile Masire, former President of the Republic of Botswana, as the mediator for the inter Congolese national Dialogue.

We are convinced that the moral authority, the international credibility and the political experience of President Masire will help the Congolese people to achieve the national reconciliation and build a new political order based on the respect of human rights, the effective exercise of individual and collective liberties and the execution of the will of the Congolese people expressed at the Sovereign National Conference so as to build a real constitutional state on the land of our forefathers.

We rejoice therefore about the choice focused on President Masire and formulate the vow to see him accepting the confidence set on him by the whole Congolese people.

Furthermore, we invite President Masire to call upon Father Di Mateo of the Sant'Egidio Catholic Community in assisting him in this noble mission as mediator of the inter Congolese national Dialogue. We particularly have Father Mateo on mind because of his successful experience with his mediation in some African countries, such as in Mozambique and his implication, since about 8 months, with the agreement of all the concerned parties, in the research of a diplomatic and political solution to the Congolese crisis.

The non armed political opposition considers the Lusaka peace Agreement as the only inescapable frame to solve peacefully the fundamental political problems due to the bad "country ruling" and to the lack of democracy which are the basis of the present crisis.

According to the terms of the Lusaka peace agreement, the national dialogue has to start 30 days after the date of designation of the Mediator. While the orderly withdrawal of all foreign forces will intervene only three months after the end of the national Dialogue.

We consequently consider that any violation of the cease-fire and any tendentious interpretation of the calendar of the implementation of the Lusaka cease-fire Agreement constitute serious acts that jeopardise the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the whole Great Lakes Region.

At the threshold of this 3rd millennium, considering the particularly difficult economic, political and social situation which the Congolese people undergoes at present time, the political opposition in the Democratic Republic of Congo demands to the Congolese brothers signatories of the Lusaka peace Agreement to scrupulously respect the prescribed of the agreement so as to relieve a little bit the misery of our compatriots by building together the new political order on the altar of the national reconciliation.

We solemnly ask to the international community, especially to the Organisation of the African Unit, to the European Union and to the Security Council of the United Nations to multiply and diversify pressures on the belligerents and their respective backers in order that the Lusaka peace Agreement, far of becoming a dead letter, rather constitutes the last hope of salvation for men, women and children of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who are hostages of the present war.

May God protect our country !

Kinshasa, 20 December 1999.

TSHISEKEDI wa MULUMBA