Rebels Walk Out of Talks In DR Congo

According to a spokesman for the dissident general Laurent Nkunda, they had left the talks at Goma after there was an attempted arrest of one of the group’s members. The meeting had begun this week with neither General Nkunda nor President Joseph Kabila taking part of the meeting in person.

These talks came to be after the failure of last year’s governments to oust the rebels from their strongholds. According to correspondents, some Congolese government figures are hostile towards reaching any political deal with the general.

According to the head of the delegation, Kambasu Ngeze, safety could not be guaranteed and accused security officials of arresting Serphin Mindi. Mindi is a rebel official with his name being similar to that of a wanted criminal.

Almost a million people fled their homes the previous year to keep away from the fighting between the Congolese army and General Nkunda’s forces.

The reason for the rebellion is the claims by General Nkunda that he is protecting ethnic Tutsis in the North Kivu province from the Hutu militia that makes up the Democratic Front of the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) which was driven out of Rwanda after the genocide in 1994.

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