Rebel factions agree to “present a united front”

The three Congolese rebel factions have agreed in principle to “harmonise their differences and present a united front” in opposition to President Laurent-Desire Kabila for the Lusaka peace talks later this month during a four-day reconciliation meeting in Kabale, western Uganda. “The differences we have are small, but our ultimate goal is the same”, a senior figure in one of the rebel groups (RCD - Goma faction), Bizima Karaha, told IRIN on Monday. “All of us want a political solution. We know what we want, we have the same enemy and the same objectives”, he said. The common front would encompass the two factions of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie - RCD-Goma, headed by Emile Ilunga and backed by Rwanda, and RCD-Kisangani, headed by Ernest Wamba dia Wamba and backed by Uganda - as well as the Mouvement de liberation congolais (MLC), headed by Jean-Pierre Bemba.