Kerry urges DR Congo's Kabila to respect term limits
AFP - 1 hr ago
Kinshasa (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday urged DR
Congo's 42-year-old President Joseph Kabila to respect constitutional
term limits and not seek re-election in 2016.
"I believe that it is clear to him (Kabila) that the United States of
America feels very strongly, as do other people, that the
constitutional process needs to respected," Kerry said after talks
with Kabila in Kinshasa.
"He's a young man with an enormous amount of time to be able to
continue to contribute to his country."
US special envoy to the Great Lakes region Russ Feingold went further,
saying "we don't want" Kabila to change the constitution or seek a
third term.
"What Africa needs is not strongmen but strong institutions," said
Feingold, who is accompanying Kerry on his trip focusing on some of
Africa's most brutal conflicts.
Kabila became Africa's youngest leader at 29 when he was propelled
into office after the death of his father in 2001 at the height of a
civil war that became known as "Africa's Great War".
Kabila's father Laurent-Desire Kabila had led a rebel movement in the
vast former Belgian colony that overthrew the dictator Mobutu Sese
Seko in 1997.
The young Kabila won elections in 2006 and 2011 amid cries of foul
play, and many in the opposition fear that Kabila's inner circle is
hoping he will seek a third term.
But several diplomats and DR Congo experts think Kabila has not
decided what to do in 2016, saying that he may indeed step aside but
not without guarantees about his future.
Kerry said: "I have no doubt that President Kabila's legacy will be
defined by the progress he has made ... particularly the last year in
addressing the security issues in the east (and) the economic issues
of the country."
As a sign of US "commitment", Kerry announced that the United States
would provide funding of $30 million (almost 22 million euros) "to
support transparent and credible elections as well as recovery and
reconstruction programmes in eastern DRC".
A State Department official later said most of the funds would go to
non-governmental organisations. "This initial funding is provided for
elections and eastern stabilisation without strict conditionality," he
said.
Recalling the 2011 polls, Feingold noted suggestions that "the
international community was not adequately engaged early enough." In
2016, he said, it "will be engaged".
Kerry, who met with electoral officials during his visit, added:
"Obviously, it is very clear that the (election) dates and the process
need to be set and fully defined and the sooner, the better."
He called for "free, fair, timely and transparent elections".
The Independent National Electoral Commission has sketched out a
roadmap leading to the 2016 presidential polls including elections
that must precede them, but no dates have been set, and the modalities
of some of the votes have been the subject of acrimonious debate.
- Volatile east -
Kerry also urged DR Congo leaders to continue their efforts to pacify
the volatile east of the country.
"Military force alone will not deliver stability to the DRC. Lasting
peace will not grow out of the barrel of a gun (but) from demobilising
the combatants and returning them to civilian life," he said.
A US official said Saturday that Washington was ready to help fund the
demobilisation of some 12,000 rebels active in dozens of militias in
the mineral-rich region, a plan with an estimated price tag of about
$100 million.
The DR Congo government has gained more control in the region since a
national army offensive, backed by a special UN brigade, forced the
powerful M23 rebel group to lay down its arms in November.
Feingold took a leading role in brokering the peace deal that ended
hostilities dating back to 1994.
Kerry, on his first major tour of Africa as secretary of state,
arrived in Kinshasa on Saturday from Addis Ababa and flew on to Luanda
on Sunday for the final leg of the trip.
http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-urges-dr-congos-kabila-respect-constitution-2016-105519934.html
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