AID: Congo (MRB Nov 2001): Infighting grows over donors' conference as dialogue stalls.

[MRB Nov 01] With the next round of the 'inter-Congolese dialogue' tentatively set for January in South Africa, intense political infighting is developing in Europe and the US around a DR Congo donors' conference scheduled for Brussels in December. Some European Union officials now say the meeting is premature.

The donors' conference, under World Bank auspices, is currently set to take place in Brussels on December 19 and 20. The meeting is seen as a follow-up to the Paris conference held on July 4 during which donors said they could disburse up to US$240m for the reconstruction of the country, depending on progress made in the implementation of the Lusaka peace agreement.

At the time it was not clear if the funds were to be channelled through the World Bank-led Trust Fund, for which $100m has been sought. The EU, the donor who may make the largest contribution (potentially at least 200m Euros for the 2001-2006 period) is reluctant to allow the World Bank to take all the responsibility - and gain the kudos.

But in view of events since the Paris conference many donors, including EU officials, believe that the Brussels meeting is "premature".

Progress on the implementation of the peace process has been slow, to say the least. The Addis Ababa inter-Congolese dialogue, which started on October 15, ended after a week of quarrels over who should or should not attend.

Eventually the discussions about the constitutional future of the country were postponed to a date in December, according to the prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt (or to January 2002 in the estimate of the Senegalese politician Moustafa Niasse, one of the figures appointed by the facilitator, Ketumile Masire, to chair a dialogue committee). But by the middle of November the dialogue was still stranded.

The Belgium presidency of the EU is now preparing a European 'troika' mission to Kinshasa, Luanda, Harare, Bujumbura, Kigali and Kampala from November 21 ...