Bemba new DRC prime minister

SUN CITY, South Africa, Thursday - The government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) on Wednesday signed a peace pact with Ugandan-backed rebels to install guerrilla leader Pierre Bemba as Kinshasa’s new prime minister.The deal with the Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) will keep President Joseph Kabila as head of state and the army, said the government’s Vital Kamehre. He said it was “a historic moment” meant to end the four-year war in the former Zaire and the MLC declared it was laying down arms. But the accord was roundly rejected by the third party to the war, the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) rebel movement, which controls the eastern third of DRC with the help of Rwanda and warned that the military situation in the country will remain unchanged. Kamehre told AFP: “It’s done. The government has signed a deal with the MLC. We are holding out a hand to the RCD and to all other parties to join us and reunify the country.” The RCD’s Secretary-General Azarias Ruberwa, said it would not join the alliance or contemplate its offer to them of control of parliament in the new government Kabila and Bemba are expected to announce within days.“Its a scandal ... what it seeks to establish will not last a day. It’s a coup — Kabila and Bemba have proclaimed themselves in the same way that Laurent Kabila proclaimed himself dictator of the Congo in 1997,” he said.The deal was cut on the sidelines of peace talks in South Africa that are due to close on Thursday after eight weeks in which it was hoped in vain Kinshasa, the rebels, militia, political opposition and civil society would agree on a new government. Most are expected to side with the alliance, against the RCD which is seen as promoting only the interests of Rwanda and the Tutsi minority.AFP