Clergy meet M23 as Tshisekedi allies cry 'treason'

Correspondent in Kinshasa, DRC

Nation Media Group

Congolese clergy met with the AFC/M23 leadership in Goma on Wednesday in an attempt to launch a plan for national cohesion amid growing fears that the rebels could soon capture the South Kivu capital, Bukavu.

Catholic priests and Protestant pastors met with Corneille Nangaa, the de facto leader of the AFC/M23, days after holding similar meetings with President Félix Tshisekedi and opposition figures including Martin Fayulu, Matata Ponyo and Delly Sesanga.

"Our aim is to seek to live together. This must be the year of peace. Peace is the priority. President Tshisekedi welcomed this initiative. He said it was a commendable initiative," said Monsignor Donatien Nshole, Secretary-General of the Congo National Episcopal Conference.

He said that the Catholic priests and their Protestant counterparts had urged the M23 leaders to reopen the Goma airport and stop the war.

"The solution to the current crisis is not a military one. Listening to them (M23 leaders), we understood that there are many things that can be resolved if the Congolese sit down round a table," Monsignor Nshole said.

Is this a preparation for dialogue between the Congolese government and all the parties, including the M23?

"We avoid the term dialogue, which is polluted in the context of our country. We say it's with a view to a forum for national consensus. When we say consensus, all parties must be involved. It's a pastoral approach that excludes no-one," he said.

Read: The many sides of the deadly violence in East DR Congo

In Kinshasa, however, the clerics' initiative has sparked suspicion and controversy. After receiving them, President Tshisekedi on Tuesday invited other religious leaders, including the Congo Revival Churches, Muslims and Orthodox, to discuss the peace initiative promoted by the Catholic and Protestant leaders.

"President Félix Tshisekedi is open to the initiative, but on condition that it is inclusive, i.e. that the two denominations that have been received before, together with us, find a niche for a joint programme," the presidency said.

The government wants the priests to first "condemn the aggressors and their crimes".

President Félix Tshisekedi's UDPS party has accused the priests of collaborating with "the enemy".

Peter Kazadi, a close ally of the Congolese president and a senior UDPS official, claims that the Catholic Church has been plotting with "the enemy".

"We have audio proof," said the former Interior and Security minister.

The UDPS accuses religious leaders of "spitting on the memory of all those Congolese victims of the barbarity of the M23... by seditiously trying to bring the M23/AFC to the negotiating table".

Some members of civil society accused the Catholic priests of "treason".

The UDPS "rejects … any attempt to organise political negotiations outside the Luanda and Nairobi processes."

Meanwhile, fighting continued in North and South Kivu. The Congolese army said several civilians were killed in South Kivu on Wednesday during fighting for the control of Ihusi and Kalehe-Centre.

According to some sources, the M23 is just on the outskirts of Bukavu.