Jean-Pierre Bemba

Reports of the discussions show a rapprochement between Angola Rwanda (which backs the opposition Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie-Goma) Uganda (which backs two rebel groups - the RCD-Kisangani and Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de Libération du Congo) and Congo-Brazzaville whose President Denis Sassou-Nguesso is one of Angola's key regional allies...

Luanda is talking to Congolese opposition leaders such as Jean-Pierre Bemba former Premier Léon Kengo wa Dondo and Nimy Mayidika who runs a group called the Rassemblement des 11 Provinces (R11)...

Granting access to UN peacekeepers and probably directing them towards the battle-zones in the north-west may dampen the military operations of Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement du Libération de Congo...

The aim was to relieve the fuel shortage in Kinshasa while making supplies difficult for Jean-Pierre Bemba's Ugandan-allied MLC (see box) which controls the entire border with the Central African Republic and part of that with Congo-B as far as Impfondo whence it got its oil...

The Mouvement de Libération du Congo was formed between late 1998 and early 1999 around Jean-Pierre Bemba a huge man who stands some 1...

The UPDF has been accused of bringing in hundreds of soldiers from the Mouvement pour la Libération Congolaise (MLC) the rebel movement headed by businessman Jean-Pierre Bemba which has concentrated its efforts in the far north and north-west of Congo-K...

Maliba and Saolona (whose son Jean-Pierre Bemba leads a north-western based rebel movement) have been accused of 'obstructing' an investigation into the undervaluation of diamonds seized at Kinshasa's N'djili Airport...

They seem to have remained in their positions since 8 April when a new ceasefire agreement was signed in Kampala involving all parties to the conflict - Kabila's government and its allies from Zimbabwe Angola and Namibia and Uganda and Rwanda plus the rebels of the Rassemblement Congolais pour la Démocratie-Goma the RCD-Mouvement de Libération led by Professor Ernest Wamba dia Wamba and the Mouvement de Libération du Congo under Jean-Pierre Bemba...

This looked like a quid pro quo for not embarrassing Museveni too much at the Security Council session to which rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba of the Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo was not invited probably because his Ugandan backers did not insist on his presence...

But the more independent opponents of Kabila saw things differently: Jean-Pierre Bemba's Uganda-backed Mouvement pour la Libération du Congo (MLC) said it was not worth turning up; Etienne Tshisekedi chief of the most powerful unarmed opposition movement preferred to make a trip to South Africa to see Nelson Mandela...

There are now hints of a rebel rapprochement; both wings of the RCD and Jean-Pierre Bemba's Uganda-backed Mouvement de Libération Congolais (MLC) want Nelson Mandela as mediator in Congo's long-awaited national debate...