Today's papers devote their headlines to the teachers' strike and the ongoing electoral process.
'The government rules out the option of a No-School-Year in DRC this year,' reports Le Potentiel, echoing Vice-President Arthur Z'Ahidi Ngoma. He was reacting to the teachers' decision to 'pursue their strike started on 05 September, when the 2005-2006 school year was due to resume,' says the pro-opposition paper. The decision contradicts 'the promise made by the teachers' union at the end of the 24 September negotiations to instruct the teachers to resume work as from 26 September and to call on the parents to send their children to school,' points out Le Potentiel. Following the recent development, 'Z'Ahidi Ngoma has declared himself disappointed to note that the union leaders did not keep their promise,' highlights Le Potentiel. 'Teachers must resume work,' says L'Avenir. They must prevent 'politicians from getting involved in their claims [to avoid] sacrificing the future of the Congolese children,' estimates the pro-presidential party's paper, alluding to Vice-President Z'Ahidi Ngoma. On the other hand, 'the Government is intent on implementing the Mbudi agreement in stages,' adds L'Avenir. In this case, 'With or without money, the government must address the teachers' claims in a more responsible way since their right is guaranteed in the Constitution. Teachers will not be satisfied with half-measures and intermediary solutions which will jeopardize the future of the Congolese children,' says La Référence Plus, an independent paper, in an editorial headlined 'Useless power.' 'There is no confusion about it,' notes Le Phare [pro-UDPS paper], 'the strikers visibly do not believe either in the will or the capacity of the Congolese leaders to come up with a message of hope.' Be that as it may, 'parents [have meddled in]' the teachers' strike, informs Le Palmarès, a pro-opposition paper, for, 'If the situation is not sorted out now, there will be no school this year.' All the same, 'Private schools' students [were] beaten up by hooligans,' says La Référence Plus. 'Unknown people coming from unknown places broke into private schools to force students out of the classrooms and beat them up. Some students had their bags torn,' reports L'Observateur [pro-PPRD].
In other news, 'Transition institutions are in disagreement over the urgent character of the adoption of the electoral law,' notes Le Potentiel. Instead of 'pointing an accusing finger at the parliament and the government' following the delay in adopting the electoral law, '[CEI] should [rather] handle the ongoing pre-electoral operations and let the other institutions do their work without rushing or pressuring them,' says this paper, echoing the speaker of the National Assembly. Moreover, 'except a last minute change, it is this Monday 03 October that the official opening of the October session will take place,' indicates L'Observateur. 'Apart from the voting of the 2006 budget, MPs will vote the laws on the elections, the constitutional referendum, and the amnesty,' further says the paper.
With respect to the electoral process, 'Kofi Annan [recommends] an extension of MONUC mandate,' informs Le Phare. As a matter of fact, 'in a report to the Security Council, [he] recommends one-year extension of MONUC mandate until 1st October 2006 and pleads for a contribution of 2,580-troop brigade. The current mandate expires Saturday,' pursues the paper. 'The reinforcements would further empower MONUC to secure the electoral operations in North and centre of Katanga, to respond to the threats posed by the Maï-Maï elements,' explains Le Palmarès. 'The Security Council authorised an increase of the police force on 6 September by 841 troops with a view to ensuring smooth electoral operations in DRC,' recalls La Tempête des Tropiques. Le Phare announces that, 'Haile Menkerios, former adviser of Moustapha Niasse to the inter Congolese talks [is] appointed Deputy Special Representative of the UNSG for the DRC.'
UN
United Nations Peacekeeping
