Plans to return the body of longtime Congolese opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi to Kinshasa for a grand national funeral have run into problems in a dispute over burial arrangements, AFP news agency has reported.
The Congolese government had promised to let his casket lie in state in parliament and offered to pay for former colleagues to travel to Brussels to collect his body.
But Mr Tshisekedi’s Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS) party has rejected the proposal and issued its own demands.
It says the government should agree to build a mausoleum for Mr Tshisekedi in the heart of Kinshasa and also demanded that funeral costs be paid by a future government whose formation has been agreed but which has yet to take office.
Agreement to create a new government incorporating an opposition coalition established by Mr Tshisekedi was part of a power-sharing deal finalised on New Year’s Eve.
It was one of Mr Tshisekedi’s final acts as a political leader and he was to have headed a transitional council.
The government has responded to the UDPS demands by saying a mausoleum may be possible, but not in the city centre, AFP says.
The news agency also says the Catholic Church, which is overseeing implementation of the transition deal, has said the new government cannot be finalised until after Mr Tshisekedi is buried.
Source: BBC
