It also looks like the peace process is still on track Chiluba confident
Regards
John
June 15, 1999
Mildred Mulenga, PANA Correspondent
LUSAKA, Zambia (PANA) - Zambian president Frederick Chiluba, mediating in the DR Congo conflict, Tuesday insisted that any modalities to be agreed on the DRC ceasefire would be done in Lusaka and nowhere else.
Chiluba said this when local journalists asked him to comment on media reports that South Africa had brokered its own peace deal for the DRC and that Pretoria had already earmarked its troops to be part of the international peace-keeping force expected to supervise the peace process in a post-war Congo.
''Everthing (on the Congolese peace process) will depend on the decision the meeting of foreign and defence ministers will make.
''The final deal or comprehesive ceasefire agreement will be done in Lusaka and nowhere else,'' Chiluba was quoted as telling reporters before he left for South Africa.
The ministers meeting is expected to be followed by a regional summit on 26 June.
The Zambian leader is among 30 African leaders invited to Pretoria to witness the inauguration Wednesday of Thabo Mbeki as that country's new President.
Chiluba, chief SADC mediator in the DRC crisis, also confirmed Tuesday that rebels fighting the Kinshasa government would directly participate in the Lusaka ministers and summit talks.
He was confident that this time around an agreement would be reached for the signing of a ceasefire in the 10-month old civil war.
He said a delegation to finalise the details and also narrow down on some differences is currently in Kinshasa, after having visited Uganda and Rwanda.
Chiluba's own peace plan, which he says was not in confict with other complimentary efforts, envisages an African peace-keeping force to maintain peace in the DRC after the expected withdrawal of foreign troops backing both government and rebel forces.
Libyan leader Muammar Kadhafi, who has himself floated a similar peace accord, has told Chiluba that he was behind the Zambian's leadership of the DRC's diplomatic efforts.
Kadhafi accused unnamed foreign forces of conspiring to frustrate African-led peace initiatives and helping to brew chaos on the continent.
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