and Again
Congo cease-fire prospects good
Business Day (Johannesburg)
June 21, 1999
By John Dludlu, Stephane Bothma and Reuters
Johannesburg - Prospects of cobbling together a cease-fire in the Democratic Republic of Congo improved at the weekend, following a plan by the key sponsors of the peace process in the former Zaire to invite the Congolese rebels to face- to-face talks with the region's heads of government, including embattled leader Laurent Kabila, this Friday.
Interviewed by the SABC in Pretoria at the weekend, Emile Ilunga, the new leader of the rebels, Congolese Rally for Democracy, also signalled the rebel movement's support for a SA proposal to end the conflict in the Congo.
Ilunga said Pretoria's plan was "new and better" than other initiatives so far. The plan, which Ilunga discussed with President Thabo Mbeki last week, was "the most advanced and contained acceptable grounds for negotiations", he said. The rebels had yet to consult their allies - Rwanda and Uganda.
It is understood the SA plan - which includes a cease-fire, troops' standstill, inter-Congolese political dialogue and suggestions on peace-keeping - has received the backing of Kabila's allies: Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia. They are all understood to have supported the SA plan, a move that places pressure on Kabila to follow suit.
This comes ahead of a Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders' summit meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, this Friday. A preparatory ministerial meeting is expected to be held tomorrow which will be attended by Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Aziz Pahad, new Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Zuma said yesterday.
Ilunga, who was in SA at Mbeki's invitation as part of the ground work ahead of Friday's summit, said a delegation of the sponsors of the peace initiative in the Congo - Zambian President Frederick Chiluba's representatives and envoys from the United Nations and the Organisation for African Unity - had indicated that this time the rebels would be included in Friday's talks.
Direct talks with Kabila has been one of the main sticking points to several peace initiatives in the Congo. It is also the rebels' preconditions for talks. Chiluba has been mediating in the conflict that began last August.
However, Ilunga expressed pessimism at prospects of a breakthrough, citing concerns about continued bombing of civilians in rebel-held towns in Congo by Kabila's forces.
The rebels have set the halt to the bombing campaign as one of the prerequisites to negotiations with Kabila. This, together with the release of civilians kept in "concentration camps" by Kabila's forces, would send signs of goodwill by Kabila.
"While everybody is moving towards a peaceful settlement of the crisis, Kabila continues to massacre innocent civilians in towns under our control," Moise Nyarugabo, vice-president of the rebel movement, told Reuters. The other preconditions to cease-fire include face-to-face talks with Kabila and Kabila stopping to arm and recruit "genocidal forces".
Last week, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe expressed optimism that the war would be over by the end of the year.
Though optimistic of this week's talks and the SA plan, Thomas Nziratimana, the representative of the rebels in southern Africa, warned that it would take the actions of one man - such as Kabila's nonattendance on Friday - to ruin the optimism.
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