DRC in final moments
of ceasefire agreement
OWN CORRESPONDENT, Lusaka | Tuesday 1.40pm
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AFRICAN ministers meeting to seek an end to the Democratic Republic of Congo conflict are expected to go into plenary session on Tuesday to finalise a ceasefire document, officials said.
"The ceasefire document is almost ready and a plenary session of ministers is expected to be held this afternoon to finalise the document," an official said.
He said the ministers and officials, who met through Monday night into the early hours of Tuesday, are almost finished clearing up language problems that have posed a minor hitch in the drafting of the document, which began 11 days ago.
Zimbabwe's Defence Minister Moven Mahachi told the state-owned Herald newspaper in Harare that "all the fundamental principles on which peace is supposed to be built have already been agreed on."
Other sources in Lusaka say Rwanda and Uganda appear to have been taken by surprise by the ease with which the DRC rebels they back reached an agreement on Friday with the government of DRC President Laurent Kabila.
South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Zuma, who is attending the talks in the Zambian capital on Monday said Ugandan and Rwandan security fears were delaying the ceasefire agreement.
She said the two countries were anxious to obtain security guarantees, which was what "brought them into the war in the first place."
The 11-month-old war has drawn in at least six African countries, with Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia backing Kabila while Uganda, Rwanda and, less overtly, Burundi, support rebels trying to topple him. -- AFP
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