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FOCUS-Compromise brings Congo peace deal closer
By Buchizya Mseteka
LUSAKA, July 6 (Reuters) - Talks to end war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo were put back on track on Tuesday when Rwanda and Zimbabwe reached a compromise over the vexed issue of disarming exiled Hutu fighters, officials said.
Rwanda, which backs rebels fighting to oust President Laurent Kabila, had been insistent that Zimbabwe, Kabila's main ally, disarm the Hutu militia blamed for much of the 1994 genocide in neighbouring Rwanda.
However, the talks, which have dragged on in the Zambian capital for 12 days, were rescued from possible collapse by an agreement between Zimbabwe and Rwanda that all warring parties should form a Joint Military Commission (JMC) to disarm the Hutus and confine them to camps.
"We have made some breakthrough on this matter. The Zimbabwean minister and myself agreed that the JMC be tasked with disarming the Hutu militia," Rwandan Presidential Affairs Minister Patrick Mazimhaka told Reuters.
He said Kinshasa's allies would meet later on Tuesday with Rwanda and its ally Uganda to work out details of how the JMC would function.
He said once this had been done, the draft ceasefire document would be adopted by defence and foreign ministers.
Zambian officials said the agreement could be adopted at a session on Wednesday morning.
"The belligerents...have made progress on the sticking point of containing the Hutu militia. This new development gives me hope that we should be able to finish our job and ratify the ceasefire agreement," Zambian Presidential Affairs Minister Eric Silwamba told Reuters.
Rwanda says its troops are in the Congo to fight Hutu militias who bear much of the blame for the 1994 genocide of over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda.
Rwanda's ally Uganda says its troops are also there to fight guerrilla groups, which use the wild terrain of eastern Congo to launch attacks on Uganda.
Kabila has been supported in the 11-month-old conflict by the armies of Chad, Namibia and, crucially, Angola and Zimbabwe.
The issue of the Hutu militia became divisive after Rwanda demanded a U.N. peace enforcing mission to disarm them, and when it became clear this was unlikely, that Zimbabwe take responsibility for disarming the renegades.
Conference officials told Reuters that Zimbabwe had absolved the allies of any responsibility for the Hutu militia, known as Interahamwe or "those who kill together".
Rwanda says the Interahamwe have undergone guerrilla training by the Zimbabwean army and are now fighting alongside Congolese government troops.
Officials said most other issues had been ironed out.
African defence and foreign affairs ministers have drawn up a draft ceasefire document which outlines a timetable for a truce, modalities for its implementation, and political negotiations between political groups in the former Zaire.
Three rebel factions and a government delegation led by Congo Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Yerodia Ndombasi on Friday agreed that a new national army be created out of the rebel forces and government army.
They also agreed that rebel territory be returned to the government and that the rebels hold direct talks with Kinshasa in future negotiations.
Peacekeepers from the Organisation of African Unity will move swiftly into the Democratic Republic of the Congo if a ceasefire is signed, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) said on Tuesday.
"We would like to see a ceasefire signed in the course of this week," SADC Executive Secretary Kaire Mbuende told a news conference on the sidelines of the Southern African Economic Summit in Durban.
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