More on Ceasefire
Looks like the main players are going ahead with the ceasefire and intend to get things started , can't see the rebels holding out much longer and Chiluba is confident he can solve their problem
RegardsRebels Refuse To Sign Congo Truce
By ANGUS SHAW
Associated Press Writer
Congolese rebel leader Bizima Karaha
AP/STR [16K]
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LUSAKA, Zambia (AP) — Squabbling rebels refused to sign a long-awaited Congo peace accord on Saturday, dashing hopes for a speedy end to the continent's biggest conflict.
But Congo's government and the five neighboring countries that have been drawn in to the fight signed the pact and agreed to begin a cease-fire within 24 hours.
Because the three squabbling rebel groups refused to sign, there appears nothing to prevent them from continuing their fight, said Olivier Kamitatu, a leader of the Congo Liberation Movement.
''It is not binding so long as we have not signed,'' he said.
Together, the rebels occupy one half of the mineral-rich central African country.
The 11-month conflict has disrupted stability and development throughout Central Africa, coming just a year after Congolese President Laurent Kabila ousted the dictator Mobutu Sese Seko from the former Zaire.
The civil war, started by the main rebel group, Rally for Democracy, last August, has drawn in five other countries. Rwanda and Uganda, whose presidents signed the agreement, have backed the rebels.
Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola have backed Congolese President Laurent Kabila. The presidents of Namibia and Zimbabwe signed, but Angola sent its defense minister.
Frederick Chiluba, the president of Zambia and chief mediator in the 11-month crisis, said he would visit RCD leaders after a four-day meeting of African leaders in Algiers that ends Wednesday, and was confident he could resolve the problem.
Chiluba said the six countries would lay down their arms and form the joint military commission called for in the peace accord.
''The affect is this peace agreement will take affect and all arrangements in the agreement will be enforced,'' Chiluba said.
He said the joint military commission will have specific tasks to minimize and end whatever conflicts persist.
Bizima Karaha, a RCD leader, and the RCD head, Emile Ilunga, remained outside the conference room while heads of state and other officials signed the document.
The RCD refused to sign the accord if ousted faction leader, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, who left the group in May, also signed.
A rival rebel group, the Congo Liberation Movement, insisted that Wamba dia Wamba sign, and Uganda and Zimbabwe concurred.
The leaders were under pressure to wrap up the signing so they can travel to a major continental summit of the Organization of African Unity that begins on Sunday in Algiers.
The accord allows for U.N. military observers to move into Congo, to be followed by a full-fledged peacekeeping operation. But the U.N. Security Council hasn't yet indicated exactly how that would work.
The conflict has daunted hopes for development throughout Africa as the millennium ends.
Revised three times, the 30-page peace plan adopted by regional defense and foreign ministers on Wednesday was wrung out after two weeks of often acrimonious talks by officials and mediators in Zambia.
Rwanda and Uganda are backing the Congolese rebels, who accuse Kabila of corruption, mismanagement and warmongering. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola have backed Kabila out of financial and security interests.
The cease-fire plan calls for the guns in Congo to fall silent within 24 hours and a joint military commission to administer the accord and oversee a standstill of all fighters. It also allows for the creation of a unified army after a 90-day national dialogue under a ''neutral facilitator'' on Congo's political future; and peacekeepers from the Organization of African Unity or the United Nations.
The pact provides for a ''peace enforcement'' operation to track down an estimated 5,000 or more Hutu militias and any other armed groups. The peace enforcers can use ''persuasive or coercive measures'' to disarm them and hand over ''mass killers, perpetrators of crimes against humanity and other war criminals'' for trial by the international war crimes tribunal on the Rwandan genocide.
The accord allows rebels to hold their territorial gains, which amount to nearly half of the vast mineral-rich nation, formerly known as Zaire, until national dialogue is concluded. That process must take place within 90 days, and would restore state administration to all areas.
The Hutu militiamen are implicated in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda of Tutsis and moderate Hutus. The Tutsi-dominated government entered Congo to fight them, but Congo accuses Rwanda of seeking to seize territory. |
