NCN News November 20, 1998
By Ed Marek
DR Congo rebels agree to SADC cease-fire proposal, but we're still a long way from a deal
Nonetheless, there is some agreement and the process can go on to the next step
Buchizya Mseteka reported for Reuters that DR Congo's rebels have accepted the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) cease-fire proposal presented by a set of SADC foreign ministers at meetings being held today in Gaborone, Botswana. But, and there almost always is a "but" in these kinds of matters, there is a condition. The rebels' condition is that they be allowed to sit at the table at the next SADC heads-of-state meeting, which is scheduled for Pretoria on December 8.
The next step is for the SADC ministers to take this agreement to a SADC heads-of-state summit scheduled for Pretoria on December 8. The dominating questions are whether the DR Congo's President Kabila will attend that summit and agree to the rebel condition. Prior to that, the SADC ministers who are meeting at Gaborone are to meet with Mr. Kabila in Lusaka. That is scheduled to occur on December 6.
This rebel decision comes as a bit of a surprise, since rebel leaders had said that a pre-condition for a cease-fire direct talks with the Kabila government. The rebels said first direct talks, then a cease-fire. This agreement says first a cease-fire, then the rebels can sit at the SADC table with the heads-of-state.
With that said, it is widely known that the rebels have some kind of relationship with the South Africans and the South Africans have long wanted to see a cease-fire, followed by a troop standstill and then a troop withdrawal, followed by negotiations between the rebels and the Kabila government. The rebels were no doubt persuaded by the South Africans. There are many other forces at work as well, which are too cloudy and complicated for this report. Suffice to say that the rebels have seen advantage in agreeing to this effort undertaken at Gaborone.
Zambia, which is chairing the Gaborone meetings and leading the mediation effort, now has the task of first convincing Mr. Kabila of the wisdom of this agreement on December 6, and then convincing the SADC heads-of-state, most notably Mr. Mugabe of Zimbabwe, on December 8.
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