Zambia puts last touches to Congo summit
06:43 a.m. Dec 04, 1998 Eastern
By Buchizya Mseteka
JOHANNESBURG, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Zambian President Frederick Chiluba is putting final touches to a summit of heads of state which officials say will hammer out a peace deal in the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Government officials in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, told Reuters on Friday that Chiluba, who heads a regional peace think-tank on the Congo crisis, was following up an agreement reached at a Franco-African summit in Paris last week to sign a ceasefire pact by mid-December.
''He (Chiluba) is merely putting finishing touches to the summit's programme. Everything being equal, we should host the talks in Lusaka in the next week,'' an official told Reuters by telephone from the Zambian capital.
Officials at the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) in neighbouring Botswana, which is helping to set up the summit, said Chiluba was conducting telephonic consultations with all SADC heads of state, the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
''The idea is for the summit to be able to sign a binding peace deal and not involve presidents in another round of wrangles,'' the SADC official said.
Zambian government officials could not give dates for the Lusaka summit to bring together regional leaders, U.N. and OAU officials as well as Rwandan, Ugandan and Libyan heads of state.
But OAU officials said the Lusaka meeting would have to be held by mid-December, ahead of an OAU special summit on the former Zaire in Burkina Faso.
Diplomats said Chiluba's main problem remained narrowing the gap between those calling for the rebels' participation at the talks and those against.
Previous attempts at a ceasefire under the auspices of SADC have failed because of the exclusion of rebel forces from earlier talks.
Congolese President Laurent Kabila, who refuses to recognise the rebels, accuses his former allies Uganda and Rwanda of fomenting the revolt and invading in support of those who took up arms against him on August 2.
The conflict has sucked in troops from seven nations and threatens to erupt into a full-scale multi-national war at the heart of Africa.
Zimbabwe, Angola, Chad and Namibia all sent troops to help Kabila against the rebels, who are backed by Rwanda and Uganda. Sources say Libya and Sudan are also helping Kabila.
The rebels failed in a bid to take Kinshasa in August but they control about 48 percent of Africa's third largest country including the entire eastern region of the Congo.
Diplomats said the Lusaka meeting was expected to produce a ceasefire document to be ratified at the Burkina Faso summit.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and French President Jacques Chirac said in Paris last Saturday that leaders of nations involved in the conflict had promised to stop fighting.
Congo rebel leader Wamba dia Wamba said on Sunday the rebels would fight on but did not dismiss a ceasefire deal out of hand.
Rwanda and Uganda have thousands of troops in the Congo because of what they say are genuine security concerns. The two countries want the Lusaka summit to specifically address these concerns.
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