Congo Cease-Fire To Be Signed
By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press Writer
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The countries at war in the Congo are expected to sign a formal cease-fire at a summit in Zambia on Dec. 14-15 and the Congo rebels have indicated they want to be a part of it, a senior U.N. official said.
A cease-fire agreement hopefully will be followed by deployment of an African or U.N. peacekeeping force in the Congo with at least 15,000 personnel, the official said Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In Paris last week, leaders of Rwanda, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Congo made a commitment to end the war, to strive for an immediate cessation of hostilities, and to sign a cease-fire agreement.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who attended the Paris summit, has been working for months to try to avert an all-out war in the Congo, which could lead to a regional conflagration.
The U.N. official said some of the Paris commitments already were starting to be implemented.
Congo rebels, who didn't participate in the Paris talks and initially reacted negatively to the outcome, traveled to Uganda three days ago and are talking to President Yoweri Museveni ''about how they could be brought aboard for the cease-fire,'' the official said.
Rwanda has ordered a halt to military action unless its forces are attacked and a summit has been scheduled in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, on Dec. 14-15, he said.
''We expect that during that summit, a formal cease-fire would be signed by all the concerned countries,'' the official said.
The secretary-general has been talking to Zambian President Frederick Chiluba and participants at the Paris conference ''to encourage them to attend the Lusaka summit with a spirit of openness and compromise,'' the official said.
During the summit, the rebels will be in Lusaka, just as they were in Paris, but it's doubtful that they will attend the meeting or sign the cease-fire because that would set a precedent that countries like Uganda and Rwanda probably could not accept, the official said.
The rebels are trying to overthrow Congolese President Laurent Kabila, who came to power in May 1997 after toppling Mobutu Sese Seko, longtime dictator of what was then known as Zaire. He promised reform and democracy in his renamed Democratic Republic of Congo, but many critics say his regime's 18 months in power has produced repressive policies and a growing intolerance of criticism.
After the cease-fire is signed, the United Nations will be involved in its implementation and efforts to bring peace to the Congo.
''Many are thinking that this time the U.N. should deploy a peacekeeping force, or a U.N. peacekeeping force together with an Organization of African Unity observation force,'' the U.N. official said.
That will be determined at an OAU meeting in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, on Dec. 17-18.
To deploy a U.N. peacekeeping force would require a formal cease-fire and its implementation, agreement of all governments concerned, adequate security, a clear mandate from the Security Council and sufficient resources, the official said.
According to the current evaluation, a ''near minimum'' force should have at least 15,000 personnel, he said. |
