Even more this time from Uganda
Uganda Says Conflict In DR Congo Would Be Resolved Soon
March 24, 1999
By Jerome Hule, PANA Correspondent
NEW YORK, UN (PANA) - Ugandan foreign minister, Amama Mbabazi, has expressed optimism that a solution would soon be found to the eight-month crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Discounting world apprehension over the lack of agreement by the parties to the conflict since negotiations began last year, Mbabazi said at a news conference at the UN on Tuesday that so much progress has already been made to warrant optimism that a solution was in sight.
He disclosed that negotiations have produced a consensus that will form the basis for a final resolution of the crisis.
The consensus stresses the need for a ceasefire, the introduction of an international peacekeeping force, the participation of all the belligerent parties in talks leading to a settlement, and the need to address the security concerns of neighbouring countries, Mbabazi said.
With the exception of two minor points on these issues, agreement has been reached on all others, the minister remarked, adding that President Laurent Kabila's government has been opposed to the idea of rebels participating in negotiations while the rebels have not agreed to the proposal on their disarmament after a peace plan would have been agreed to.
Uganda and Rwanda have troops in the Congo backing a rebellion against the government of President Kabila whom they had supported a year earlier in his rebellion against the late Mobutu Sese Seko regime. Both countries have insisted that the presence of their troops in the Congo is to protect their national security interests.
Rebels from both countries are based in the north-east of the Congo from where they attack targets in Uganda and Rwanda. Mbabazi said Uganda's security concerns have been acknowledged in the region and internationally as genuine.
Following the rebellion, the governments of Zimbabwe, Namibia, Angola and Chad also sent forces to back President Kabila.
But even after external interference may have been dealt with as proposed in the peace negotiations, the Ugandan minister noted that there would still be need for the Congo to deal with the internal aspect of the crisis.
Such efforts, he said, should be anchored on the holding of a national conference with the participation, not only of the rebels and the government but all political groups in the country.
Mbabazi expressed happiness that Kabila has now accepted the need and called for national dialogue.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, has been in turmoil since the early 1990s when opposition groups began campaigns for political liberalisation.
Kabila launched his rebellion in 1996, succeeding in 1997 to overthrew the government of Mobutu who fled into exile and died a few months later of prostrate cancer. The country experienced few months of relative peace under Kabila before the latest rebellion erupted last August.
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