Hi All,
Great news , which if coupled with the fact that BBC world service reports Ugandan troops withdrawing from the Rwandan sector in Eastern DRC plus the fact that Libyan peace keeping advance party landed in Uganda today it looks like it could be the end of hostilities
Regards John
MAY 28, 14:04 EDT
Rwanda Declares Cease-Fire in Congo
By HRVOJE HRANJSKI
Associated Press Writer
KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Rwanda on Friday declared a unilateral cease-fire in Congo, where it has been backing rebels fighting to oust President Laurent Kabila.
Foreign Minister Amri Sued Ismael said the aim of the truce was to enhance chances of a settlement of nine-month-old Congolese civil war. The cease-fire was set to go into effect at midnight local time Friday, he said.
''We shall see tomorrow how the other parties will react. If they don't respect our unilateral declaration then we shall evaluate our position,'' Ismail told a news conference in the Rwandan capital of Kigali.
Congolese rebels have captured the eastern third of the country since they took up arms in August, with the help of troops and equipment from Rwanda and Uganda. They accuse Kabila of nepotism, corruption and ethnic warmongering.
Both Rwanda and Uganda have said they are fighting in Congo to secure their borders from armed groups operating in the east, and blamed Kabila for neglecting to secure the areas.
There was no immediate reaction from any of the three Congolese rebel groups.
Sued said that for the cease-fire to be effective, ''it would have to be respected by all sides in the conflict and include a troop standstill and cessation of all military activities that would give military or technical advantage to any of the sides.''
Regional and international mediators have tried to broker an end to the hostilities, warning that the war could destabilize the entire region.
In April, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni, under pressure from international mediators and opponents of the war at home, signed a peace treaty with Kabila and indicated he was hoping to soon withdraw his troops from the neighboring central African nation, the third largest on the continent.
Rwanda at the time rejected the agreement and said it would continue fighting until it had assurances its borders were safe. |
