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To: john mcknight who wrote (2257)	8/1/1999 2:17:00 PM
From: john mcknight	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 2378

Congo rebel leader signs conditional ceasefire MESSAGE BOARD: Congo Peace? August 1, 1999 Web posted at: 10:39 AM EDT (1439 GMT) JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba agreed on Sunday to stop fighting in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but said he would go back to war if a rival rebel group did not sign a truce within a week. "It is true I have signed (a ceasefire) today in Lusaka. But I will withdraw my signature unless the others also sign within seven days," Bemba told Reuters by telephone from Lusaka. Bemba was referring to the Rwandan-backed Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) which has refused to agree to the truce because of internal divisions within the rebel group. Approval of the truce by the RCD is important because it controls nearly 50 percent of the former Belgian colony and analysts say a ceasefire is impossible without its support. "If they (RCD) do not sign within seven days, then I will continue the fight to Kinshasa," said Bemba, who will travel to South Africa on Monday for talks with President Thabo Mbeki. "We are within 600 km of Kinshasa, but my signature on the ceasefire document is a sign that we want to give peace a chance in the Congo. We can remove (President Laurent) Kabila through political means," he said. Bemba signed his part of the ceasefire on Sunday in the Zambian capital Lusaka in the presence of Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania. Zambian Presidential Affairs Minister Eric Silwamba told Reuters by telephone that Bemba, whose Ugandan-backed forces control northern Congo, had agreed to stop further advances. Six African nations involved in the Congo war signed the ceasefire on July 10, but implementing the deal has been impossible without compliance by the rebel groups. Silwamba said Chiluba, mandated by African leaders, the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and the United Nations to mediate peace in the Congo, would travel to Rwanda on Tuesday to try to persuade the RCD to sign the truce. RCD forces backed by Rwandan troops have pushed toward the key diamond mining city of Mbuji-Mayi, which is heavily defended by Namibian and Zimbabwean troops backed by Angolan airpower. The brutal war in the vast central African nation has displaced hundreds of thousands of people and is seen as a major threat to stability and development in the whole of Africa.