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Gold/Mining/Energy : Tenke Mining Corp (TNK) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Gunnar who wrote (263)	11/4/1998 10:22:00 PM
From: Tomas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 486

Congo war 'threatens to embroil Africa. The Times, Thursday November 5 FROM SAM KILEY IN JOHANNESBURG SOUTH AFRICA and the United States are desperately seeking a peaceful solution to the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Separate missions by President Mandela and Susan Rice, President Clinton's most senior African specialist, have shuttled around the continent to underscore the need to cut foreign troop numbers on both sides in the former Zaire. But their appeals have been ignored, sparking fears that Congo's civil war could escalate into an international conflict. Earlier this week, allies of President Kabila announced a "final push" in their three-phased campaign against the the Tutsi-dominated rebels. "There is a real danger that this is going to turn into a protracted conflict and drag almost every civil war being fought in Africa into its vortex," said a senior Western diplomat. "We face the prospect of an international 'world war' in Africa which the continent cannot afford. We face the complete breakdown of any kind of rational thinking, or national boundaries, and [the prospect] of every uncivilised norm in the ever-expanding theatre of Congo." Mr Mandela, who has met the rebel leader, Wamba dia Wamba, Mr Kabila, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe and President Nujoma of Namibia, has been unable to extract any promise of a ceasefire, or de-escalation, from the Congolese President, who has insisted that the allies of the rebels should leave the country before any talks. Ms Rice, who was in Harare yesterday to meet Mr Mugabe, has also failed to extract anything but increasingly belligerent statements. She is expected to meet Rwandan government leaders today. But her meetings in Kigali will be coloured by the charade that there are no Rwandan troops in Congo - a claim that Paul Kagame, the Vice-President and Defence Minister, insists on maintaining, despite evidence to the contrary. About 4,000 Angolans, 3,500 Zimbabweans, more than 1,000 Sudanese, 1,000 soldiers from Chad, and about 8,000 Hutus from Rwanda's extremist rebels, have joined the Congolese Army of about 30,000 to fight the rebels. Against them are about 4,000 Ugandans in eastern and central Congo, Tutsis from Burundi, and several thousand Rwandan troops backing the rebels. Sudanese support for Mr Kabila would inevitably drag the rebel southern Sudanese People's Liberation Army into the fray on the side of the Congo rebels, who have also sought backing from Eritrea and Ethiopia, which have supported them in the past. Caught in the maelstrom are millions of ordinary Congolese, as well as members of the Hutu and Tutsi tribes in the east of the country, whose long-standing animosities are at the root of the Central African cycle of war and genocide. Unidentified gunmen also killed a Polish priest in Congo at the weekend, Roman Catholic church sources said yesterday. Jan Czuba was among at least four people killed in separate incidents in the Pool region, around 60 miles west of Brazzaville, an area which has seen an increase in violent incidents in recent months. The rebels lost heavily on their far-western front in June and July, but since then they have made steady gains in the east. Defence of the East Kasai area will be vital for Mr Kabila and his allies. Its capital, MbujiMayi, is the centre of a multibillion-pound diamond trade which is Congo's main means of financing its army.