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Five Countries To Sign Cease-fire Agreement On DRC
January 19, 1999
Windhoek, Namibia (PANA) - Five countries militarily involved in the conflict in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have agreed to sign a cease-fire.
At a one-day Summit held in Windhoek Monday, leaders from Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Rwanda agreed that the cease-fire will be signed in Lusaka, Zambia soon.
President Nujoma who chaired the summit told journalists that he will report to Zambian President Fredrick Chiluba that all countries taking part in the war in the DRC had agreed to the signing of the cease-fire.
According to Nujoma, Chiluba will call a meeting to decide when this cease-fire will be signed.
Apart from the cease-fire agreement, the summit discussed among other things, the security situation in the DRC and the deployment of a peace- keeping force, possibly by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
The OAU Secretary General, Salim Ahmed Salim, is also expected to contact the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan with a view to inform him about the cease-fire process in the DRC. Annan would in turn inform the UN Security Council.
Namibia News Agency reported that Nujoma confirmed that the rebels had also agreed to the cease-fire agreement and it has been agreed that they will sign separately.
The summit also reviewed the current status of the ongoing process in the DRC in the light of the Summit of Regional Leaders, which was scheduled to take place in Lusaka but was postponed to a later date to allow for further consultations.
The Summit expressed satisfaction that significant progress had been made towards achieving greater mutual understanding between the core group of countries involved in the conflict in the DRC, which should contribute significantly towards a speedy signing of a cease-fire Agreement.
Nujoma said that the Windhoek summit was not intended to divert the focus away from the Regional Summit that was to have taken place in Lusaka, but was later postponed to a future date, following high-level consultation and mutual understanding.
"We are all in full agreement that the hour for peace and the necessity for the signing of the cease-fire agreement on the DRC has come," he said.
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni took the initiative by contacting Nujoma to host the Summit, it was confirmed.
The summit was attended by presidents Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda, Sam Nujoma of Namibia while Angola was represented by its defence minister, Pedro Sebastiao.
The Executive Secretary of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Secretary Kaire Mbuende also attended the Summit.
DRC cease-fire talks have been hampered by disagreement over how to accommodate the rebel movement following the refusal by President Laurent Kabila to have direct negotiations with them.
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