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Congo DR Talks Flop Again
February 8, 1999
Lusaka - Congo DR talks flop again The meeting aimed at drawing modalities for a cease fire in the Democratic Republic of Congo held in Lusaka from February 1 to 5 ended inconclusively.
A delegate disclosed soon after the talks chaired by Zambia's Colonel Kazembe and attended by "technical experts" from the ministries of defence and foreign affairs from Congo DR, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda and representatives of the UN, OAU and SADC, faltered after delegates from Rwanda and Uganda walked out.
He said Rwanda and Uganda wanted the rebels fighting to oust President Laurent Kabila to attend the talks but the countries backing President Kabila (Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia) said the rebels could only be included in the deliberations through proximity talks. He said the delegates started converging at Lusaka's Hotel Intercontinental on January 28 but the meeting only got under way on Monday following the arrival of the Ugandan delegation.
Their Rwandan counterparts arrived on Tuesday. But the meeting held in the Makumbi restaurant was disrupted by lack of consensus over the status of the rebel delegation which failed to turn up due to lack of transport.
"After we failed to agree on this issue, the Uganda and Rwanda delegates excused themselves, saying they wanted to consult their governments. We waited for them up to Wednesday but they never showed up," the delegate said.
The remaining delegates decided to proceed with the talks. "We discussed the modalities for a cease fire which among other things include the withdrawal of all foreign forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the exchange of prisoners of war and the deployment of a peace keeping force in Congo," he said.
A draft cease-fire document was ready by 10:00 hours on Friday. However before the delegates could issue a joint communique, President Frederick Chiluba summoned them to State House.
"The meeting at State House was attended by the delegations from Uganda and Rwanda," the delegate said. "President Chiluba implored Uganda and Rwanda not to pull out of the peace initiative."
A communique was finally issued around 15:00 hours after which a committee comprising Zambia, Kenya, Botswana, Mauritius, the UN, the OAU and SADC met to discuss security concerns for countries surrounding the Congo DR.
The delegate said the draft cease-fire agreement would be presented to regional foreign affairs and defence ministers who are expected to meet in Lusaka "within weeks".
This meeting would be followed by a heads of state summit at a date to be announced by President Chiluba. According to the details of the draft agreement, Rwanda and Ugandan forces are to withdraw first while the so called allied forces would only withdraw after it was certain that President Kabila's government was secure.
But regional diplomats expressed doubt about the implementation of the agreement since the main players, Rwanda and Uganda, were not part of its formulation. At a meeting held in Windhoek, Namibia, on January 17 and chaired by President Sam Nujoma, the belligerents agreed in principle to a cease-fire.
This was followed by an announcement by President Kabila that he was willing to have face to face talks with the rebels. He also unbanned political activity in the Congo DR. But the latest development is likely to curtail progress made.
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