Text:
http://www.africanews.org/central/congo-kinshasa/stories/19990213_feat1.html
Clinton Envoy Holds Meeting
February 13, 1999
Kampala - United States President Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Great Lakes region, Ambassador Howard Wolpe, met President Yoweri Museveni Thursday night at his Rwakitura home. Clinton sent Wolpe on a five-week African tour to explore ways of ending the six-month-old crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
He has travelled from Angola to Kenya and Uganda to meet all the parties involved in the Congo. President Museveni's Press Secretary, Hope Kivengere, yesterday in a brief statement said, "The President and the envoy discussed the progress being made in peace initiatives in the region and especially in the DRC."
"The meeting took place at the President's home at Rwakitura in Mbarara district last night," Kivengere's statement said.
Wolpe told journalists while in Angola Tuesday, "I think there is the political will to stop the fighting and to permit political negotiations to begin. I think all parties realise that there is no military solution to this conflict." He also said he saw a two-track process: regional talks to address the various countries' security and concerns and political talks among the Congolese themselves.
"I have seen a growing pragmatism there is a lower level of rhetoric," Wolpe said. He said various parties were now working hard to put together a cease-fire and a troop standstill.
Wolpe says he wants the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Congo to prevent destabilising the entire region. President Laurent Kabila is fighting rebels in the east of his country in a conflict that has sucked in at least six other African nations.
Kabila is backed by troops from Zimbabwe, Angola, Namibia and Chad, while the rebels are supported by Rwanda and Uganda. Uganda and Rwanda say they are backing the rebels because Kabila has been supporting insurgents against them.
fighting against them. Angola is trying to secure its borders with the Congo to prevent supplies being ferried to UNITA rebels in its own civil war.
Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe claims to be protecting business interests in the Congo, while Namibia is closely allied with Angola. Chad's involvement is unexplained.
A string of peace summits have yet to produce a concrete cease-fire, although Zambian President Frederick Chiluba remains confident a deal can be brokered. However, mediators' have failed to get the rebels and Kabila in the same room.