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Wolpe Confident On DRC Peace Accord
February 8, 1999
By Christof Maletsky
Windhoek - United States peace negotiator, Dr Howard Wolpe, said in Windhoek on Friday that both sides in the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo had agreed that the war could not be won but could not say how long it would continue.
Wolpe, US Presidential Special Envoy to the Great Lakes region, said he had held consultations with embattled DRC President Laurent Kabila, the rebels, and other key players in the six-month old war and was hopeful that a peaceful solution would be reached in the not-too-distant future.
Speaking after a one-and-half-hour meeting with President Sam Nujoma, Wolpe said he hoped the Lusaka peace initiative would be implemented soon because there was a political will to end the conflict although many issues of substance still had to be finalised. The US envoy felt a lot of distrust and suspicion remained among the warring parties though they had opened up lately.
The most encouraging development so far, he said, had been that none of the countries involved in the war believed that a military solution was feasible. "I have not talked to anyone who does not say - and I think with conviction - that there is no military solution.
Everyone understands that there must be a political settlement to this conflict. Everyone is also committed to the view that it's important to end the fighting so that there can be enough space to commit to that kind of political negotiation." Wolpe, who is responsible for policy development and much of the face-to-face diplomacy for Africa's Great Lakes region, said the rebels had reiterated their earlier stance that direct talks with Kabila would be the best solution.
"What was stated publicly was also communicated privately," he added. Wolpe has been in Luanda, Kampala, Harare and Nairobi over the past two weeks and is scheduled to spend another fortnight in Kigali, Lusaka, Pretoria and Kinshasa to try to promote peace talks between Kabila and his backers Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Chad and the rebels and their allies, Rwanda and Uganda.
Wolpe praised Namibia for organising the recent Windhoek summit at which countries involved in both sides of the conflict signed a ceasefire. He added that Friday's meeting with Nujoma had been excellent.
Earlier Wolpe spent an hour behind closed doors with Foreign Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab.
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