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Ceasefire Agreed After Congo Talks - Bizimungu, Kabila Retract
November 29, 1998
Paris - French President Jacques Chirac said on Saturday the warring parties had
agreed to a ceasefire in the four-month-old war in the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, but some of the key players immediately denied it.
There was confusion as to whether a ceasefire was formally agreed, and when it would come into force, after talks between the parties in the conflict and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Chirac told a news conference at the end of a two-day Franco-African summit of 50 countries that Annan "achieved. . .an agreement on the implementation of a ceasefire".
"There is already a document. The final signing should be completed rapidly, before the Ouagadougou meeting of the Organisation of African Unity on December 16-17," he said. But DRC President Laurent Kabila told reporters: "What accord? I have not signed any accord." Asked about a signing in mid-December, he said "It's possible, but we have to prepare an accord."
"We will find a solution, we will do everything possible. . ..We want peace," he added.
An official source at the summit had said earlier the ceasefire would take effect immediately. Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu, who backs rebels trying to overthrow Kabila, also denied a ceasefire had been agreed, telling reporters it would be discussed at the Ouagadougou meeting.
"I do not think we have advanced. . .It was not useless, it's better than a break-up," he said. Chirac said Annan had also achieved "an agreement on a commitment to end this absurd and so painful war".
After frantic efforts to arrange peace talks, Annan on Saturday morning gathered Kabila and his backer President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe with Bizimungu and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda who support the rebels trying to topple Kabila. The DRC rebels have not been invited to the summit, and Bizimungu said this was the sole remaining obstacle to an end to hostilities.
Annan and Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore, chairman of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), worked feverishly behind the scenes to arrange peace talks. Annan had met Kabila, Museveni and Bizimungu separately on Friday night to try to arrange joint talks.
Chirac, the summit host, was scheduled to meet Museveni, Kabila and Mugabe separately. On Friday, friends and foes of President Laurent Kabila clashed in a stormy session overshadowed by the four-month-old war in his Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The debate over the war became so heated that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak intervened at one point to appeal for calm, delegates said. French President Jacques Chirac, host to the summit of leaders from 50 countries, ended the session with an appeal to the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity to sound out the countries involved on the chance of a ceasefire.
Delegates said Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, a staunch Kabila backer, lashed out at the leaders of Uganda and Rwanda for supporting rebels trying to oust him. Mugabe has sent thousands of troops to the Congo to back Kabila.
Presidents Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda responded calmly, delegates said. Bizimungu said he was ready to meet Kabila and all the parties to the conflict and would meet Mugabe "out of courtesy".
Yerodia Abdoulaye, Kabila's chief of staff, told journalists that a meeting could take place but did not confirm it. "Things are moving towards bringing together people who should live up to their obligations," he said.
"There are no contacts but things could move in this direction." Earlier on Friday, the Paris state prosecutor dismissed a lawsuit for torture against Kabila that could have led to his arrest in an echo of the fate that former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet met in Britain. The Franco-African summit, the largest of its kind now that Paris has also invited English-speaking states to join its traditional francophone allies, gathered the key countries involved in the Congo rebellion for the first time since it broke out.
Chirac gave Kabila a noticeably cool welcome when the Congolese leader arrived for the opening session of the conference in the Louvre museum in central Paris.
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