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Congo Summit Talks Commence Saturday
January 13, 1999
LUSAKA, Zambia (PANA)- The long-awaited regional summit to resolve the Democratic Republic of Congo's conflict will be held in Lusaka Saturday, the Zambian foreign ministry confirmed Wednesday.
A statement from the ministry said that President Frederick Chiluba, who is chief mediator in the conflict, would host at least 15 leaders and other senior OAU and UN officials.
Heads of state expected to attend include those from Angola, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Chad, Gabon and Kenya, Libya and Mozambique. Others are the Namibian, Tanzanian, Rwandese, South African, Ugandan and Zimbabwean leaders, including Congolese President Laurent Kabila.
The one-day summit will be preceded Thursday and Friday by a meeting of foreign and defence ministers of the participating countries, according to the statement.
Chiluba's special assistant for press, Richard Sakala, told reporters that the preliminary talks started Wednesday. He said delegations from almost all the countries involved had arrived and were meeting in closed sessions. He noted that the summit would only be held on the scheduled date if the foreign and defence ministers meeting ended on time.
"We don't exactly know how long the ministers meeting will take since they have a lot of issues to settle. Depending on when they finish, that is when the summit will be held," Sakala said.
Zambian officials could not immediately confirm the participation of the Congolese Rally for Democracy rebels, who have fought Kabila's government since early August.
Chiluba recently indicated that it was necessary the Congolese government and the rebels to meet face to face for the successful implementation of a ceasefire expected to be endorsed at the forthcoming summit.
Zambia's foreign minister, Keli Walubita, said Wednesday that the Congolese problem could only be resolved if the Congolese themselves took centre-stage in the current peace initiatives.
Kabila has also been reported to have shifted his stance, saying that he was ready to meet the rebels at home. His refusal to negotiate a peace deal with the rebels has been cited as one of the contributory factors to the failure of past efforts to secure peace for his country.
He had insisted that he could only talk to Uganda and Rwanda, whom he has accused of invading his country by siding with the rebels.
Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe sent troops to Kinshasa to help prop up Kabila when the rebels and their backers were about to advance on Kinshasa early in the uprising.
Sources close to the forthcoming leaders talks indicated Wednesday that the summit would, among other things, recommend the withdrawal of all foreign troops to be replaced by a neutral multinational force to monitor the ceasefire.
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