Ceasefire implementation bodies formed

Defence and foreign ministers from combatant countries in the DRC conflict on Tuesday established two bodies to implement the Lusaka ceasefire agreement: a ministerial-level committee to act as the supreme advisory body until the UN deployed peacekeepers, and a Joint Military Commission (JMC) to monitor day-to-day adherence to the ceasefire on the ground, news agencies reported. The Lusaka meeting was adjourned later on Tuesday and would reconvene once the OAU had appointed a neutral chairman of the JMC, Zambian Presidential Affairs Minister Eric Silwamba told national radio. In attendance at the Lusaka meeting were DRC, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Rwanda, each of which nominated two representatives to the JMC, Silwamba said. The only parties to the conflict who had not nominated representatives were the Congolese rebels, who were invited to take part but failed to attend, he added. The rebels remain divided as to who should sign the agreement. Emile Ilunga's mainstream Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) says it will not sign if the leader of the breakaway faction, Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, is allowed to do so. Meanwhile, Jean-Pierre Bemba's Mouvement de liberation congolais (MLC) has said it will not sign the agreement if Wamba is precluded from doing so.