Two summits planned

Two summits on the Congo peace process are being planned in Algeria and Zambia within the next two weeks. According to a press statement from the Algerian presidency, which currently chairs the OAU, one summit will be held on 30 April and will be attended by Presidents Laurent-Desire Kabila of the DRC, Frederick Chiluba of Zambia, Joachim Chissano of Mozambique,
Oumar Alpha Konare of Mali, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa and Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria. Former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire, the facilitator of the inter-Congolese dialogue, is also invited to the summit. "It is not a formal OAU summit, it has been called by the current chairman of the OAU for consultations with a number of presidents on the Congo peace process, " Desmond Orjiako, OAU Chief of Information, told
IRIN.

In a related development, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda told Reuters news agency over the weekend that regional heads of states agreed to hold a summit in Lusaka "within two weeks" after last week's summit in Zimbabwe.

Regional analysts say the Algeria summit is not likely to result in a breakthrough given the fact that "key belligerents like Zimbabwe, Angola, Uganda and Rwanda have not been invited". The Congolese rebels meanwhile also said they had not been invited to the summits. "We learnt about the Algeria summit in the media," Joseph Mudumbi acting foreign affairs chief of the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) told IRIN on Wednesday. "We maintain that organisers of such meetings should always try and invite all the signatories to the Lusaka agreement, otherwise the Algeria meeting will just be a talk show."