Harare meeting calls for rapid UN deployment

Defence chiefs of the combatants in the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) met in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, on Tuesday, where they were expected to sign a deal to pull troops back at least 15 km from the front lines identified in the Kampala disengagement plan. Opening the meeting, Zimbabwe Foreign Minister Stan Mudenge said he hoped the defence representatives of the warring parties would focus their “attention and energies on elaborating and agreeing on the calendar” for implementing the pull-back. “Your meeting here represents further evidence of the consensus among all of us that the guns must be silenced,” he said. “We expect that the United Nations, through MONUC (the UN Observer Mission in the DRC), will assume the responsibilities of supervising and verifying the disengagement and redeployment process without further foot-dragging.” The political committee, charged with overseeing the implementation of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement on the DRC, agreed last week on the first stage of a plan to pull troops back to allow the deployment of UN observers who would monitor the ceasefire. However, defence delegations from the DRCD, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and South Africa meeting after the Maputo summit on the DRC conflict have already been thwarted by the refusal of the DRC to address any issue other than the withdrawal of Uganda and Rwanda from the DRC, diplomatic sources told IRIN. In addition, given the general stalling tactics of the DRC government since MONUC first deployed in the country, the UN would need to have certain requirements very clearly met and written guarantess on certain issues before the Security Council would agree to deploy peacekeeping troops, they added.