Zambia duped by DRC military

In a report prior to the second Maputo summit on the DRC on 27 November, South African President Thabo Mbeki noted complaints by President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia over the deployment by the DRC government of five military assault boats on Lake Tanganyika, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council before commencing its deliberations on the DRC on Friday. Chiluba informed South Africa that these boats had been brought in through Zambia under the pretext that they were fishing boats, but had then been used to transport heavily armed members of the Burundian rebel Forces pour la defense de la democratie (FDD) and Rwandan Interahamwe militia and ex-FAR (ex-Rwandan army) members into Tanzania, Annan reported. This had raised fears that the Burundi peace process could be seriously jeopardised, he added. Zambia, a neutral country in the DRC conflict, has been keenly involved in the search for peace, hosting the negotiations that gave rise to the Lusaka agreement, as well the Joint Military Commission (JMC) and frequent meetings of the political committee overseeing the peace process.

Annan also announced that the UN Mission in the DRC (MONUC) intended to dispatch a team of military observers to Kalemie, on Lake Tanganyika, to investigate reports by the RCD - subsequently confirmed independently by the ICRC - that the town was bombed in early December.