Kabila rallies support in Belgium, France and US

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila has ended visits to France and Belgium in an effort to shore up both political and financial support for ongoing peace efforts in his war-torn country. On Monday, Kabila made a brief visit to Paris, where he met with French President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine to discuss the status of the inter-Congolese national peace and reconciliation dialogue. The talks, which began on 15 Oct in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, were suspended a few days after they started when the DRC government delegation left the proceedings, claiming that poor preparation had resulted in an incomplete gathering of stakeholders. "I met with President Chirac to take stock of the situation in the DRC, above all with regard to the subject of the war of aggression. Our exchange of views was quite fruitful," Kabila was quoted by AFP as saying after the meeting. "We are expecting a great deal from the international community for the restoration of peace." Chirac emphasised the need for the withdrawal of "uninvited foreign troops" from Congo, calling it "indispensable and urgent", AP quoted the French president's office as saying. Chirac also said there was need to move to the next step in the UN deployment of its peacekeeping force in the DRC. The UN Security Council endorsed a new phase for the force in October, designed to focus on the complete withdrawal of foreign troops and the disarmaments of combatants. Chirac encouraged Kabila to pursue the inter-Congolese dialogue and urged international financial institutions to release aid that has been promised to the country, AP quoted the Elysee Palace as saying. The European Union (EU) has yet to release an estimated US $108 million earmarked for the DRC, while the World Bank is due to release a $50-million grant to invigorate the shattered Congolese economy, the Belgian daily newspaper Le Soir reported on Tuesday. Chirac was scheduled to discuss the DRC with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan during a visit to New York on Tuesday. On Tuesday, Kabila held lengthy discussions with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and Foreign Minister Louis Michel. Verhofstadt promised that Belgium would continue to put efforts to achieve peace in the DRC at the top of the European agenda because his nation was "fully aware of the severity of the humanitarian and political crisis that is ravaging" the Great Lakes region, Le Soir quoted him as saying. Michel cited as the most serious obstacle to peace the numerous armed forces operating in eastern DRC that are not signatories to the 1999 Lusaka peace agreement. Among these "negative forces" are Rwandan Hutu militias, known as the Interahamwe, and the former Rwandan army, known as the ex-FAR, who fled into the DRC after widespread involvement in the 1994 genocide that left an estimated 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus dead. Michel told a news conference that dialogue facilitator and former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire had "his full confidence" as a competent leader of the peace talks, due to resume early in 2002 in South Africa, at a date and location still to be determined. Verhofstadt announced that an EU delegation consisting of Michel, EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten and EU Foreign Policy High Representative Javier Solana would visit the Great Lakes region from 20 - 26 Nov. For his part, Michel gave assurances that he would give special attention to affairs in the DRC once Belgium concluded its presidency of the EU at the end of December. Last week, Kabila was in the US to meet with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and other US government officials. He also made visits to Boston, Philadelphia and Washington, DC, in an effort to interest investors in his vast central African nation, which is among the richest in the world in terms of natural resources but whose people are among the most impoverished people on Earth. After succeeding his assassinated father Laurent-Desire Kabila as president in January, Joseph Kabila's first trip abroad was to France, Belgium and the US, deemed to be key players in supporting peace efforts in the central African region.