Repeated calls for immediate ceasefire

The civil society group at the inter-Congolese dialogue in Sun City, South Africa, has demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all foreign troops from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In a communique issued on Monday, civil society members urged the UN mission in the DRC (known by its French acronym MONUC) to deploy immediately to all contested points in the country, such as Moliro in the southeast. They also called for the mission's mandate to be changed to peace enforcement. The civil society statement asked the belligerents in the DRC conflict to respect their commitments to the cease-fire, and to show respect to the people of the Congo, to the other dialogue participants and to the facilitator and the international community who had given "a last chance". The demand follows the capture of Moliro - on the southwestern shore of Lake Tanganyika, in Katanga Province - on Saturday by Rwanda-backed rebel group Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) and an accusation by France that Rwandan troops were involved. Both RCD and Rwanda have vehemently denied the accusation. The DRC government delegation to the dialogue in Sun City has suspended its participation since 14 March, in protest at what it said was the violation in Moliro of the Lusaka cease-fire accord, signed in 1999. On Monday, both France and the US called on all armed forces in the DRC to stop fighting, echoing "grave" concerns expressed on Saturday by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan about the recent fighting. A draft of a UN Security Council resolution, being circulated by France, stresses that no party to a 1999 ceasefire aimed at ending Congo's civil war should be allowed to make military gains while a peace process, being monitored by UN observers, was under way, the Associated Press agency (AP) reported on Tuesday. The draft resolution, if passed, would call on the parties to the ceasefire "to refrain from any military actions or other provocation" while the ICD is taking place, and urge the DRC government delegation to return to the talks. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on Monday that Washington was calling on all the armed forces in DRC to cease military actions and uphold the cease-fire agreement. Kofi Annan's Special Representative for the DRC, Amos Ngongi, has announced that the summit of Heads of State signatories to the Lusaka Accord is scheduled for 22 March in Lusaka, Zambia. A further meeting of the political committee representing the six countries and two rebel movements, RCD and Mouvement pour la liberation du Congo (MLC), was also scheduled for 20 March in Lusaka. Both meetings would discuss the situation in Moliro and ways to find a solution to the current deadlock in the ICD, he said. Ngongi said the UN was considering the deployment of MONUC troops in Moliro, but that it could only happen if an agreement were reached between rebels and the government. "Our observers are unarmed and we need security guarantees from all sides," AP quoted him saying. "We need to get a common position from all the sides," he added. Four members of MONUC are currently in Moliro, having obtained clearance from the RCD to enter the town a second time. The MONUC observers would stay there "until further notice", the UN announced on Tuesday.