Kinshasa allies announce final pull-out of forces

Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, which have supported the Kinshasa government during the past four years of war against rebel forces backed by neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda, said on Thursday the final withdrawal of their armed forces from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) would take place by 31 October. The announcement came at the end of a one-day summit hosted by DRC President Joseph Kabila and attended by Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Namibian President Sam Nujoma, and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. In a joint statement, the four allied nations also called for the strengthening of the mandate of the United Nations Mission in the DRC, known as MONUC, and the verification of the withdrawal of Rwandan armed forces. They also voiced their support for the holding of an international conference on peace and development in the Great Lakes region of Africa. The allied leaders urged Kabila to persevere in his efforts to reach national reconciliation through the resumption of negotiations leading to the formation of an all-inclusive, power-sharing transitional government and the eventual holding of national democratic elections. "We are convinced that President Kabila will continue to make every effort to move the inter-Congolese dialogue forward towards achieving a durable peace, which is key to stability," dos Santos said at the end of the summit. The inter-Congolese dialogue, which ended in April 2002 in Sun City, South Africa, with agreement reached among a majority of participants, was due to resume on Friday in Pretoria, South Africa. Representatives were expected from all Congolese parties to the conflict: the Kinshasa government, the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie, the Ugandan-backed Mouvement de liberation du Congo, unarmed political opposition groups and civil society organisations. Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe sent an estimated 26,000 troops into the DRC in 1998 to counter an offensive launched on Kinshasa by rebel forces backed by Rwanda and Uganda. On 30 July, the governments of the DRC and Rwanda reached a peace agreement in Pretoria to restore the sovereignty of the DRC and the security of Rwanda; DRC and Uganda likewise reached a similar accord in the Angolan capital, Luanda, on 6 September. Rwanda has since announced the withdrawal of all its forces from the DRC, and this was verified by the Third Party Verification Mechanism set up by MONUC and South Africa, signatories to the Pretoria accord. [see http://www.dfa.gov.za/new/index.html] Uganda, which has withdrawn most of its forces, still has a limited military presence in northeastern DRC at the request of the UN, in an effort to maintain stability in a region torn by ethnic conflict and rebel faction rivalries fuelled by economic interests. Angola and Zimbabwe are in the process of withdrawing their remaining forces in the DRC, while Namibia has already completed its pullout. The four leaders also pledged to improve their economic cooperation, which is based largely on the mining and petroleum sectors.