Kinshasa bids farewell to allied forces

The government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) officially bade farewell on Wednesday to the armed forces of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe with a parade in their honour organised in the capital, Kinshasa. DRC President Joseph Kabila attended the ceremony, during which DRC Minister-Delegate for Defence Awan Irung thanked the allied forces for halting an armed offensive on Kinshasa launched in August 1998 by rebel groups backed by neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda. The four-year war had resulted in at least three million excess deaths directly attributable to the Rwandan and Ugandan occupation since the outbreak of war up to September 2002 in the five eastern provinces of the DRC, a United Nations panel of experts reported last week. According to Irung, not a single Angolan, Namibian or Zimbabwean soldier would be found on DRC territory by Thursday. "Today the DRC stands on the threshold of peace thanks to the sweat and blood of many of those represented here from the allied forces of SADC [Southern African Development Community]," Maj-Gen Phillip Sibanda, commander-in-chief of the allied forces, said. The allied forces have recently accelerated the repatriation of their troops. Military sources told IRIN that Zimbabwe had maintained about 300 troops in the DRC for the final parade, but that at one point Zimbabwean forces in the DRC reached some 14,000. As for Angola, only a "few hundred" of its once 8,000-strong force stilled remained in the DRC. Angolan troops had been stationed primarily at the Kitona military airport in Bas-Congo Province, where rebel forces landed in 1998 in an effort to capture Kinshasa. Namibia had already fully withdrawn its troops, but sent a hundred back for the parade. Irung said future cooperation among the allied forces could take the form of a regional intervention force. "We will continue various training programmes that are already under way," he told IRIN. The UN Mission in DRC, known as MONUC, said it was awaiting the arrival of the remaining Angolan and Zimbabwean forces in Luanda and Harare in order to certify the final withdrawal. The Third Party Verification Mechanism, established under the 30 July Pretoria accord between Rwanda and the DRC, and comprising MONUC and the South African government, has certified the withdrawal of Rwandan forces. Uganda, meanwhile, maintains a reinforced battalion in the northeastern Ituri District of DRC, and a contingent of forces to patrol the Rwenzori Mountains.