Zimbabwe says Lusaka a “success”

Zimbabwe has denied media reports that a regional summit last week to salvage the fragile peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was a failure. In controversial comments, presidential spokesman George Charamba told IRIN on Wednesday that the meeting of heads of state “was a success by any standards”. He said that as a follow up, Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday met his Ugandan counterpart in Mozambique to “go over the commitments made” in Lusaka. These, he said, included clarification from President Yoweri Museveni that the 4,000 troops Uganda had withdrawn from the eastern war front would not return, and to “re-establish communications” between Museveni and DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila. He said the 14-15 August summit, which was restricted to the warring parties in an all-night session, discussed the sovereignty of the DRC, the security concerns of neighbouring countries, the issue of an inter-Congolese political dialogue, and the status of the Lusaka peace agreement. Contrary to news reports, the deployment of UN peacekeepers “was not a major issue of discussion”, and “real progress was made in the talks”. Charamba alleged there was “general agreement” at the summit that “the UN is more worried about casualties than carrying forward the peace process”. He added that a UN deployment of 5,500 observers and troops, which Kabila has resisted in government-held territory, “would be cracking the whip on countries mature enough to resolve their own problems”. The spokesman acknowledged that the issue of the position of former Botswana president Ketumile Masire as facilitator for the inter-Congolese dialogue was contentious, and Kabila had made his objections clear. Charamba said there were also divisions over the venue and content of the talks. But he suggested that a solution could be found in a recommendation by Namibian President Sam Nujoma to appoint a deputy to Masire who would have the confidence of the DRC government.