Support for Lusaka process crucial - US peace institute

The international community must provide robust support for implementation of the Lusaka agreement, which provides a "last exit on the region's highway to hell", a new report from the United States Institute of Peace said. The report said the ceasefire document - the result of an African-led peace process - addressed most of the fundamental issues fuelling the conflict, including the presence of ex-FAR/Interahamwe and other DRC-based armed groups destabilising neighbouring countries. The agreement "legitimises and internationalises the pursuit of these genocidaires and other nonstate actors" that are the primary source of instability in central Africa, the report said. It is the estimated 10,000-30,000 ex-FAR/Interahamwe, rearmed by the Congolese and Zimbabwean governments, that have benefited the most from the conflict, it added. Report authors John Prendergast and David Smock said that lending full support to the accord provides the international community with "a major opportunity for a belated assumption of its responsibilities" to help counter the continuing threat of genocide and regional instability. Donors must be prepared to allocate or shift resources to support the agreement, a package of transparent pressures and incentives should be constructed multilaterally, funds should be provided for related humanitarian, development and reintegration initiatives, and consideration should be given to creating the International Coalition Against Genocide (ICAG) envisioned by the 1998 Entebbe Summit. International support was also needed for the operation of the Joint Military Commission (JMC), responsible under the Lusaka accord for identifying and disarming the militias. As that disarmament was crucial for peace consolidation, the United States should sponsor the eventual UN Security Council resolution that would give the JMC the appropriate enforcement authority, the report concluded.