“Organised battles” suggest Lusaka ceasefire coming apart

Regional analysts told IRIN there seemed to be a committed government offensive underway in the northwest, in line with its pledge to “liberate the country by the millennium”, but that its SADC allies were less involved and wanted to distance themselves from any major breach of the peace accord. Much will depend on Monday’s meeting of the Lusaka accord’s Joint Military Commission (JMC) in Zimbabwe, where a show of strong support for the agreement by DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila’s allies “could restrain the government side,” one analyst said. All the indications from Equateur were that “it’s not just skirmishes; it’s more structured than that, it’s organised battles,” the analyst told IRIN. Meanwhile, an official from the UN Observer Mission in the DRC (MONUC) said the Equateur fighting, if true, would constitute a serious blow to the implementation of the Lusaka accord. “If all the reports are correct - and we do not have the witnesses to be sure - but if it’s the case of a major offensive, then the Lusaka agreement is in danger of becoming part of history. It will become some kind of souvenir,” the official told IRIN.