JMC to tackle Ikela flashpoint

A special committee of the Joint Military Commission (JMC) was due in Kinshasa on Tuesday, logistics permitting, for the first leg of a five-stop mission "looking into practical means for the disengagement of forces" in the DRC, the Zambian chairman of the committee, Brigadier-General Timothy Kazembe told IRIN. The mission would focus particularly on means to tackle the current flashpoint at Ikela airport, Equateur Province - where forces allied to President Laurent-Desire Kabila are trying to force their way through to Zimbabwean troops trapped behind rebel lines by the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD) - during top-level meetings in Kinshasa, Kampala, Kigali, Gbadolite and Goma this week, Kazembe said. The widely reported plan that Kabila-allied forces would withdraw from the recently-captured town of Bokungu in return for the RCD allowing the resupply of soldiers trapped at Ikela was still an option, though with UN or OAU monitoring of the resupply, according to UN sources. The committee would also look at the broader disengagement of opposing forces and the best means to avoid ceasefire violations, Kazembe said.