"I believe everybody is committed to peace" - Kabila

Speaking after a meeting on Thursday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) told reporters: "There are no obstacles at the moment and I believe everybody is committed to peace."

AFP quoted him as saying: "Everybody has really seen that hope lies in peace for the whole region. 2002 should be a year of peace for the region."

Kabila was in the US this week for meetings with US government officials and to participate in the US-Africa Business Summit held in Philadelphia, organised by the Corporate Council for Africa.

"When the DRC finds lasting peace so too can the subregion because of the international dimension of our conflict," BBC quoted Kabila as saying on Thursday.

"We will be able to free up much-needed and scarce resources and allocate them to productive activities and the promotion of economic growth and poverty alleviation," he added.

Efforts to find this lasting peace were put on hold in mid-October when the DRC government delegation to the inter-Congolese dialogue being held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, walked out on the national peace and reconciliation talks.

Having earlier criticised talks facilitator and former Botswanan president Ketumile Masire for having improperly prepared the conference, Kabila was this week more conciliatory.

"I would say that we are all at fault: the rebels, the facilitator and, being objective, maybe as the government we didn't push everybody hard enough to do things," he said in an interview with allAfrica.com on Tuesday. "So the blame should really fall on each and every one. But what's more important is to look to the future and make things much more possible."

Peace talks are due to be restarted in South Africa, where the government has offered to cover a large share of the costs. A date and located have yet to be determined, although sources close to Masire's team have said they would most likely begin early in 2002.

"The very fact that we are talking is a positive step in itself," Kabila told allAfrica.com. "There are always bound to be contradictions and points you won't agree on. It's normal. So, all-in-all, for me [Addis Ababa] was a positive meeting."

Major tasks of the peace talks will include drafting a new constitution setting up a transitional government, ultimately leading to national elections.

"When I talk of elections, it is not just a wish. This is a commitment, a commitment that stems from 1997 when the revolution triumphed," he told allAfrica.com. "We promised free and fair elections two years from 1997. Too bad the war broke out on year later, so we didn't have the time."

In August 1998, an offensive was launched by a coalition of Ugandan, Rwandan and Congolese rebel forces on the government of Kabila's father, Laurent-Desire Kabila. With the intervention of forces from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, the elder Kabila held on to power, but controlled only one-half of Congolese territory. The 1999 Lusaka peace agreement provided a promising framework for peace in the DRC, but efforts to implement it foundered until Joseph Kabila was appointed president in January 2001, following his father's assassination by a presidential guard.

"But there are prerequisites to holding free and fair and truly democratic elections," Kabila said. "First, the country must be united, the administration must be one. There should be transparency in order to allow for each and every political party or candidate to do whatever campaigning they want to do. That's not the case today."

He added: "If and when the country is reunified within one year or 18 months, I believe with the assistance of the whole world, the international community, we will be able to hold elections within that time frame."

When asked if he would be a candidate in such elections, he said, "If I am given the chance to serve my country, like I'm doing right now, I'll do it with all my heart and with a lot of love."

He urged patience and caution from the international community in seeing the peace process to its fruition. "I, myself, am very much confident that we are moving in the right direction," he told allAfrica.com. "People want us to move very fast, too fast. But, this is a situation that has been there for the last 40 - 41 years. You can't solve it in 30 - 40 days. It's a process that we've begun. The most important thing is not to backtrack, not to go back on our words."

Asked what role, if any, the international community could play in putting the DRC back together, he said Congo did not need "millions or billions" of dollars.

"What do we do with the money in a divided country? Instead of promising me money, promise me peace. Make it happen," he said.