Kabila still vague on key issues - EIU

President Joseph Kabila’s message that he wants peace, withdrawal of Ugandan and Rwandan forces, deployment of UN observers, a conference on regional peace and talks with his opposition is music to the ears of diplomats in western capitals “but when he speaks of the fundamental issues of the war he is still vague,” the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) reported in its latest country briefing on Tuesday. Though the Lusaka peace agreement laid down that all “negative forces” [Interahamwe, ex-FAR, Burundi Hutu militias and Congolese Mayi-Mayi fighters] should be disarmed, Kabila this week in London cast doubt on the existence of the Interahamwe or ex-Forces armees rwandaises in the Congo, the EIU stated. Kabila had also expressed sympathy with the Hutu rebels from Burundi and suggested that the Mayi-Mayi were not “negative forces” since the Congolese had every right to arm themselves against Rwandan and Ugandan invaders, it said. “It became clear that he [Kabila] had no interest in seeing any of these groups disarmed,” the report added. Kabila’s accession to the DRC presidency appeared to offer renewed hope for implementation of Lusaka but he still “lacks legitimacy and power”, and “nobody is sure who in the background might be pulling the strings,” according to the EIU. Like the late DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila, Joseph Kabila depended on the armies of Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia, it said. However, the younger Kabila lacked the authority and political skill of his father to keep this diversity together, and was “hostage to ethnic groups and rival factions - fearful of alienating any of them,” the EIU stated. In a visit to the UK this week, Joseph Kabila appeared to reject the call - made both in the Lusaka agreement and by the UN Security Council - for the withdrawal of all foreign forces, including those from Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia invited in by the DRC government. Kabila’s commitments to promote an internal political dialogue, to cooperate with the UN and allow for human rights investigations had gained him credit “but the issues at the heart of the war must still be tackled,” the report added.