Kabila, Kagame hold 'cordial' talks in Malawi

Presidents Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Paul Kagame of Rwanda ended talks on Thursday aimed at advancing the peace process in the Great Lakes region, news agencies reported.

Malawian President Bakili Muluzi initiated the talks in Blantyre in his capacity as the current chairman of the 14-member Southern African Development Community. "The talks were cordial. The mood was all right, we joked and laughed," he was quoted by AP as having said. He told reporters that "there have been some agreements" at the talks, although he declined to say what was decided. There will no communique issued, he said, but a ministerial committee will be set up to follow up certain issues discussed.

In a BBC broadcast, Kagame said Rwanda would withdraw its forces from the DRC only if the Hutu Interahamwe militia in eastern DRC border areas were disarmed and demobilised. "These things are interlinked in ensuring that there is no security threat for us after the withdrawal," he said.

The Interahamwe are Rwandan rebels who, along with many Rwandan former government troops (ex-FAR), are accused of the 1994 genocide of an estimated 800,000 Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus in Rwanda. The Interahamwe and ex-FAR fled over the border into what was then Zaire as Tutsi forces captured Kigali and ended the slaughter. Kinshasa announced on 12 September that 3,000 Hutu extremists had been disarmed, but the Kigali government remained skeptical of the assertion, claiming many thousands of rebels remain. Their disarmament is a key provision of the Lusaka peace agreement.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, whose country is also involved in the war, is expected in Malawi on Friday to be briefed by Muluzi on the Kabila-Kagame talks. Museveni, who supports a rival rebel group in DRC, met Kagame last week in Rwanda's capital, Kigali.

Kagame arrived in Dar es Salaam on Friday for talks with Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa on the security situation in the Great Lakes, AFP reported. Tanzanian State House Press Secretary Maura Mwingira told AFP that discussion would focus on the efforts to restore peace to Burundi and the DRC. About 2,000 UN troops are already in the DRC to monitor the cease-fire and withdrawal of foreign soldiers from the frontline. The next phase of the UN operation involves the deployment of more troops to begin a programme of voluntary disarmament.

However, the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie (RCD-Goma) armed opposition movement has warned that they will use force to recapture the eastern Congolese town of Fizi, seized by Rwandan Hutu rebels on 7 September.

And Congolese Mayi-Mayi militias have warned that they will undermine the peace process if they are not allowed to participate in the inter-Congolese dialogue, scheduled to begin on 15 October in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.