Peace summit opens

A summit aimed at finding a lasting solution to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) opened in the Zambian capital Lusaka on Monday, with rebel groups claiming that peace depends on President Laurent-Desire Kabila. “I am optimistic that this round of talks is likely to be successful only if Kabila shows total commitment to bringing the war to an end instead of playing games like he has been doing in the past,” Bizima Karaha, a key member of the Rwandan-backed rebel Rassemblement congolaise pour la democratie (RCD) told IRIN before the meeting’s closed door session. “The only problem is Kabila is standing in the way of peace by refusing to live up to some things he had earlier agreed upon. Once he shows cooporation and his friend (Zimbabwe President Robert) Mugabe stops giving him support, things will start looking up because Kabila is nothing on his own,” Karaha added. Patrick Mazhimhaka, the presidential affairs minister in the office of Rwandan President Paul Kagame said: “If he were in our camp, Kabila would not have been allowed to keep flouting the ceasefire agreement so flagrantly. I in fact feel frustrated and insulted that we have to keep coming back to discuss the same thing when the (Southern African Development Community) SADC leadership should have compelled Kabila to respect the agreement.” Representatives of the Congolese government declined to comment on the meeting. The Rwandan minister also alleged that Kabila is holding SADC leaders to ransom over his opposition to inter-Congolese dialogue facilitator, former Botswana president Sir Ketumile Masire. “How can he doubt Sir Ketumile’s ability to facilitate the talks when he has not been given a chance to prove himself,” Mazhimhaka told IRIN. “After all, he is the one that came up with his name.” The summit meeting, described as make-or-break, is to discuss the key issues holding up implementation of a ceasefire agreement, including the controversy over the deployment of UN peacekeepers. Kamel Morjane, Special Representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi Anan, told the meeting: “We want firm assurances to be given, especially on total freedom of movement of the (UN) troops to be deployed. On behalf of the Secretary-General, I would like the parties to the conflict to commit themselves to giving us freedom to air space, land and rivers and we hope this summit shall lead to this.” The first phase of the United Nation’s planned deployment of 500 military observers and 5,000 peacekeepers has stalled over Kabila’s refusal to allow UN troops to deploy in Kinshasa and Mbandaka, west of the capital. Opening the summit, Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, who is spearheading the peace process, said it was regrettable that so many violations have occurred, retarding a settlement. “We are gathered here at the highest level so that we can find a solution to the conflict as soon as possible. There have been delays in the inter-Congolese meeting because of facilitation, there has also been a problem in the deployment of the UN forces due to the problems we already know about and we should work around.” The meeting is being attended by the heads of state of the DRC, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe, and includes leaders of the rebel groups supported by Kigali and Kampala. Angola and Botswana have sent representatives.