Kinshasa close to abandoning Lusaka agreement

The government of President Laurent-Desire Kabila appears ready to abandon the Lusaka peace accord, diplomatic sources said this week. The sources said he believed it no longer had validity and that the Kampala disengagement plan could not deliver an end to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They said Kinshasa had never considered the Lusaka agreement a good deal - especially in light of the potential threat a meaningful inter-Congolese dialogue would pose to Kabila’s position and power.

The Lusaka process had, however, slowed the progress of the Congolese rebel groups and their allies, and allowed Kabila time to reorganise his army, they said. Neither have the Congolese authorities been pleased by UN condemnation of their continuing offensive in northwest Equateur province, which they consider justified as a means of retaking areas captured by the rebel Mouvement de liberation du congo (MLC) after the signing of the Lusaka ceasefire agreement in July 1999. Kabila’s government has also expressed anger at what it perceives as UN weakness in not bringing more pressure to bear on Rwanda and Uganda to withdraw from the DRC, as demanded by UN Security Council resolution 1304 of 16 June.