Silwamba speaks of “a vacuum in the peace process”

Zambian Minister for Foreign Affairs Eric Silwamba, who was hosting the JMC meeting, said there had been difficulties in implementing the Lusaka agreement because of the failure of most countries to honour their pledges to the JMC, which was relying on “little money” from the OAU. This had led to the JMC being unable to deploy in regional sites in the DRC and caused “a vacuum in the peace process” which factions had a propensity to fill with war, the ‘Post’ reported. He called on those countries that had not honoured their pledges to the JMC to do so quickly, so it could establish the regional JMC missions envisaged and “ensure effective monitoring of all the ceasefire violations,” news organisations reported. Silwamba named South Africa, Zimbabwe and the EU as some of those who had not fulfilled their pledges, they added. The ceasefire violations threatened to disrupt implementation of a disengagement plan which the JMC intended to embark upon, the ‘Post’ quoted Kazembe as saying. In the past month, the JMC has concentrated on developing sub-plans for military disengagement in the DRC, he said. All the necessary information had been obtained and the JMC would be ready to submit the final text to the Political Committee for adoption in the next two days, the Chinese news agency quoted him as saying. The Political Committee overseeing the Lusaka process, comprising representatives of the DRC combatants, is scheduled to meet in Lusaka on Friday. “There are a lot of things that we need to address before the deployment of UN troops in Congo. We are here to discuss a new timetable for the deployment, after getting the actual information on the ground,” Silwamba said.