May 18, 2001
President Joseph Kabila started talks with a U.N. Security Council team on Friday on how to end Congo's war, and his aides said peace could only come if Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi first withdrew their forces from his country. Kabila met a team behind closed doors at his official residence in Kinshasa to discuss a U.N. plan for the withdrawal of foreign forces from the Democratic Republic of Congo, disarmament of militia and rebels and internal dialogue to chart the future of the vast central African country.
``Its impossible for us to implement a peace plan while our country remains under foreign occupation,'' Congolese armed forces chief General Francois Olenga told Reuters. ``We remain committed to achieving this and we would like to do this as quickly as possible but the process must start with the withdrawal of the invading forces.'' The U.N. plan calls for a timetable for a withdrawal of foreign troops. But other countries embroiled in the conflict have set down conditions -- such as Rwanda's demand for guarantees that the territory it vacates will not be used by Congolese-based Hutu rebels to mount attacks against it.
The U.N. team, consisting of 12 of the 15-member Security Council, is led by the French ambassador to the United Nations, Jean-David Levitte. It received a boost late on Thursday when Kabila announced he would lift restrictions on political opponents imposed by his late father. ``We have a feeling that the mood has changed and we now have a window of opportunity for peace,'' Levitte told reporters.
The team will meet Kabila's ally, Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, in the Angolan capital Luanda on Friday. On Saturday, Levitte's mission will hold talks in Kinshasa with Congo power brokers Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Namibian President Sam Nujoma.
U.N. SAYS KABILA HAS UNLOCKED DOOR TO PEACE
Levitte told journalists that Kabila's lifting of a ban on political activity was another step toward bringing peace to the mineral-rich former Zaire, torn by war since 1998. ``He has unlocked the door and given the peace process momentum,'' Levitte said. The announcement came on the day the former Belgian colony marked the fourth anniversary of the overthrow of dictator Mobutu Sese Seko by Joseph Kabila's father, Laurent Kabila.
Laurent Kabila, who was murdered in January and replaced by his son, first banned party politics and later put so many obstacles in the way of party registration that opponents said it amounted to a ban on political activity. The younger Kabila quickly adopted a more conciliatory stance than that of his father, leading to agreement in February between all the warring parties in the Congo that allowed the deployment of U.N. troops to monitor a cease-fire.
Officials accompanying the U.N. mission said Levitte would push for firm commitments from all sides. ``The team has got to go back to New York and report back on very, very firm timetables of achieving what is being promised,'' an official told Reuters. Hundreds of thousands are thought to have been killed in what has been dubbed ``Africa's World War One'' and up to three million others are estimated to have died of disease and starvation caused by the conflict.
Since Joseph Kabila took power, an often-violated peace accord reached in Lusaka in 1999 has gained momentum. Forces from Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda fighting on the rebels' side have partly pulled back, as have armies from Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe fighting alongside the government.
