August 16, 2000
Weary African leaders wound up 18 hours of talks here early today without an agreement on how to revive the crumbling Congo peace accord, officials said.
President Laurent Kabila of Congo and his military allies, President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and President Sam Nujoma of Namibia, left this morning, leaving the chief mediator, President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia, to end the meeting.
Mr. Chiluba said that Mr. Kabila had resisted calls for him to allow the unhindered deployment of United Nations monitors and accept the former president of Botswana, Sir Ketumile Masire, as "facilitator" for an internal political dialogue between the Congolese government and the rebels fighting to oust Mr. Kabila. Mr. Kabila has accused Mr. Masire, who was appointed by the continent-wide Organization of African Unity, of favoring the rebels.
The fighting in Congo broke out in August 1998, with rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda accusing Mr. Kabila of corruption and of harboring Hutu militiamen who fled Rwanda after committing genocide there in 1994. Last year, Mr. Kabila and his allies -- Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia -- signed a cease-fire agreement last year with Rwanda, Uganda and the rebels. But despite that the fighting has continued.
The United Nations has proposed deploying a monitoring force of 5,537 observers and troops to oversee the peace accord. The Security Council mandate for the force is up for renewal at the end of this month and will probably be suspended if Mr. Kabila does not yield, leading to fears of a sharp increase in fighting.
Mr. Kabila, who angered even his close allies by staying away from a regional economic summit meeting last week, was the last of 10 African presidents to arrive at a convention center in Lusaka on Monday for the biggest gathering of high-level officials on the Congo conflict.
South Africa's president, Thabo Mbeki, and other leaders of countries not directly involved in the fighting went to their hotels after seven hours of closed-door talks on Monday. But the warring parties and Mr. Chiluba continued meeting late into the night to discuss ways to enforce a cease-fire, withdraw forces and foster political dialogue. Confidence that a deal would be reached was never high among residents listening for radio news in Kinshasa, 620 miles away from the nearest battles in Congo.
Disillusion with Mr. Kabila's government, which came to power three years ago after ending the decades-long dictatorial rule by Mobutu Sese Seko, has become increasingly profound. Politicians are regularly arrested, newspapers are closed and police harassment is again the norm. "This war makes us live in the Congo as if we were foreigners in our country," said Dan Kilosho, a construction worker. "Our rights are just not respected."
