May 16, 2001
A regional military commission overseeing a peace agreement in the Democratic Republic of Congo met in Lusaka on Wednesday to agree plans to disarm and demobilize a range of militias operating there. The Joint Military Commission (JMC), comprising military officials from countries and rebel groups involved in the 30-month civil war, was also discussing how to resettle and reintegrate the demobilized militias into society.
The two-day Lusaka meeting began as a large U.N. Security Council mission arrived in South Africa at the start of a 10-nation African tour in an effort to end the many-sided war in Congo. The team, led by French ambassador to the United Nations Jean-David Levitte, is carrying a tough message for all foreign troops to leave the former Zaire.
JMC Chairman Brigadier-General Njuki Mwaniki, a Kenyan infantry commander, said the militia groups in the Congo, former Congo soldiers and ex-Rwandan soldiers posed the biggest danger to the peace process there. The groups include the ethnic Hutu Interahamwe, blamed for the killing of some 800,000 minority Tutsi and allied moderate Hutus in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide, as well as bands of Ugandan, Rwandan and Burundi rebel fighters. "To disarm and demobilize these men, find new settlements and teach them new tools of trade not related to war will take the concerted effort of the region and international agencies," Mwaniki told Reuters. "We have worked out an elaborate logistics plan for this, for review by ministers next week." "Some of the countries involved in the war are there because of these armed groups. It is important that we move and deal with the problems they pose as quickly as possible," he added.
VIOLATED ACCORD GAINS MOMENTUM
A much-violated 1999 Congo peace accord appears to have gained momentum following the assassination of Congo President Laurent Kabila in January. His son, Joseph, is now president. Since then, combatants have pulled back their forces from frontlines. The U.N. has deployed military observers to monitor the withdrawal and some 1,300 troops to guard them and U.N. installations.
Other troops are expected to arrive shortly until the force reaches about 3,500, although it can go as high as 5,500 military personnel. Zambian Presidential and Legal Affairs Minister Eric Silwamba said on Wednesday the rebel Front for the Liberation of the Congo (FLC/MLC) of Jean-Pierre Bemba was the only group not to disengage from the frontlines and allow a quick U.N. deployment in Equateur province.
Senior Bemba aide Valentine Senga said Bemba was still concerned about security of civilians but was committed to pulling his troops back and speeding the peace process. Mwaniki said the Commission was also reviewing draft plans for the withdrawal of foreign troops from the Congo, but had not received precise information on military strengths, equipment, assembly areas, withdrawal routes and exit points of the foreign armies involved in the war.
He said he expected approval of plans for the re-location of the JMC headquarters to Kinshasa from Lusaka, with Commission members who felt unsafe in the Congo capital, such as rebel groups, temporarily residing in Brazzaville.
