Global Policy Forum

All but lost in the din of international debate over Iraq, one of the world's most devastating and destabilizing conflicts is nearing a moment of decision - one in which even a small share of U.S. and United Nations attention could be decisive. Since the mid-1990s, more than 2 million people have perished in the Democratic Republic of Congo, victims of a multi-sided civil war as well as of collateral disease and famine in a nation the size of Western Europe. Up to eight neighboring African states have been sucked into the fighting, and African leaders, foremost among them South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, have had to accept the fact that dreams of modernizing the continent will go nowhere until Congo is stabilized. Mbeki has now convened a crucial round of peace talks in Pretoria intended to broker a comprehensive political settlement between Congo's government and its principal domestic adversaries. He could use some help.

In some ways the prospects for a Congo settlement are looking brighter than ever. In the past few months almost all of the foreign troops in the country have been induced to pull out, most notably those of Rwanda, a small but powerful neighbor, which completed the withdrawal of its 23,000 soldiers two weeks ago. The problem is that Congo's weak government, headquartered in Kinshasa, lacks the strength to impose its authority on the eastern territories, a continent away, that Rwanda recently vacated. As a result there has been an explosion of fighting among rival local militias, prompting threats from Rwanda's martial leader, Paul Kagame, to send his army back.

. But then, according to a report by a UN panel this week, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe have not really left Congo. Having used their troops to pillage the countryside and steal its diamonds, lumber, cobalt and copper, all three countries have left behind networks to continue the plunder. The official report said the networks include some members of Congo's government, as well as senior officials in all three neighbors, and "will not relinquish voluntarily" the control they have built up.

The aim of the Pretoria talks is a political deal among the Kinshasa government of Joseph Kabila, which is supported by Zimbabwe, and the two largest domestic rebel groups, one of which is backed by Rwanda and the other by Uganda. The proposed accord would create an interim government including representatives of all three parties, with the idea that a general election would be held within two years. Mbeki has offered to dispatch 1,500 South African troops to help oversee a cease-fire along with the 3,000 UN observers already in the country.

. This is a scheme that might just work - but only if countries beyond South Africa pitch in. The United Nations has an envoy who has been helping to broker the peace talks. But the Security Council needs to look hard for the means to send additional peacekeepers to eastern Congo, as both the Kabila government and Rwanda are requesting, or at least to help finance a South African mission. It is even more important that outside powers, beginning with the United States, lean on Congo's neighbors to give up their cannibalization of the country and allow the state's reconstitution.

Stabilizing the center of Africa may not be at the top of the Bush administration's crowded agenda these days, but a pledge of some diplomatic and economic capital to that cause in the coming weeks would be a wise investment.

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