August 2, 1999
Usaka, Zambia -- The leader of a Congolese rebel group signed a fragile cease-fire accord here Sunday, inching forward the final settlement of Congo's year-old civil war.
Jean-Pierre Bemba, the leader of the Movement for the Liberation of Congo, signed the pact at a ceremony witnessed by President Frederick Chiluba of Zambia and President Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania.
President Laurent Kabila of Congo and the representatives of five nations involved in the conflict signed the accord on July 10, but the two main rebel groups did not sign because of a leadership dispute in the second rebel group, the Congolese Rally for Democracy.
Bemba, who took some diplomats by surprise with his arrival in Lusaka, pledged "to fight for the establishment of real democracy" in Congo. He said he had decided to sign the accord to put his country on a course toward peace, and said he would try to persuade the other rebel group to sign as well.
The dispute within the Congolese Rally for Democracy centers on Ernest Wamba dia Wamba, an ousted leader who had insisted that he be the one to sign the document on July 10. The current leadership, headed by í‰mile Ilunga, refused to sign if Wamba signed.
The rebels have been backed by Uganda and Rwanda, both of which border on Congo. Rwanda has charged that Kabila failed to prevent cross-border raids by Hutu militia who had been involved in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
The militia helped slaughter 500,000 Rwandan Tutsi and moderate Hutu in the genocide, Rwanda has said.
Kabila, who got backing from Namibia, Zimbabwe and Angola, charged that Uganda and Rwanda were trying to enhance their access to mineral deposits in Congo.
Bemba said he hoped that a 90-day national political dialogue foreseen by the peace accord would give Kabila "a chance to move and leave his presidential seat peacefully."
