August 24, 2000
The Democratic Republic of the Congo said on Thursday that it would allow U.N. peacekeepers to deploy freely with immediate effect. Authorization came in a letter handed to the United Nations Organization Mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC) by one of President Laurent Kabila's officials.
Leonard Ntuaremba said at a meeting open to the press that the letter confirmed "the will of the government to see the U.N. forces deployed in Democratic Republic of the Congo."
Several dozen U.N. observers have been deployed in rebel areas since late last year in an international bid to end the fighting in the vast central African country.
The U.N. Security Council approved the deployment of 500 military observers and 5,000 support troops but had been unable to deploy them throughout the country, in part because Kabila had refused to allow them to operate in areas under government control.
"Concerning the movement of MONUC personnel, on the instructions of the head of state, Laurent Kabila, as of today, MONUC planes can fly on the basis of notification by MONUC," said Ntuaremba.
Until now, the U.N. has needed prior authorization for all flights, and U.N. planes taking off from rebel areas have been required to land at a "neutral" airport outside Congo before continuing to Kinshasa. That requirement is now waived.
The head of the U.N. mission, Kamel Morjane, said earlier he had been informed of Kabila's decision late on Wednesday -- the same day a minister told diplomats the government was suspending implementation of the 1999 Lusaka peace accord to end the conflict.
"Now we can restart our necessary preparations so that the deployment can take place as soon as possible," Morjane said. He did not give a date for starting the deployment.
CEASEFIRE NOT RESPECTED
Rebels backed by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi have been fighting the government since August 1998 and control large parts of the east and north of the country. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia are backing Kabila. A cease-fire was agreed in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, in July 1999, but it has not been respected by any of the parties.
Morjane said there were no longer any restrictions on the movements of U.N. observers, "whether that is at Mbandaka...or Kananga as in our operational plan, as well as the presence (in Kinshasa) of a Tunisian unit...to support the headquarters of the U.N. observer mission, which the government has authorized to carry arms."
Congo's human rights minister told diplomats at an open meeting on Wednesday that Congo had decided to suspend implementation of the Lusaka accord because circumstances had changed since it was signed in 1999.
Congo now wants to have fresh, direct talks with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. Rwanda rejected that on Thursday, Foreign Minister Andre Bumaya saying the Lusaka accord offered the only way out of the conflict. Morjane said the government decision on the Lusaka agreement would not affect the U.N. deployment. He said that if U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan judged conditions were right, "I think that we can go ahead with the deployment, even if the Lusaka peace process may have some problems in other areas."
In Washington, the State Department said it was seeking a clarification of the Kinshasa government's position, in light of the apparent contradiction between the minister's remarks and the letter to the United Nations. "We do think that the government should support and continue to carry out the (Lusaka) agreement, and the deployment would be a welcome action in that regard," said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. "We think the Lusaka accords remain the most viable means for achieving a just and stable peace in the Congo," he added.
The United States has repeatedly accused Kabila's government of failing to live up to the commitments it made in the Lusaka agreement. Washington expelled two Congolese diplomats this week in retaliation for Kinshasa's expulsion of two U.S. diplomats accused of making provocative comments at a dinner.
