OWN CORRESPONDENT, Pretoria | Sunday 7.30PM
BUOYED by his allies’ weekend military successes against advancing rebels, Democratic Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila has rejected Sunday’s Southern African Development Community ceasefire proposal, insisting all Rwandan and Ugandan troops must first withdraw from DRC territory.
“What we have said all along is that this rebellion is an invasion by Rwanda and Uganda,” said Ferdinand Mwana Naga, the agriculture minister and one of Kabila’s closest confidants. “We cannot stop fighting until those foreign aggressors are gone.”
South Africa and other SADC member states on Sunday called for the ceasefire at the end of a hastily called weekend peace summit in Pretoria. Announcing the ceasefire call, President Nelson Mandela said: ” What we are concentrating upon is that there should be a ceasefire, there should be a [troop] standstill, followed by a process of political negotiation.”
Over the weekend, Angolan troops who arrived in the country on Friday to support Kabila’s embattled government reportedly took control of the oil port town of Muanda and the nearby town of Banana. Angolan reinforcements were last reported moving toward Matadi, a vital Congo River port town about 280 km south-west of the capital, Kinshasa. The claims could not be independently confirmed, but a rebel leader over the weekend acknowledged the loss of Kitona and its airstrip, just a few kilometres east of Muanda.
Kitona, one of the first western towns to fall to the insurgents, was used by the rebels to shuttle in reinforcements airlifted across the country from their main bases in eastern DRC.
Zimbabwean troops have also arrived in Kinshasa, and are reported to be guarding the southern approaches to the capital. Meanwhile, The Namibian reports that Namibian troops arrived in Kinshasa with the Zimbabwean contingent. The Namibian government will neither confirm nor deny the presence of its troops in DRC.
The rebels, meanwhile, claimed at the weekend that they have captured Kisangani, the DRC’s third-largest city, and are aiming for Kinshasa. The claim remains unconfirmed.
Rwanda and Uganda, who are supporting the rebels, have repeatedly warned Zimbabwe and Angola not to get involved, threatening direct retaliatory intervention if they do not withdraw. Zimbabwe, having extended more than Z$200-million in military credits to DRC, has a financial stake in Kabila’s government. Angola’s involvement may be partially driven by a concern that DRC’s rebels could link up with Angola’s Unita insurgent movement.