/ 11 January 1999

DRC PEACE SUMMIT NEXT WEEKEND

SUMMIT-level talks aimed at ending the war in the Democratic Republic of Congo will be held in Lusaka next weekend, Zambian President Fredrick Chiluba said in the Zimbabwean capital Harare on Sunday. Preliminary meetings of officials and ministers will begin on Thursday and end “maybe on the 16th [January] and the summit will follow the same day, or if it does not work out well, on the 17th,” Chiluba said after meeting his Zimbabwean counterpart Robert Mugabe. The Lusaka summit has been postponed several times, notably over the presence of DRC rebels who started an insurrection against President Laurent Kabila last August. Chiluba said last week that the rebels have been invited to the meeting.