Iden Wetherell
Frustrated by the refusal of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) states to support the embattled governments of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has crafted a weapon he hopes will deal a decisive blow to rebel movements in the region.
Meeting with presidents Jos Eduardo dos Santos of Angola, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Laurent Kabila of Congo in Luanda last week, Mugabe unveiled a new defence pact which provides for mutual military assistance between the four states.
Since August last year, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia have been involved in propping up Kabila’s regime against rebel insurgents supported by Rwanda and Uganda.
While the Zimbabwean leader is chair of the SADC organ on politics, defence and security, and was accompanied to Luanda by his defence and security ministers, observers say the meeting cannot be recognised as an official summit of the organ because only four of the 14 SADC members attended.
Zimbabwe’s leaders have not concealed their disappointment that other SADC states have been reluctant to commit themselves to the defence of Kabila and Dos Santos, who are besieged by well-organised rebel movements occupying large swathes of their territory.
Until last week, the armies fighting on Kabila’s side in Congo had been calling themselves the “SADC allied forces”, a fiction that has been difficult to sustain. Zimbabwe’s Minister of Defence, Moven Mahachi, said in Luanda the new formation was open to other SADC members, but few are likely to sign up.
Mugabe appeared recently to be softening his stance towards negotiation with Congo rebels and last month consulted President Nelson Mandela in Pretoria on ways to get peace talks restarted.
But steady rebel advances in recent weeks, and in particular the reported loss of up to 80 Zimbabwean troops in an engagement on the road to the central diamond-mining centre of Mbuji-Mayi, appear to have stung him into a renewed commitment to military solutions. The Luanda meeting was characterised by fighting talk and Kabila, who the same week had been assuring East African leaders of his willingness to meet the rebels, dismissed prospects of a negotiated end to the eight- month war.
“The hawks are clearly in charge,” says military strategist Michael Quintana, who sees the new pact as formalising the split in SADC between Kabila’s allies and those, led by South Africa, seeking a negotiated settlement to the Congo conflict.
“This serves notice on Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, that Zimbabwe’s agenda will take priority in the region,” Quintana points out. Harare’s recent purchase of sophisticated Chinese and Russian fighter aircraft and combat helicopters reflect Mugabe’s resolve to see a further escalation of the war.
With Angola’s withdrawal of key units for redeployment on the home front against Unita and Namibia’s inability to provide anything more than a token force, Zimbabwe’s advantage lies in command of the skies.
While the implications of the four-power pact have yet to be examined – and by midweek the SADC had still not been officially notified – there could be considerable nervousness in Lusaka where recent Angolan threats now have a more ominous ring.
The Angolan government has made a number of claims that senior Zambian politicians are providing material support to Unita. This has been followed by bombings in the Zambian capital linked to Angola.
The four allied states’ meeting last week curtly swept aside Zambian President Frederick Chiluba’s SADC-sponsored mediation efforts in the Congo war. Now they appear poised to exert pressure on Chiluba’s regime which they see as a regional nuisance. Zambia has in the past reportedly refused to allow Zimbabwean forces to cross its territory en route to Congo.