THE combatants in the many-sided war in Congo have embraced a UN Security Council blueprint for peace – but acknowledge the path to the end of Africa’s biggest war is poorly marked and shrouded in uncertainty.
”There is still much to be done,” said Namibian Foreign Minister Theo-Ben Gurirab, speaking after the 15-nation council approved a resolution calling on all factions in the war to pull back from the front lines during a two-week period beginning March 15, as they have pledged to do during three days of discussions this week at UN headquarters in New York.
That would clear the way for some 500 UN observers to move in and verify the withdrawal, backed by about 2 500 peacekeeping troops. In the past, the combatants have balked at withdrawals even when they agreed to them.
The resolution also presses Joseph Kabila, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s new president, to move ahead quickly on a promised but long-delayed dialogue with his political foes and the various rebel groups in hopes of national reconciliation and, eventually, free elections.
Fighting has raged in Congo since 1998, when Rwanda and Uganda, which helped put the late Congo President Laurent Kabila in power in 1997, turned on him and backed rebels trying to topple his government. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola then sent troops to bolster the ragged Congolese army.
Previous efforts to end the war have ended in stalemate. But momentum toward peace has picked up sharply following last month’s slaying of Laurent Kabila by a bodyguard, which elevated his son Joseph to power.
Joseph Kabila has reversed key policies of his father and authorised the start of a dialogue with political foes while inviting in UN peacekeepers without the precondition that foreign forces first leave Congolese territory.
The first test of the resolution will come on February 28, when Rwanda has pledged to pull out of the key eastern town of Pweto, which it captured in November.
Then, starting in mid-March, the combatants are to withdraw from the front lines, creating a 30km buffer zone stretching from southeast Congo to the northwest. – Reuters