South African President Thabo Mbeki warned on Thursday that a peace deal signed in July for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could crumble, even as DRC army officers and rebel delegates arrived in South Africa for fresh talks aimed at salvaging the fragile peace.
Facing questions in parliament, Mbeki said: ”There is a grave danger of that whole matter unravelling. If the peace agreement unravels in the Congo … it means you spread that war and instability throughout the region of central Africa.”
Mbeki was speaking on the issue for the first time since Rwanda withdrew its troops from eastern DRC on October 5, which he said had left a ”security vacuum” and prompted an outbreak of fighting as different militias and factions jockeyed to fill the void left by the pull-out.
”We negotiated an agreement, or let me say, the Congolese government and the Rwandan government negotiated an agreement to end hostilities, to pull the Rwandan troops out of the Congo … What happens, it creates a security vacuum,” Mbeki said.
Meanwhile, a delegation of high-ranking army officers from the war-wracked DRC arrived in South Africa, with sources close to the peace process saying the group was expected to meet Mbeki late on Thursday.
Bene M’Poko, the DRC’s ambassador to South Africa confirmed that a ”government delegation has arrived”, while a Pretoria-based representative for the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) also confirmed that it had sent a small delegation to South Africa.
Thomas Nziratimana of the RCD told AFP: ”There is a small delegation of our people here and they are meeting South African officials to explain the reality to them on the ground.” He said the situation in DRC had worsened and the South African government, which had been facilitating peace talks, needed to be updated.
The latest developments come in the wake of renewed fighting in the eastern DRC town of Uvira near the Burundi border. Mai-Mai militia took control of the town at the weekend after the last of some 20 000 Rwandan troops withdrew from eastern DRC in line with a peace pact signed in Pretoria in July between DRC President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame.
The RCD has accused Kinshasa of backing the Mai Mai. ”This is a serious attack (on Uvira) by government and a cocktail of other forces. The situation is now so bad and serious that they (the South Africans) must take note of it.” He said the RCD — which was backed by Rwanda during DRC’s four-year war, which broke out in 1998 — would not speak to any other Congolese group during its visit to South Africa.
”What is there to talk about? If the government withdraws from Uvira, then we will be there for talks the next day. If they don’t, we will fight them,” Nziratimana said. ”They must withdraw or face the consequences.” – Sapa-AFP