The Zimbabwean army was expected to begin its final withdrawal of troops from Congo on Friday as US President George Bush prepared to meet in New York with key leaders involved in Congo’s four-year-long war.
Zimbabwean commanders said soldiers based in the southern Congolese city of Mbuji-Mayi – the centre of the country’s diamond trade – were scheduled to head for home as part of a peace deal to end the conflict in the country formerly known as Zaire.
It was not immediately clear how long the withdrawal would take.
Zimbabwe says it has 3 000 troops in Congo, down from
12 000 at the height of the war.
Zimbabwe sent its armed forces to the aid of the Congolese government in 1998, when Rwandan troops and their rebel allies launched an offensive in the east of the vast country.
Bush was scheduled to meet Congolese President Joseph Kabila and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame on Saturday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss a peace deal the pair signed in South Africa in late July.
In the agreement, which is to be implemented by the end of October, Congo pledges to round up the militants inside its borders blamed for Rwanda’s 1994 genocide, while Rwanda says it will withdraw its troops from eastern Congo.
Aid agencies estimate that more than two million people have died as a result of the war, mainly from illnesses and malnutrition brought about by displacement.
At its height, seven countries were involved in the conflict, with Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia backing Congo while Uganda and Burundi were allied with Rwanda.
The warring nations first signed a ceasefire agreement in 1999. But the foreign armies have been slow to withdraw and the Congolese government slow to comply with its pledge to round up the Rwandan opposition militants, according to observers.
Kabila’s government reportedly gave the Zimbabwean authorities lucrative mineral concessions in the copper- and diamond-rich south of the country in exchange for the military aid.
A United Nations monitoring mission began operating in Congo last year. – Sapa-DPA