News of a ferry disaster in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) overshadowed the Thursday meeting in Pretoria designed to examine the implementation of a 16-month-old agreement between the Central African country and neighbouring Rwanda.
News of the horror incident that occured on Monday, which saw more than 160 people killed on Lake Mai-Ndombe, about 400km north-east of Kinshasa, reached the capital after DRC President Joseph Kabila had left for Pretoria.
The final meeting of the Third-Party Verification Mechanism involved Kabila and President Paul Kagame of Rwanda as the most interested parties to the Pretoria Agreement signed on July 30 last year.
President Thabo Mbeki, who hosted the gathering, is the chief witness to that agreement and has become the referee through his chairmanship of the mechanism. Mozambique’s President Joachim Chissano attended as president of the African Union.
”I’m very happy to see this positive development in the process of reconciliation of the countries of the region,” Chissano said.
”This is a tremendous step forward towards a peaceful Africa and implementation of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development.
”We congratulate Rwanda and the DRC for what they have done. The smiles on the faces of the presidents are genuine, where once they greeted each other with forced smiles.”
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni — who was expected to bring his influence to bear on the process as convenor of the regional mediations efforts, as he had done with peace efforts in neighbouring Burundi — did not attend.
The mechanism met at this high level because of the import Africa has placed on ending the conflict in the DRC which, at its height, involved seven countries and threatened to become Africa’s world war.
The Pretoria Agreement committed Rwanda to removing the 20 000 troops it had in the DRC fighting rebels responsible for the 1994 genocide of Tutsi and Hutu moderates by extremists.
These genocidaires, some of whom had protected Kabila’s father Laurent Desire Kabila before his assassination, were operating against Kagame from their refuge in the DRC. For his part, the agreement bound Joseph Kabila to rounding up, disarming and repatriating the genocidaires.
Kagame marched his uniformed troops out of the DRC before the three month deadline set by the agreement, although there are still reports that Rwandan elements maintain their watching brief on rebels in the DRC.
Identifying and assembling the rebels has proved more difficult for Kabila. In all fairness, he was preoccupied with the protracted constitutional negotiations that followed hard on the agreement.
The fact that those negotiations eventually produced a global and inclusive agreement that put the DRC on a two year path to its first-ever democratic elections has made the international community reluctant to criticise Kabila.
The youthful leader has had no fewer than three meetings with United States President George W Bush, with no public airing of any misgivings about the progress of corralling and returning Rwandan rebels.
That process has started nevertheless. Rebel leader General Paul Rwarakabije crossed into Rwanda from the DRC earlier this month with about 150 of his fighters, who laid down their arms.
The surrender reportedly follows secret negotiations between the rebels and the Rwandan army. Rwarakabije led his rebels from Kinshasa and Brazzaville across the river into the Republic of Congo.
His Army for the Liberation of Rwanda fought alongside DRC forces fighting Rwandan-backed rebels.
The general told his smiling compatriot foes that ”war is no longer the best solution”.
Rwandan authorities say they now expect an ”avalanche” of Rwandan refugees to return from the DRC.
These elements, who have been laying low in the forests for years, have become increasingly unpopular with the Congolese, not the least because many survive on pillage and are not averse to throwing in a little rape and gratuitous killing on the side.
Rebels have reportedly gathered in towns in the DRC’s militarily hot eastern region asking to be repatriated.
Congolese militia are ordering their groups to demobolise any Rwandans still in their ranks.
There is some doubt about the writ the general holds over Rwandan rebel fighters.
Some observers say he has sold out his men, while others go so far as to allege that he fled for his life.
Estimates of how many Rwandan rebels remain in the DRC range between the United Nation’s 10 000 and the DRC government’s 40 000.
Communication with them is poor. No matter how war weary they might be, their fear of having to face the music back home keeps them in the bush. Military experts say Kagame will have this problem on his hands for years to come.
Officially Kabila has put his weight behind efforts to get rid of the Rwandans. Now that he feels less threatened by Rwanda, he no longer has any inducement to arm Kagame’s enemies — and having one less group of men with guns can only enhance the tranquillity of the transition he seems to be steering quite deftly.