DATE=9/6/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO REBELS (L ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253523
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=KIGALI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: One of Congo-Kinshasa's biggest rebel groups
says President Laurent Kabila has already broken a
cease-fire deal reached last week in Zambia.
Correspondent Scott Stearns reports rebels say
President Kabila is not disarming militiamen as
required by the accord.
TEXT: Rebels say President Kabila violated the Lusaka
deal by promoting members of armed militia to senior
positions in Congo, including the army chief of staff.
Those are militia leaders who rebels say should be
disarmed in keeping with last week's peace deal.
Lambert Mende is the spokesman for Congo's Goma-based
rebellion. He says the promotions are clear evidence
that President Kabila has no intention of breaking up
armed groups.
/// MENDE ACT ONE ///
Kabila is instead reorganizing them as we said
by appointing their bosses in his own army. So
I do not see how Kabila can arrest and disarm
his own army chief. So this problem is now
bringing us to more skepticism about the future
of the cease-fire agreement of Lusaka.
/// END ACT ///
That was a deal brokered by South Africa among
Congolese rebels, President Kabila, and six other
nations involved in the conflict. It envisions a
joint military commission to oversee the cease-fire,
and a 20-thousand member United Nations peacekeeping
force to observe it.
It is not clear who is going to pay for that force, or
form what countries the troops will come.
Mr. Mende says that makes Lusaka a weak arrangement
with no realistic means of making people do what they
promise.
/// MENDE ACT TWO ///
They thought by signing, just by stating some
rules, everybody will go forward. But now its
clear the ceasefire agreement will not work.
/// END ACT ///
Rebels say President Kabila is helping members of
Rwanda's former army and the extremist Interahamwe
militia responsible for much of Rwanda's 1993
genocide. Along with local Mai-Mai militiamen, they
are defending President Kabila against rebels backed
by Uganda and Rwanda.
Mr. Mende says if the Organization of African Unity
and the United Nations are serious about the Lusaka
deal, it is time to prove it by holding President
Kabila to his word.
/// MENDE ACT THREE ///
If they fail now to point out what Kabila is
doing with these Interahamwe and Mai-Mai bosses,
then we will know that the whole thing was just
a game, just to have some time to prepare again
for war. And we will act accordingly.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Mende says the Goma-based rebellion continues to
observe the Congo cease-fire, with troops holding
positions on their biggest front outside the town of
Mbuji-Mayi.
Fifty rebel leaders signed the deal in Lusaka,
temporarily bridging a power struggle between two
rebel factions, one supported by Uganda and the other
supported by Rwanda.
/// REST OPT ///
Mr. Mende is the spokesman for the Rwandan-backed
rebellion of Emile Ilunga. He says the group is
preparing for Congo's promised "national dialogue,"
although the group wonders if that is ultimately the
Lusaka plan which includes President Kabila or another
deal altogether.
/// MENDE ACT FOUR ///
We are preparing for national dialogue, but with
very skeptical feelings that with Kabila it
might not occur. But we are still preparing
for it because we know that it will happen with
or without Kabila. If it happens with Kabila,
let it be. But we have very little hope that it
will happen with him.
/// END ACT ///
The United Nations is deploying the first of its
military liaison officers in preparation for a larger
observer group in Congo. The full detachment could
take months. With rebels already accusing President
Kabila of going back on his word, that may not be soon
enough. (SIGNED)
NEB/SKS/JWH/LTD/RAE
06-Sep-1999 14:56 PM LOC (06-Sep-1999 1856 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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