DATE=9/18/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CONGO / CEASEFIRE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-254053
BYLINE=SCOTT STEARNS
DATELINE=LODJA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: There's more trouble for the three-week-old
ceasefire in Congo's civil war. As V-O-A's Scott
Stearns reports, each side is accusing the other of
violating the accord.
TEXT: Most of the troubles are in central Kasai
province, where rebels say Zimbabwean troops in Ilebo
are threatening the rebel-held town of Benagibele,
three hundred kilometers upstream on the Sankuru
River.
Rebel commander Amoury Kalangala says government
troops also retook the town of Dekese, a hundred and
seventy kilometers northwest of Benagibele after
rebels signed a ceasefire three weeks ago. That plan
calls for 20-thousand U-N peacekeepers and a national
dialogue on Congo's political future.
President Laurent Kabila says he is abiding by that
accord, even offering the capital Kinshasa as a site
for the debate. Rebels say they'd prefer another
country.
President Kabila's allies in Zimbabwe say it is the
rebels who are violating the ceasefire in Kasai,
Zimbabwe's state news agency says rebels backed by
Rwanda's army are killing civilians in Kasai.
Zimbabwe says Rwanda is continuing to violate the
spirit of the ceasefire by reinforcing troops in the
province.
Zimbabwe's military spokesman, Chancellor Daviye, says
rebels have fired on routine resupply flights to the
towns of Kabalo and Ileka in what he says is an effort
to provoke government forces so rebels can claim the
ceasefire is broken and continue their offensive.
There's little political goodwill on either side to
end this year-long rebellion. There has been no
movement on a joint military commission to monitor the
ceasefire. It's holding for now without outside
monitors only because it gives both sides a chance to
regroup - a pause, perhaps, for the rainy season in
Kasai, where it's harder to fight when the roads wash
out. (Signed)
NEB/SS/ALW/KL
18-Sep-1999 12:15 PM EDT (18-Sep-1999 1615 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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