GREAT LAKES: IRIN-CEA Update 1,052
RWANDA: 'Guarded welcome' for African peacekeeping plan
Kagame on Monday gave "a guarded welcome" to the proposed deployment of an
African peacekeeping force, under the auspices of the OAU, agreed last
week in Libya by nine African states as a plan to end the two-year-old war
in the DRC, Reuters news agency reported. "It's a good idea ... but how
viable and effective it is, is likely to be anyone's guess," Reuters
quoted him as saying. "For us, we say it is a good plan but all along we
haven't been short of good ideas. I think the problem has been how to
implement them." Under the plan, mediated by Libyan President Moammar
Gadaffi, deployment of an African independent peacekeeping force would
pave the way for the withdrawal of five foreign armies involved in the DRC
conflict: Uganda and Rwanda, on the rebel side, and Zimbabwe, Angola and
Namibia on the side of President Laurent-Desire Kabila.
Kagame said he hoped any African force would be big enough to provide
peace and security in eastern DRC, and to ensure that threats to Rwanda
were addressed. Such a contingent would be mandated to protect the Rwandan
and Ugandan borders with DRC, and to disarm militia forces such as the
Rwandan Interahamwe, a task Kagame said could hardly be achieved, Reuters
reported. "I have always been very sceptical that some people ... that
have less to do with this crisis [than we do] will come and disarm these
people. But if somebody comes forward and says, 'I want to go and fight
them', what do I say? I have to say: 'Come along'," the report said. "I
look forward to the day when we can pull our troops out of the DRC, but
this must only come against the backdrop of our security concerns being
addressed," Kagame stated in an official press release received by IRIN on
Tuesday.
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