SOUTHERN AFRICA: IRIN News Briefs
DRC-SOUTHERN AFRICA: Leaders to discuss Congo war
South African President Thabo Mbeki and leaders from six other African
states meet in Mozambique on Wednesday for another summit to discuss the
civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The Maputo talks are a
follow-up to a meeting held in the city late last month.
Mbeki's spokesman Nazeem Mahatey was quoted as saying: "The Maputo summit is
about getting the Lusaka Accords implemented. It will be a follow-up to
previous meetings on the issue." The leaders invited to the talks include
Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, Rwanda's Paul Kagame, Uganda's Yoweri
Museveni, Angola's Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Namibia's Sam Nujoma, Zimbabwe's
Robert Mugabe and the DRC's Laurent-Desire Kabila.
At last month's Maputo talks, also chaired by Mbeki, the five African armies
fighting in the DRC agreed to withdraw their forces from current positions.
Under the terms of that deal, Kabila's allies Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia
agreed to pull their forces back at least 15 km. Uganda, which backs rebels
fighting to overthrow Kabila, also agreed to the 15 km pullback, while
Rwanda, which supports another rebel group, said it would withdraw 200 km
from its current positions. That deal has not been implemented. A deal
hammered out by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi last week involved an African
military force being deployed to protect the Rwanda and Uganda borders and
disarm and dismantle exiled Hutu rebels based there. According to the plan,
Ugandan, Rwandan and other foreign forces would also withdraw from Congo at
an unspecified time.
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