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Headaches loom large after Congo's peace party
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) -- Years of killing, millions of corpses and the tatters of past deals say Congo's latest bid for peace can not work, but the alternative is more of the same. With a broad peace deal finally signed, the Democratic Republic of Congo's warring factions face a long haul if they are to silence guns, form a new government and bring the rule of law to their vast, anarchic country after 4-1/2 years of war. "For several years now the Congolese people have had no faith in these ceremonies, whose impact will be forgotten as soon as the doors close," said a scathing editorial in Thursday's edition of Kinshasa daily L'Avenir -- "The Future." Hours earlier, Congo's government, rebels and politicians thronged an elaborate tented complex in South Africa's gambling resort of Sun City to sign a deal on an interim administration. The goal is to end a war that has caused millions of deaths and organise the first democratic elections in four decades. After hours of speeches hailing peace and a night of music and celebrations in the hearty Congolese tradition, delegates now face the headache of bringing together their disparate factions under the same roof on home turf for the first time. The warring factions still have to decide who will hold key political and military positions and how to reform the army. "What is crucial now is the whole issue of the security of Kinshasa. The rebels said they would only come if Kinshasa is secure," Henri Boshoff, military analyst at South Africa's Institute of Security Studies, said. The peace agreements provide for a new U.N.-endorsed force to secure the capital and protection for returning rebel leaders until the Congo's own armed forces and police can be restructured to integrate rebel fighters. The United Nations has thousands of troops in Congo as part of its monitoring force, MONUC, but it is unclear whether it could re-deploy or raise additional troops to secure Kinshasa. Boshoff said using gendarmes -- paramilitary police -- from other French speaking African countries was one option. LACK OF TRUST, POLITICAL WILL "I'm cautiously optimistic, but keeping pessimism on the front-burner," said Herman Hannekom, who was South Africa's ambassador to Kinshasa in the early 1990s. He said getting the government in place -- if it happened -- would take months. "All previous deals have collapsed in six to eight weeks." Many observers question whether there is sufficient political will to succeed, given a serious lack of trust between factions. Neither President Joseph Kabila nor Jean-Pierre Bemba, leader of the second biggest rebel faction, attended Wednesday's ceremony, and some speeches were far from conciliatory. "It was ominous that President Kabila and Bemba did not sign -- this could point to problems ahead for peace in the Congo it is crucial that these two see eye to eye, which they do not right now," said one Western diplomat in Kampala, Uganda. South Africa's current ambassador to Kinshasa, Sisa Ngom Bane, said their presence "would have given it a lot of weight and credibility," but said more important now was to act soon. "This thing needs to move as quickly as possible," he said, adding that he hoped the new government could be in place in Kinshasa within two months. "It's a hectic agenda ahead." One obstacle is fighting in the eastern Ituri region where ethnic conflict has exploded and Uganda and Rwanda have been squaring up. The two countries back rival rebel groups in Congo and have at times clashed there head-on to devastating effect. South African President Thabo Mbeki, who chairs the African Union, hopes to soothe fiery relations at a meeting next week with the leaders of the two countries -- neither of whom came on Wednesday. But calming the situation on the ground may be harder. Local commanders and officers, left behind by some of the half-dozen foreign armies sucked into Congo's war, jealously guard their mineral operations and may not leave. "In the east we do not know how many Ugandans and Rwandans are there for economic reasons, in civilian clothes," Hannekom said. "To what degree, and to what percentage, will they be prepared to give up mineral rights for the national interest?" "This is not like the one-armed bandits of Sun City -- this is much, much more complicated." Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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