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UN Begins to Monitor Military Disengagement in DRC
Sides involved in the conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are said to withdraw their respective forces from the front line, and the UN Mission in the central African country started to monitor the troop withdrawal, which, if verified, would pave the way for peace in the war-torn country, a UN spokesman said Thursday.
Fred Eckhard, the UN spokesman, told a press conference here that the disengagement process, which began two weeks ago in the DRC, has ended, and the verification mission is expected to last for the next 56 days.
The UN Security Council expects to receive a briefing by senior UN officials Friday on the latest development in the country, including the withdrawals, he said.
"The parties agreed to pull back their forces 15 kilometers from the lines of withdrawal, with UN monitors on hand to observe their disengagement," Eckhard said.
"The (UN) Mission has some positive news about the disengagement process, verifying the withdrawal of Rwandan forces and the rebel Congolese Rally for Democracy" from the town of Pweto in the east, and "the Government of the DRC has also been observed staying away from Pweto," he said.
"There has also been substantial Rwandan and RCD withdrawal from Kabinda, and the DRC Government claims to have withdrawn across the Ubangi River in the north," he said.
"However, the U.N. Mission hasn't yet observed a withdrawal of Government and allied forces from Kananga, in the south-central province of Kasai," he said.
"Meanwhile, the rebel Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC) has attached conditions to the withdrawal of its forces, asking for UN forces to move into territories that the rebels vacate to protect civilians there and also seeking progress in the inter-Congolese dialogue," he said.
All sides involved in the conflict signed a peace accord in the Zambian capital of Lusaka in 1999 and reaffirmed their commitment to it at a summit in Mozambique last month. But each side has repeatedly accused the other of launching fresh attacks in violation of the deal.
The Security Council last year authorized a 5,537-strong force to oversee the Lusaka agreement, but in February decided that about 3,000 troops would be sufficient. This includes the 2,500 armed forces and some 500 unarmed military observers, charged with verifying the pullback. However, the UN met with difficulties in deploying its peacekeepers in the country, formerly known as Zaire.
Reports said that 110 soldiers from Uruguay set up a camp Thursday on Lake Tanganyika, the first armed UN troops on a mission to help end the conflict in the country, which lasted two and a half years.
Since the January 16 assassination of President Laurent Kabila, his son, Joseph, has pledged to do everything possible to end the war and meet the key provisions of the Lusaka peace agreement his late father had refused to carry out, including the deployment of UN peacekeepers.
The war broke out in August 1998 in DRC, and fighting has intensified this year. The conflict pits the government troops against Tutsi-led rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda. The DRC government, headed by President Laurent Kabila, is in turn supported by Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Dubbed "Africa's World War One," the DRC conflict has claimed thousands of lives and displaced more than 1.5 million people in the central African country, formerly known as Zaire, which is the third largest nation in Africa.
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