DRC, Rwanda leaders meet
2004-06-26 12:22
Abuja, Nigeria - Rwanda and Congo will send a joint mission to their shared border to investigate charges of aggression made by both sides that have raised fears of renewed war between the Central Africa rivals, the countries' leaders said.
The team will look into Rwanda's allegations that Congo is massing troops for a cross-border attack and Congo's accusations that Rwanda supported renegade army commanders who captured a strategic border town earlier this month, Rwandan President Paul Kagame said on Friday after hastily arranged talks with Joseph Kabila, his Congolese counterpart, in the Nigerian capital.
"We agreed to take measures to carry out verification to prove or disprove whatever may have been alleged," Kagame said. "The allegations will be put to test by the verification exercise."
Kagame and Kabila met behind closed doors for about four hours with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo.
"The most important thing is to address the problems," Kagame told reporters. "We don't need any cosmetic solutions."
Congo and Rwanda, which have fought twice in the past decade, slid toward crisis again this month following the June 2-9 occupation of the town of Bukavu near the Rwandan border by renegade army commanders who were former Congolese rebels.
Rising tensions between the two countries prompted calls from the United Nations and various countries for an end the saber rattling.
The verification mission was originally called for under a 2002 peace accord that helped end the 1998-2002 multi-nation war fought in Congo, but was later scrapped at Kabila's insistence. Friday's development showed a concrete, if small, move to advance the peace process.
Kabila, head of a national-unity government meant to re-establish control over a country the size of Western Europe, said building a new national army from once-warring factions was crucial for stability.
"That's an internal problem we're trying to address," Kabila said of unified armed forces. "We take it as a problem and we're working on it. We expect that the international community will help us."
Obasanjo thanked the two leaders for coming to his country, Africa's most-populous and a regional diplomatic and military heavyweight.
"I apologise to you for inviting you at short notice. But the situation as it was required our immediate attention," he told the two leaders, who left Nigeria later Friday.
- AP