DRC war unlikely - Zuma

2004-08-25 14:08

Cape Town - An outbreak of a full-scale war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is most unlikely, Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said on Wednesday.

"I don't think there is going to be full-scale war in the DRC and I don't think anyone wishes that to happen," she told journalists at Parliament.

Dlamini-Zuma said South Africa was doing "something about that... and we still need to work harder to ensure that the transition does not unravel".

"As South Africa, we have been working in the DRC over time and we will continue doing that," she said, adding that South Africa has been given an extra responsibility as the chair of the Southern African Development Community organ on defence.

The minister's comments came after Burundi's National Forces for Liberation rebels killed about 160 Congolese refugees at a camp in western Burundi last week.

Hutu FNL rebels, armed with guns and machetes, attacked the Tutsi Congolese refugees at the camp.

Dlamini-Zuma said President Thabo Mbeki and a South African delegation would arrive in the DRC on Monday to attend a meeting which was arranged long before the massacre occurred.

Mbeki's trip to the DRC would be opportune to discuss the current developments in that country, she said.

- SAPA