Congo rivals fail to ink peace deal

AFP

Kampala

The Democratic Republic of Congo and defeated M23 rebels failed to sign a hoped-for peace deal yesterday, after Kinshasa demanded the agreement be revised, a Ugandan government official said.

The “DRC delegation has aborted the signing of agreement with M23,” Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said, adding that the meeting was “adjourned sine die (without date)”.

The deal, expected to be signed yesterday, was billed as a key step in efforts to end decades of war in the Great Lakes region.

“For some strange reason the delegation of the DRC government did not enter the conference room, where the signing ceremony was expected to be,” Opondo said.

“They belatedly called for revision of the terms of the agreement and we have adjourned consequently.”

However, DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said the problem had come over the title of the deal to be signed.

“We want to sign a declaration, but the mediator, for a reason we do not understand, wants to impose an accord upon us,” Mende said.  “If he changed his mind, even tonight, we could sign.”

The rebels, one of many armed groups operating in the mineral-rich but impoverished east of the DR Congo, have been routed by the national army, who are backed by a 3,000-strong special UN intervention brigade.

Allegedly supported by neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda but seemingly abandoned by their sponsors due to international pressure, the M23 announced last week that their 18-month insurgency was over.

With no more military leverage, the M23, a mainly ethnic-Tutsi force who mutinied from the Congolese army, are seen as having little room for manoeuvre.

The agreement was expected to settle the fate of about 1,500 M23 fighters who have crossed into Uganda and are languishing in camps along the border. Uganda has refused to hand them over to the DR Congo.

Around 100 more injured rebels have crossed to Rwanda.

Mende said the rebels would be dealt with “case by case” - with many rank-and-file fighters expected to be given the option to return to the army.

More complicated is the fate of around 100 M23 commanders.

These include M23 leader Sultani Makenga, accused of participating in several massacres, mutilations, abductions and sexual violence, sometimes against children.

The UN’ special envoy to the Great Lakes, Mary Robinson, told AFP the accord would have been “a very important step for peace”.

Stabilising eastern DR Congo will not be easy. Previous peace deals for the region have foundered because they were not implemented or did not address underlying problems.

Oxfam warned yesterday the “conflict is far from over”, noting over 30 other armed groups operate in the region and civilians risk violence on a daily basis.

Human Rights Watch last week warned “numerous challenges remain”, noting eastern DRC “has been beleaguered by abuses by other armed groups, as well as by the Congolese army.”