By Joe Bavier
KINSHASA, Oct 24 (Reuters) - A renegade Congolese general said on Wednesday he would disband some of his rebel soldiers to help bring peace to an eastern province, but U.N. officials said there was no sign of his fighters turning themselves in.
General Laurent Nkunda had said he would send more than 500 of his Tutsi soldiers on Wednesday to a specially prepared camp in Democratic Republic of Congo's North Kivu province, for them to be integrated into the national army.
His announcement appeared to signal that he was willing to participate in the demobilisation process demanded by President Joseph Kabila, who has given the go ahead for an army offensive to forcibly disarm Nkunda's men if they fail to disband.
But as night fell over North Kivu, where Nkunda has fought battles against the army since August when his soldiers abandoned a January peace deal, United Nations officials said there was no sign of Nkunda's fighters coming in from the bush.
"It's getting dark here and unfortunately no combatants have come in," Sylvie Van Den Wildenberg, a spokeswoman in North Kivu for the U.N. mission in Congo (MONUC), told Reuters.
"We're starting to worry that General Nkunda will not live up to the promise he made in a public statement to international media that he would send more than 500 of his men to Kirolirwe integration centre," she added.
There was no immediate word from Nkunda as to why he had failed to send his men for integration as he had promised.
Earlier, the insurgent general, who has led a rebellion since 2004 in defence of the Tutsi community in Congo, said he was in contact with MONUC. He said U.N. peacekeepers had prepared the logistics to receive his men.
"I'm doing this to show the international community that we Congolese want peace ... because civilians are continuing to die without reason," Nkunda said, referring to civilian casualties in recent fighting.
"SEEING IS BELIEVING"
Diplomats said Nkunda had previously made similar public promises to disband his men without following through.
"We'll believe it when we see it. We've seen these promises before," one Western diplomat in Kinshasa said. Experts estimate Nkunda's total forces may number at least 4,000.
MONUC has called on Nkunda's men to make the short trip out of the bush and report to special camps so they can be integrated into the national army as part of a nationwide peace process that followed the country's 1998-2003 war.
Kabila, who has vowed to pacify all of his vast, mineral-rich country since winning elections in the former Belgian colony last year, said last week he had given a "green light" for the armed forces to move against Nkunda.
But the president, who is currently visiting the United States, declined to say when the offensive would start.
Nkunda says he is defending Congo's Tutsi ethnic community against attacks by Rwandan Hutu rebels he says are supported by Kabila's army. The Congolese leader denies such support and says he also plans to disarm the Hutu rebels, who are accused of involvement in Rwanda's 1994 genocide killings of Tutsis.
U.N. relief agencies fear an all-out army offensive will sharply worsen the humanitarian situation in North Kivu, where 370,000 people have fled fighting this year. (Additional reporting by Themistocle Hakizimana in Kigali)
AlertNet news
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Six Darfur rebel factions to boycott peace talks
October 23, 2007 (JUBA, Sudan) — A prominent Darfur rebel figure and five other smaller factions will not attend peace talks due to start this weekend in Libya, leaders said on Tuesday, casting doubt on prospects for a settlement.
Ahmed Abdelshafi
Ahmed Abdel Shafi told reporters at a Darfur rebel meeting in south Sudan’s capital Juba that African Union and United Nations mediators had not heeded rebel requests for a delay to allow them to form a united position and agree on a delegation.
"I was really shocked when people here are talking about unity and the United Nations started distributing invitations," he said.
"It’s ... a matter of sabotaging the process of unity," he said, adding unity talks were going well with more factions joining but more time was needed to complete negotiations.
Without all rebel groups present at the talks which begin in Sirte on Saturday, hopes for a ceasefire look slim.
Mediators had hoped as many rebels as possible would go to negotiate a comprehensive ceasefire in Darfur as a first step towards resolving the conflict.
Since a peace deal signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions last year, the insurgents have split into more than a dozen groups.
Around 70 rebel delegates are in Juba for talks intended to produce a unified delegation. Lounging under umbrellas in the gardens of the Home And Away cafe to the plangent tones of U.S. Country & Western music, some wore pristine suits while others sported camouflage mesh head wraps and khaki uniforms.
Esam al-Hajj, another SLM rebel figure in Juba, said five other factions from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) would also not be going to the talks.
"Six factions ... and field commanders ... have agreed not to participate in the current negotiations," he said.
Added to SLM founder and popular leader Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur’s earlier refusal to attend the Libya talks, this would mean no rebels representing Darfur’s largest tribe, the Fur, will be negotiating with Khartoum in Sirte.
International experts estimate 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in 4-1/2 years of violence, but Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.
Abdel Shafi also said African Union and United Nations mediators had taken key decisions without consulting the rebels. They objected to the choice of Libya, a country which has been directly involved in the conflict, as the venue for the talks.
"We have a lot of reservations actually about the mediation," he said. On Libya, he said: "The people of Darfur feel ... that the neutrality is not there."
He said it could take at least a month before the rebels were ready to attend peace talks.
Hajj said another worry was the withdrawal this month of the former southern Sudanese rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), from the national coalition government.
"The government at the moment is not the legal government," he said.
The SPLM has a 28 percent share of government but suspended its ministers, saying the dominant northern National Congress Party was stalling on the 2005 north-south peace deal.
The standoff threatens to derail that peace deal and could also hinder the Darfur talks in Libya.
(Reuters)
Ahmed Abdelshafi
Ahmed Abdel Shafi told reporters at a Darfur rebel meeting in south Sudan’s capital Juba that African Union and United Nations mediators had not heeded rebel requests for a delay to allow them to form a united position and agree on a delegation.
"I was really shocked when people here are talking about unity and the United Nations started distributing invitations," he said.
"It’s ... a matter of sabotaging the process of unity," he said, adding unity talks were going well with more factions joining but more time was needed to complete negotiations.
Without all rebel groups present at the talks which begin in Sirte on Saturday, hopes for a ceasefire look slim.
Mediators had hoped as many rebels as possible would go to negotiate a comprehensive ceasefire in Darfur as a first step towards resolving the conflict.
Since a peace deal signed by only one of three rebel negotiating factions last year, the insurgents have split into more than a dozen groups.
Around 70 rebel delegates are in Juba for talks intended to produce a unified delegation. Lounging under umbrellas in the gardens of the Home And Away cafe to the plangent tones of U.S. Country & Western music, some wore pristine suits while others sported camouflage mesh head wraps and khaki uniforms.
Esam al-Hajj, another SLM rebel figure in Juba, said five other factions from the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) would also not be going to the talks.
"Six factions ... and field commanders ... have agreed not to participate in the current negotiations," he said.
Added to SLM founder and popular leader Abdelwahid Mohamed al-Nur’s earlier refusal to attend the Libya talks, this would mean no rebels representing Darfur’s largest tribe, the Fur, will be negotiating with Khartoum in Sirte.
International experts estimate 200,000 have died and 2.5 million have been driven from their homes in 4-1/2 years of violence, but Khartoum puts the death toll at 9,000.
Abdel Shafi also said African Union and United Nations mediators had taken key decisions without consulting the rebels. They objected to the choice of Libya, a country which has been directly involved in the conflict, as the venue for the talks.
"We have a lot of reservations actually about the mediation," he said. On Libya, he said: "The people of Darfur feel ... that the neutrality is not there."
He said it could take at least a month before the rebels were ready to attend peace talks.
Hajj said another worry was the withdrawal this month of the former southern Sudanese rebels, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM), from the national coalition government.
"The government at the moment is not the legal government," he said.
The SPLM has a 28 percent share of government but suspended its ministers, saying the dominant northern National Congress Party was stalling on the 2005 north-south peace deal.
The standoff threatens to derail that peace deal and could also hinder the Darfur talks in Libya.
(Reuters)
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