ZAIRE-POLITICS: Mandela Throws His Weight Behind Regional Summit

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

NAIROBI, Dec 16 1996 (IPS) - South African President Nelson Mandela’s attendance at the regional summit on the crisis in Zaire and the Great Lakes Region, which opens in the Kenyan capital Monday, is big news here.

The South African leader is expected to add his weight to the search for a peaceful solution to the fighting in eastern Zaire, and his visit to Kenya is the front-page lead story in the leading local daily and is the top item on all the national broadcasts.

The one-day summit, called by Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi, will discuss the fighting in eastern Zaire and its effects in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. The fighting erupted in October between government soldiers and Banyamulenge rebels, allegedly backed by Rwanda.

It is the first time that Mandela is playing a direct role in the conflict in the Great Lakes Region, which comprises Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania and Uganda.

South Africa however had been under fire for supplying arms to Rwanda. In early November when regional leaders were meeting here on the Great Lakes crisis, President Moi telephoned Mandela to discuss the arms sales.

During this conversation, the South African leader pledged to stop arms sales to Rwanda. Kenya, which suspended diplomatic ties with Rwanda mid-year, feared that the sale of South African weapons to Rwanda would further enflame the already volatile situation in the region.

“Mandela is the most respected leader in sub-Saharan Africa and his country — South Africa — has the resources and the capability to mobilise troops at short notice,” said an African diplomat here. “We therefore expect him to bring some hope to this volatile region.”

The South African leader did not attend the Nov. 5 summit which was also boycotted by Zaire’s embattled prime minister Kendo wa Dondo.

But the secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), Salim Ahmed Salim, told journalists upon arrival at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on Sunday that Kendo wa Dondo had assured him that Zaire would attend Monday’s summit.

A law passed recently by Zaire’s parliament bars participation by any Zairean government officials in talks with a government whose forces occupy Zairean territory.

Kinshasa claims that a swathe of its territory measuring 500 kilometres has been occupied by troops from Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

But the three neighbours have rejected Zaire’s claims, saying that eastern Zaire is controlled by Banyamulenge rebels, ethnic Tutsis who moved to Zaire from modern-day Rwanda and Burundi about 200 years ago.

One of the resolutions of the November summit was the call for the deployment of a peace-keeping force in eastern Zaire and an immediate cease-fire.

The United Nations responded by forming an intervention force, led by Canada. But the force has cut short its mission and will leave its headquarters in Uganda by Dec. 31.

Some of the 300-strong military force will leave as early as Monday. The team was originally scheduled to remain in Uganda till March.

A statement issued in the Ugandan capital Kampala on Sunday by the force’s spokesman, Lt-Col Rejean Duchesneau said the decision to return home was made at the UN headquarters on Saturday, on the realisation that their role has been rendered impotent with the voluntary return of over 600,000 refugees to Rwanda from eastern Zaire.

Zaire hosted some 1.2 million Rwandan Hutu refugees, who fled from their country when a new Tutsi-dominated government took over in Kigali in July 1994. Some 700,000 fled to Tanzania and are also now returning home to Rwanda.

Besides Mandela, Monday’s summit will be attended by presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania, Pasteur Bizimungu of Rwanda, Frederick Chiluba of Zambia and Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi.

Also attending will be former Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere, who is the internationally-backed mediator on Burundi, and a Cameroonian deputy foreign minister, who is representing OAU chairman, Paul Biya.

It is, however, not clear what decision the African leaders will take on the conflict in Zaire. A communique is expected on Tuesday.