Kabila's Congo freezes peace accord, wants changes

KINSHASA, Aug 23 (Reuters) -- The government of Democratic Congo said on Wednesday it was suspending implementation of a 1999 peace accord aimed at ending the regional conflict in Africa's third-largest country.

"The government, in its desire for a peaceful resolution to the international conflict of which it is a victim, intends to suspend the implementation of the Lusaka accords pending the amendment of some points," Human Rights Minister Leonard She Okitundu told diplomats at an open meeting.

He said the government justified its decision by a substantial change in circumstances since the signing of the agreement by the various warring parties in July and August 1999 in Zambia's capital Lusaka.

He said the Democratic Republic of the Congo wanted to hold direct negotiations with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi, which are all backing rebel groups which took up arms against President Laurent Kabila in August 1998.

He also revived the idea of direct talks with the armed and unarmed opposition and civil society -- talks which have been stalled by the Kabila administration's rejection of Botswana's former president, Sir Ketumile Masire, as a mediator.

The rebels hold large parts of the north and east of the Central African country.

Okitundu said that the talks with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi should be overseen by the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity and attended by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola as observers. These three countries support Kabila.

Okitundu said the deployment of a United Nations military observer mission could go ahead subject to "concerted agreement of the terms of the deployment."

The Security Council approved in February the deployment of 500 U.N. military observers and 5,000 support troops.

The deployment has been delayed in part because Kabila has repeatedly said that he will not allow U.N. troops to deploy in government-held areas.

Talks last week to revive the 1999 peace deal, which included a ceasefire breached by both sides, ended in failure in Lusaka. Kabila's forces cite self-defense as their reason for breaching the truce.

Information Minister Didier Mumengi, who also attended the open meeting in Kinshasa, accused Uganda of actively preparing to reinforce its forces inside the Congo.

He said Uganda was amassing heavy artillery ammunition in the northern province of Equateur.

Earlier on Wednesday, former Nigerian President Abdulsalami Abubakar, newly appointed U.N. special envoy to the Congo, expressed the hope that U.N. observer troops would be able to deploy there "very soon."

"We have made some progress on the issue of the deployment of the U.N. troops and there is some hope. There is an agreement and very soon we will be able to deploy," Abubakar told journalists at the airport after meeting Kabila in Kinshasa.

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