Negotiators say Congo peace process a stalemate

LUSAKA, Zambia (Reuters) -- Zambian negotiators said on Saturday the peace process in the Democratic Republic of Congo had become bogged down and the Lusaka peace agreement of last year was close to collapse.

Brigadier General Timothy Kazembe of the Joint Military Commission (JMC) appointed by the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to oversee the peace initiative said after a review meeting in Lusaka that no progress at all had been made since the last meeting in July.

Kazembe and Zambian Presidential Affairs Minister Eric Silwamba told members of the JMC, which groups military officials from all parties to the Congo war, that fighting continued to worsen.

Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia have troops in the Congo backing President Laurent Kabila against a rebellion in the east supported by Uganda and Rwanda. Kabila did not send a representative to the meeting.

Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands displaced in the rebellion, which erupted in 1998.

Silwamba said he saw a stalemate in the Congo and the peace process was on the verge of unraveling. He added that various efforts to get the process back on track had failed.

"Hostilities have not only intensified, but ceasefire violations are currently the order of the day on various fronts," said Silwamba, a close aide of Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, who mediated the Lusaka agreement.

Kazembe said ceasefire violations continued in the Equator, Kasai and Katanga provinces of the Congo, undermining the peace process and threatening a proposed disengagement programme due to have started with a pullback of a few kilometers.

He said independent investigators of ceasefire violations in the Congo had been pulled out without replacements due to a cash crunch.

"This is a regrettable development because it undermines the peace process. The JMC condemns this act," he said.

Kazembe also said the JMC faced severe financial and logistical problems, which prevented it from performing its primary task of investigating ceasefire violations.

"To date, parties (to the conflict) have failed to provide the right conditions for the deployment of the United Nations mission in the Congo that would have been responsible for monitoring and verifying ceasefire violations," he said.

"The JMC, which was established as a stop-gap measure for verification of violations, has been experiencing such grave financial constraints that its very survival is under threat," Silwamba added.

Silwamba said political leaders had declared their unreserved commitment to the ceasefire agreement, but that their words were not matched by deeds.

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