Congo rebels agree to withdraw

LUSAKA, Zambia -- Congolese rebel leader Jean-Pierre Bemba has agreed to withdraw his troops from frontline positions in the war-torn country.

United Nations special envoy Kamel Morjane told Reuters on Friday that Bemba had given the go-ahead for the deployment of U.N. personnel around the small towns of Befale, Bolomba and Emite.

The U.N. mission in Congo is deploying unarmed military observers in the country to reinforce a ceasefire deal.

War erupted in Congo in 1998 when Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi invaded to support rebels fighting President Laurent Kabila.

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Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia came to the aid of the Kinshasa government.

Bemba had refused on Wednesday to pull his fighters back on security grounds.

It meant his Front for the Liberation of Congo was the only faction fighting in the multi-sided war for the Democratic Republic of Congo to go back on an agreement earlier this year to withdraw 15 km (nine miles) from front lines.

He told Reuters he had withdrawn from four of the six frontline areas in his territory but was concerned that the Interahamwe militia -- the forces who led Rwanda's 1994 genocide before fleeing into the Congo -- were camped across the frontline and could attack civilians if he left them without protection.

He agreed on Friday, however, to pull his troops back by as much as 100 km (62 miles) in fulfilling the disengagement pact.

Morjane said the U.N. would deploy before Bemba withdrew.

Bemba and other Congolese rebel leaders, as well as Congo Security Minister Mwenze Kongolo, are in Lusaka to sign a declaration of principles on an all-party internal dialogue on the political future of the country.

The signing, to be witnessed by Zambian President Frederick Chiluba and peace facilitator Ketumile Masire, the former Botswana president, was scheduled to take place on Thursday.

But Bemba objected at the last minute, saying a ministerial delegation from Kinshasa was not good enough.

Some 2,500 U.N. troops are eventually due to guard 500 unarmed observers, hoping to monitor the ceasefire in the former Belgian colony that is the size of Western Europe.

Congo rebels block U.N. troops
April 15, 2001
Leaders hold Congo peace talks
April 13, 2001

U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Lusaka Ceasefire Document
Congolese Rally for Democracy-Liberation Movement

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