Last month President Sam Nujoma backed Luanda's onslaught on 'UNITA bandits' straight after a summit at State House Windhoek with Angolan Defence Minister Kundi Paihama Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and Congo-Kinshasa's President Laurent-Désiré Kabila...
Two years of Laurent Kabila have proved them wrong...
Vol 41 No 1 |
- CENTRAL AFRICA
The idea Congolese sources say but US sources won't confirm is to bring several senior Congolese politicians including President Laurent-Désiré Kabila to agree on an implementation programme and supporting mechanisms for the Lusaka peace accord...
Aside from the tragic situation in Angola these mini-crises pale into insignificance beside the war in Congo-Kinshasa where SADC states are deeply polarised: Angola Namibia and Zimbabwe back President Laurent-Désiré Kabila; South Africa Botswana and Mozambique are ostensible neutrals but accused of helping the Congolese rebel alliance with Rwanda and Uganda...
At home an anti-corruption drive is running alongside fresh allegations of complicity in the genocide against some senior officials; in the region peace prospects in Congo-Kinshasa are bleaker with President Laurent-Désiré Kabila's government making no apparent effort to comply with the Lusaka agreements on handing over genocide suspects...
Rautenbach's Ridgepointe company has also taken over some of Congo's richest mineral assets in an opaque deal negotiated with President Laurent-Désiré Kabila's Minister of State Pierre-Victor Mpoyo...
Vol 40 No 24 |
- UNITED NATIONS
Congo's Lusaka accord means little until President Laurent-Désiré Kabila's government talks to and negotiates seriously with the three main rebel groups...
Vol 40 No 22 |
- CONGO-KINSHASA
Perhaps the most promising signs are the discreet contacts between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe (the leading backer of the forces supporting Congo-Kinshasa President Laurent-Désiré Kabila) and Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni (the leading backer of the rebel forces)...
On 23 September too the Zimbabwean Defence Ministry announced a joint venture for dealing in Congolese gold and diamonds between Comiex a company belonging to Laurent Kabila and some of his ministers and Osleg one of whose main shareholders is General Vitalis Zvinavashe the Zimbabwean Chief of Staff...
They were also meant to set up financing schemes through which Zimbabwe could invest in Congo's mining sector using the profits to defray the cost of military support for President Laurent-Désiré Kabila's government...
The Dar es Salaam paper The Guardian estimates that the FDD's total strength is 10 000 men of whom some (trained by the Zimbabwean army) are fighting on President Laurent-Désiré Kabila's side in Congo-Kinshasa...