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Kagame Supports Congolese Power-Sharing Deal

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
NEWS
December 21, 2002
Posted to the web December 22, 2002
Nairobi
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has pledged his support for the power-sharing
agreement signed on 17 December by the government, rebel and opposition groups
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"I think this agreement should hold. The people of Congo and perhaps others in
the region should realise that we cannot go on with the current situation in
that country...The agreement should work, and we should all make sure that it
works," the Rwanda News Agency reported him saying.
Kagame urged the parties to be patient with the implementation of the
agreement. "The beginning may not be satisfactory to everybody. But the process
must start somewhere, and people should take a long-term view focusing on
achieving better things in the future."
Meanwhile, the Political Committee on the Implementation of the Agreement for a
Ceasefire in the DRC met in Kampala, Uganda on 18 and 19 December. The
committee noted in a statement that the ceasefire had continued to hold "along
conventional lines", but that a "proxy war" was continuing in eastern DRC,
especially in Ituri district.
The Political Committee heard from the UN Mission in the DRC, MONUC, that the
disarmament, demobilisation, repatriation, resettlement, reintegration (DDRRR)
exercise was "beginning now", while noting that some "little progress" had
already been made following the signing of the Pretoria peace agreement by
Rwanda and the DRC on 30 July.
The meeting was attended by all of the signatories to Ceasefire Agreement
comprising Angola, the DRC, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, the
African Union, the Rassemblement congolais pour la democratie, RCD-Nationale,
and the United Nations. The Mouvement de liberation du Congo group was unable
to attend.

   

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