[allAfrica.com]  [http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0921/p07s01-woaf.html?s=swAfrica]


Museveni, Mugabe Reconcile On Congo

The Monitor (Kampala)
NEWS
October 6, 2004
Posted to the web October 5, 2004
Harare
President Yoweri Museveni and his Zimbabwean counterpart, Mr Robert Mugabe,
have buried the hatchet over the war in the DR Congo that saw their armies
supporting opposing sides.
"I came here to show you that we are brothers and, historically speaking, we
are on the same side. I am most pleased to be here," Museveni said at a dinner
hosted by Mugabe at his official residence late on Monday night.
"In spite of the little misunderstanding we had on Congo with the leaders of
Zimbabwe ... we have always worked together," Museveni said.
Mugabe reciprocated by saying that with the "DRC conflict behind us" it was
time to "further cement our strong bonds of cooperation".
"Happily those bonds that bring us together remained stronger than the
transient misunderstanding that we went through and we are back to our normal
relations," Mugabe said.
Museveni arrived on Monday for his first visit to Zimbabwe since the end of the
war in DRC, which began in August 1998 and formally ended last year.
Uganda sided with Rwanda in backing rebels fighting to topple the government of
the late DRC President Laurent Kabila. Zimbabwe deployed up to 12,000 troops to
prop up Kabila's government.
"Even in well-knit families, differences do occur from time to time," Mugabe
said. "It is in this context that our two countries found themselves on
opposing sides during the ugly conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo,"
he said.
The 1998-2003 war in the DRC drew in six countries at its height, with Angola,
Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe backing Kinshasa, while Rwanda and Uganda supported
rebel groups.
Dubbed Africa's world war, the conflict claimed an estimated 2.5 million lives,
some killed in combat, while others died of hunger and disease.
Museveni is leading a high-profile delegation including businessmen to discuss
a wide range of issues such as trade with Zimbabwe, which is in the throes of
an economic crisis triggered in part by Mugabe's 2000 land reform programme in
which thousands of white-owned farms were seized and distributed to landless
blacks.

   

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