9 November 2008
Johannesburg — There is no military solution to the problems of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), warned South African President Kgalema Motlanthe on Sunday, as he opened an emergency summit in Johannesburg of the heads of state and government of SADC (Southern African Development Community).
Renewed fighting in the eastern DRC has driven the Zimbabwean crisis off the top of the SADC agenda. As the SADC leaders were gathering, so the UN was reporting fresh clashes between the Congolese army and troops loyal to rebel general Laurent Nkunda near Ngungu, 60 kilometres west of the city of Goma.
The humanitarian disaster is spiraling out of control, and there are reports that over the past two months a quarter of a million people have been displaced from their homes.
"We call for an immediate ceasefire to allow humanitarian assistance to reach displaced people", said Motlanthe. "We firmly believe that there is no military solution to the problem".
He added that SADC encourages dialogue between the governments of the DRC and Rwanda. The Congolese government insists that Rwanda is backing Nkunda, a claim which Kigali strongly denies.
Motlanthe also wanted stronger UN action in the DRC. Although the UN operation in Congo (MONUC) is the largest UN peace-keeping operation in the world, with a force of 17,000 troops, it has so far proved quite unable to stop the fighting that is engulfing the eastern provinces.
Motlanthe wanted to see a stronger mandate for the UN troops. "We feel that the current UN mandate limits its abilities to become a real peace maker and to provide lasting solutions", he said.
As for Zimbabwe, Motlanthe said that SADC is disappointed by the fact that there has still been no consensus on forming a new government, despite the signing, on 15 September, of a power sharing agreement between the ruling ZANU-PF and the two factions of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
"The political leadership in Zimbabwe owes it to the people of Zimbabwe and to the region to show political maturity by putting the interest of Zimbabwe first," he declared. He wanted to see the three parties resolve all outstanding issues, including the Ministry of Home Affairs.
This is the Ministry that runs the police. In mid-September, it was widely assumed that, if ZANU-PF appointed the Defence Minister, then the MDC would appoint the Home Affairs Minister. Instead, the leader of ZANU-PF, Robert Mugabe, insisted on taking all the most important ministries for his own parties. In October, he relented enough to allow the MDC to appoint the Finance Minister.
At the Harare summit of the SADC Organ on Political, Defence and Security Cooperation, on 27-28 October, the final statement implied that the only outstanding issue was the appointment of the Home Affairs Minister - but the MDC promptly denied this, and warned that the disagreements were far more extensive than who would head one ministry.
After Kgalema's opening speech, the summit continued behind closed doors. The leaders will hear a report from the troika on defence and security matters delivered by Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, in the absence of the troika's chairperson, King Mswati III of Swaziland.
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