Washington, DC — Following visits to Washington and New York by two young leaders -- principal combatants in Africas largest conflict, U.S. officials and other specialists say they have guarded hopes for progress towards peace.
Joseph Kabila, the new leader of the Democratic Republic of the Congo held a brief meeting last Thursday in Washington with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, one of six Congolese neighbors with troops opposing and supporting Kabilas regime. Both leaders attended the Congressional prayer breakfast on Thursday that was addressed by President George Bush and had meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powell and with business leaders, foreign policy experts and media.
In an interview aired Monday on National Public Radio, Kabila said peace is his highest priority. The first step, Kabila told the United Nations Security Council on Friday, is the withdrawal of "the armies of aggression" from countries bordering Congo to the east -- Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. Interviewed on public broadcasting's NewsHour, Kabila criticized Rwanda and the other countries with armies on Congolese soil for "the rape of the resources" of Congo for "their selfish ends."
If peace can be established, Kabila told NPR, his tenure in office could be as short as a few months, following a national dialogue leading to a democratic transition. But the prospects seem remote for elections in the country that is as large as the United States east of the Mississippi and has never held a contested, free vote.
Ending the war also remains a huge challenge. Laurent Kabila, the new leader's father, was kept in power by the combined support of Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe, while he was opposed by two guerrilla groups who in turn are supported by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi. He was assassinated last month, apparently by one of his bodyguards, in circumstances still surrounded by confusion.
The dead leader is widely blamed for failure to implement the 1999 Lusaka agreement that laid out a framework for cessation of the fighting and withdrawal of foreign troops. His son, who was chosen as successor by an inner circle of military and political figures, has not clearly indicated whether he will, or indeed can, implement the agreement or will demand that it be altered.
"From what I've learned, he might be interested in going ahead with peace," Kagame said of the young Kabila, speaking in an interview with the New York Times. "What I've not understood fully yet is what formula he wants to use to achieve that," he said.
During his own Washington meetings, Kagame pressed his government's determination to prevent a repeat of the 1994 genocide that claimed up to one million lives. Rwanda's involvement in Congo is aimed at thwarting the forces responsible for most of the 1994 massacres, Kagame said. A large contingent of soldiers from the Rwandan regime that was in power during the genocide and the Interhamwe militia who together carried out the mass killings are now based in eastern Congo.
Responding to charges that Rwanda seeks to control the mineral wealth of eastern Congo, Kagame said the country's wealth has been exploited by many parties for decades and is not a "core issue." What worries Rwanda, he said, is how the diamonds and other minerals can be used by insurgent forces to pay for homicidal activities, as has happened in Angola, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Rwanda's prime purpose, he indicated, is to protect its own people by denying a haven and resources to armed groups who have demonstrated their killing proficiency.
Kabila addressed questions about his country's resources in an appearance before the Corporate Council on Africa and in private sessions with American companies.In a brief speech at a Council reception on Thursday night, Kabila pledged to liberalize the economy, introduce a new investment code and tackle human rights abuses. He also apologized for any "misunderstandings" investors may have encountered in the past.
His remarks followed an introduction by the Council's president, Maurice Tempelsman, who noted that his own dealings with the country date back to the post-independence days of the early 1960s. Tempelsman told Kabila that "peace and reconciliation will be the first precondition for investment."
In private talks with Tempelsman and other business executive, Kabila promised to end policies and arbitrary practices that have alienated foreign companies. Prior to his departure, Kabila announced a reversal of the monopoly on diamond marketing that his father granted last year to the Israeli firm IDI-Congo. The arrangement, which blocked companies like Tempelsman's from buying and exporting any of the diamonds produced in the areas of the country under Kabila's control, has been undermined by the continuation of massive smuggling to neighboring states.
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In meetings with Chevron and other oil companies, Kabila gave assurances that his government would act in a business-like manner, avoiding capricious actions like the cancellation in 1999 of the $1 billion agreement between American Mineral Field International and the Congolese copper and cobalt parastatal, Gecamines.
Kabila met with French President Jacques Chirac on route to the United States and Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt on route home over the weekend.
Now that he has returned to Kinshasa, those he visited are watching for the personnel and policy shifts he signaled during his trip. "First thing we would like to see is what he does about cabinet changes," said one business official who met the Congolese leader in Washington.
