Pretoria — South African President Thabo Mbeki described the signing Tuesday of a highly ambitious peace accord between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda as "a bright day for the African continent."
The idea is that the agreement will be the key to unlock the impasse in the chequered peace process in central Africa and end the war that has engulfed Congo and at least six of its neighbours.
No one present at the elaborate signing ceremony in the South African capital, Pretoria, was in any doubt that what could be the beginning of a gradual process would be fraught with difficulties and challenges for the Great Lakes region.
Closing the proceedings, witnessed by four African presidents, representatives from the United Nations and the African Union, as well diplomats and his government ministers, Mbeki added, philosophically: "We are going to make certain that indeed the sun does not set on us".
Rwanda and Congo both pledged to stick to their side of the bargain. Rwanda has agreed to withdraw its troops - estimated to number between 20 and 40 thousand -- from Congolese territory. The DRC, in turn, undertook to disarm and repatriate Rwandan Hutu 'Interahamwe' militias and former soldiers that Rwanda holds responsible for the genocide in 1994.
The two sides have 90 days to comply with the accord, a timeframe analysts say is unrealistic.
Reminding the assembled dignitaries that the DRC shared borders with nine other countries, which felt the immediate impact of regional strife, the Congolese president, Joseph Kabila, said: "There is a time for war, there is also a time for peace. No more blood must flow".
"Today must be considered a great day for the whole of Africa, because one less conflict on the continent means one further step towards the sustainable development that this continent needs so much," Kabila said.
Kabila's Rwandan counterpart, and erstwhile ally, President Paul Kagame said his government was committed to ensuring that the peace and security pact signed in Pretoria was honoured and implemented, so that it could help resolve the four-year war in the Great Lakes region.
Kagame called Tuesday's deal a "big step" and appealed for international backing to help ensure its success. "If they come on board and support these efforts, we shall be able to move forward," he said.
Addressing the issue of foreign involvement in the region, Kagame said: "It is important that since some of them (countries) have historically been part of the problem, they cannot escape the responsibility of being part of the solution there has been more paying of lip service to finding the solutions to these problems than actually applying these capacities, building on the goodwill that we are trying to build."
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Goodwill was in abundance in Pretoria on Tuesday, but skeptics were wary, sounding a warning that the way forward was still strewn with potential pitfalls and dead ends before Africa's first continental conflict could be resolved.
John Stremlau, an American political scientist who is professor of international relations at the Witswatersrand Univerity in Johannesburg, praised the Pretoria peace accord as a step forward. But he also expressed reservations. "Congo is the most difficult to resolve of Africa's conflicts. It is complex and involves many players and requires other simultaneous diplomatic engagements to work out", he said. "But having a peace framework is a key factor".
The bilateral peace deal signed in Pretoria on Tuesday was strictly between Rwanda and the DRC and did not include the legion other factions and foreign armies involved in the war in Congo. But there was a positive and immediate international reaction to the agreement.
"There will be ups and downs in the implementation of the agreement, but I am relying on the determination of the government, the people of Congo and the people of the region", Kabila said during the ceremony.
Echoeing the widely-held mood in Pretoria on Tuesday, Kagame declared: "Our final objective is to enable the people of Congo and the people of Rwanda and the rest of the region to live together in peace as has been before".
