Washington, DC — Two of Africa's most intractable conflicts appear to be inching toward resolution, according to Walter H. Kansteiner, III, the U.S. assistant secretary of State for African Affairs. In an interview Friday, the administration's senior Africa policymaker touched on recent developments that point to a de-escalation of the persistent conflicts in east, southern and central Africa.
Peace discussions aimed at ending Africa's longest running battle -- the Sudan civil war -- remain on track despite reports of intermittent skirmishing. A framework for peace was signed in the Kenyan town of Machakos on July 20 by the two main combatants, the government of Sudan and the Sudanese People's Liberation Army, which is based in the south of the country.
When word of the "small-arms firing" reached Washington, Kansteiner said, "we went back to both parties and said: 'Look, in the spirit of what you agreed to in Machakos, this in inappropriate. You guys need to spend your time and energy on the peace process, not on military maneuvers.'"
The warring parties have taken important steps toward peace, according to the State Department, tackling such tough issues as self-determination and religion. Kenya's President Daniel Arap Moi is chairing the peace initiative under the auspices of a regional grouping of six east African states known as the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development.
"Both sides are there [in Machakos] with good delegations, full delegations," Kansteiner said. "The agenda is a full agenda. It includes power sharing, wealth sharing, i.e. resources. It includes, potentially at some point, cessation of hostilities."
This week, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, former Senator John Danforth, will be arriving in Machakos "to encourage the sides to continue." Last week, Danforth was in Cairo, where the government has expressed misgivings about a key element of the Machakos accord that allows for a referendum in the south on the issue of autonomy for that region.
The Egyptians apparently view southern autonomy as a threat to the hegemony they now hold over the Nile River, which flows south to north from the Uganda highlands across both Sudan and Egypt to the Mediterranean Sea. But the Mubarak government is on board, insists Kansteiner, saying: "Egypt will support what the SPLA and the government of Sudan agreed to at Machakos."
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, home to Africa's largest war, there is also "good progress going on right now"," Kansteiner said. "If the South African-brokered deal can get some concrete steps to it -- and it looks like it is already moving in the right direction -- then we're going to see the demilitarization of the Eastern Congo."
During more than four years of fighting, armies from at least six other countries have been drawn in on both sides, making the peace process that much more complex. However, Kansteiner sees a new "will for peace." Both Congo's Joseph Kabila and Rwanda's Paul Kagame want peace now, and that makes the difference, Kansteiner said. "If they are committed, this deal will work. If they are not, it will break down."
Asked about the reportedly widespread profiteering that has given both sides an incentive to keep the war going, Kansteiner said he thinks the balance may have shifted. After weighing the "tradeoffs" between remaining active military inside Congo or withdrawing, the Rwandans seem to have decided that withdrawal is acceptable if they get the guarantees they feel are essential to their security, he said. Specifically, Rwanda wants Congo to halt all support for the groups responsible for the 1994 Rwandan genocide -- former members of the Rwandan army, known as ex-FAR, and the militia group called the Interahamwe, both now based in eastern Congo.
For their part, Kansteiner said, the Congolese are saying, 'We want you to withdraw, and we're will to give you these guarantees.' The climate is changing. "We're going to see the ex-FAR and Interahamwe being cut off from supplies," he said. "And we're going to see Rwandan troops withdrawing."
Even if this Kabila - Kagame accord holds, that doesn't automatically insure peace is coming, Kansteiner said. A diverse assortment of political groups is vying for power -- some who have been engaged in armed rebellion and others with a long history of pro-democracy campaigning. "That's a whole area that people have got to spend some time and effort and really work on," he said. "Whatever the structures are, if all of the concerned parties and players agree to it, that's what we will support."
In a development that illustrates the complexity of Congo peace-making, a new rebel group -- headed by a former official of the Rwandan-backed Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie (RCD-Goma) -- has charged that his former group carried out "heinous acts in violation of basic rules of international humanitarian law." In a legal action filed last week in Belgium, the new group's leader, Tryphon Kin-Kiey Mulumba, alleged that RCD-Goma troops allied with Rwanda seized and killed hundreds of civilians in May suspected of supporting his breakaway faction in Kisangani, the country's third-largest city.
"What happened in Kisangani was an atrocity," Kansteiner said. "There appears to be evidence that RCD-Goma had a hand in this." Asked if Rwanda bears any responsibility for what happened, he said: "We don't know, and that is why some folks at the UN want to dig a little deeper."
Another indication of movement away from the discord that has plagued Africa's central region was the capture in Angola of the former chief of the Rwandan armed forces, General Augustin Bizimungu, who has been wanted for his role in the 1994 genocide. Both Angola's MPLA-led government and the former Angolan rebel movement Unita -- locked in bitter warfare with each other as recently as early this year -- assisted in the Bizimungu capture, according to Kansteiner. He said the United States told both parties that Bizimungu was a "bad egg" and asked for their cooperation. "They gave it to us," he said.
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Regarding post-war prospects in Angola itself, Kansteiner says a large-scale reconstruction effort is needed to end the suffering caused by more than three decades of fighting. According to a report from central Angola by the Associated Press' Bruce Stanley this weekend, large numbers of civilians in the once-fertile heartland are now starving, and many of the most vulnerable -- including infants and young children -- have already perished.
Asked whether the drought affecting many parts of southern Africa - and some other areas of the continent as well - is getting the attention required from donors, Kansteiner was emphatic. Sufficient food has been donated to meet shortages in Malawi, Zambia and Mozambique, he said. As an indication of the priority the crisis is getting from Washington, the head of the Agency for International Development (USAID), Andrew Natsios, is traveling to the region this week, Kansteiner said.
Zimbabwe is a different case, the U.S. official said. "Any government that prohibits farmers from planting food while they're facing starvation is a very bizarre and cynical regime indeed," he said.
"Zimbabwe, because of its political situation, and because of its lack of willingness to follow sensible agricultural policies, is going to be a harder case."
