The Lusaka Peace Accord and the Inter-Congolese Dialogue

the Lusaka Peace Accord was signed on July 10, 1999, by regional governments, rebel groups involved in the Great Lakes conflict and international observers. A cease-fire provision within the agreement called for a DRC national dialogue and reconciliation initiative on political, military and civilian levels. Through a process of participation and by holding democratic elections, the national Inter-Congolese Dialogue is intended to provide the basis for a new constitutional and governmental framework to enable a lasting peace in the DRC. The accord requires the appointment of a neutral facilitator for the dialogue, and on December 28, 1999, former Botswana President Ketumile Masire accepted the role.

Militarily, the Lusaka Peace Accord served to maintain the status quo among troops on the ground and did not call for any rebel groups to disarm, nor for the withdrawal of any foreign national armies from DRC territory. However, in the early days, the conflicting agendas of foreign backed rebel groups proved too divisive and little progress was made; the loosely stitched cease-fire provision was repeatedly broken by all sides.

Although UN observers under MONUC (UN Mission on Congo) were on the ground, they had no mandate to implement the cease-fire, disarm rebel groups or protect civilian populations. The UN Security Council stipulated that a total cease-fire must hold before any UN peacekeeping forces would be deployed.

The U.S.'s stance on the conflict reflected the UN's, yet added that their role would be conditional on the DRC's borders with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi being secured. Resolution of the border security issue was thus to precede implementation of the cease-fire and the withdrawal of foreign troops.

This chicken and egg situation arose from a misrepresentation of the dynamics of the war. The international community has regarded the crisis in the DRC as an internal civil war and failed to recognize any foreign aggression. It is only now that international media coverage is beginning to reflect the reality of the situation on the ground, and what has been depicted as a "3-year civil war in the DRC" is suddenly becoming "Africa's first civil war".

The Congolese government has consistently pleaded their case to the international community that Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi's border security concerns were being used as false pretenses for occupation of the DRC and the looting of Congolese natural resources. The justifications by Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi for their presence in the DRC were widely accepted until recently when these responses came into question following a UN special report that supported the looting claims. Joseph Kabila was also a turning point in the perception of the war as he quickly re-opened an international dialogue and began to restore the ties between his country and the West.

The consequences of the ill-defined dynamics underpinning Lusaka were that the Congolese population was deprived of meaningful international community support, and their suffering has been prolonged with the ever deepening conflict. New reports depict the rapid acceleration of displacement and suffering and estimate figures of human casualties at about 3 million lives.

The MONUC, however, is now having some success in reaching populations in the occupied territories with food, medical and educational supplies. President Kabila again has been credited for the easing of blocks previously halting all movement of goods to internally displaced people and refugees in Congo.

Despite the short-sighted Lusaka framework, all parties agree it is a step forward. And for the DRC, most of its inherited shortcomings are being redressed, as proved in the August pre-talks held in Gaborone. In a new departure at this meeting, all of the Congolese factions present united to say that foreign troops must leave the country simultaneous to a national political dialogue taking place. Change for the DRC it seems is no longer in doubt, but for the Congolese, an equally pertinent question is what steps their neighbors will now take in initiating their own national dialogues, a provision not called for under Lusaka.