12 11 13 Reuters: Congo, M23 rebels make peace but region still unstable
The rebels gave up their
20-month revolt last week after the Democratic Republic of Congo's army, backed
by a United Nations force, routed them from their last remaining hilltop
hideouts along the border with Rwanda
and Uganda.
The peace deal is due to be
signed in Entebbe outside the Ugandan capital, Kampala, at around 6 p.m.
(1500 GMT).
M23's rebellion had at
times risked sucking Congo's
neighbours into a wider conflict. United Nations experts documented evidence
that Rwanda and Uganda had supported the rebels, straining
relations with Kinshasa.
Both Kigali and Kampala repeatedly denied the allegations.
The accord will address
issues such as amnesty – for the act of rebellion, though not for crimes
against humanity – and also allows reintegration of vetted rebels into the
army.
"We have said it
should be a document that focuses on ending the rebellion, not settling all the
problems between Congo, Rwanda and Uganda," one senior diplomat
said.
"For acts of
rebellion, the DRC government is ready to offer amnesty. But there is no
amnesty for major war crimes."
That will almost certainly
mean no amnesty for the M23's military commander, Sultani Makenga, who fled
across the border and is now being held in Uganda, which has been trying with
international support to mediate an end to the fighting.
Makenga's surrender is a
big win for Congo
as it struggles to impose order and a vindication for the world powers which
backed a U.N. intervention brigade with a robust mandate.
But analysts are sceptical
there will be sustained peace in a region devastated by two decades of conflict
that has killed millions and left millions more destitute despite underground
deposits of gold, diamonds and other valuable minerals.
"I don't think there
is a track record in the DRC of these sort of issues being resolved," said
Brian Dlamini, a country risk analyst for Rand Merchant Bank in South Africa.
"The DRC is a country
of many countries," he said.
Kinshasa has limited ability to exert its
authority over one of Africa's biggest
nations. There is no tarmac road connecting the capital to the main eastern
town of Goma.
Deep-seated regional
rivalries could still unsettle any shaky peace.
"Vital for Rwanda"
U.N. experts, the United States and others accused Rwanda of backing the M23, despite Kigali's vigorous
denials. Aid cuts and diplomatic pressure were seen reasons why Rwanda may have
backed off from trying to rescue the M23 when the U.N.-backed Congolese army
closed in, analysts say.
But a regional diplomat, in
remarks widely echoed, said neighbouring Rwanda
would not easily abandon interests in east Congo,
which it says is still a haven for Hutu rebels behind Rwanda's 1994
genocide that killed Tutsis and moderate Hutus.
"It's just vital for Rwanda to have
influence there. If not with Makenga then with someone else," the diplomat
said, although he said the costs of backing M23 had become too high.
At the United Nations in New York, diplomats have indicated that the U.N. force
MONUSCO will now help Congo's
army against other armed groups, especially the Rwandan Hutu FDLR rebels.
"I think the FDLR are
very clearly understanding that either they surrender or there will be armed
action against them," Mary Robinson, the U.N. special envoy to the Great Lakes region, told Reuters in the Ethiopian capital
on Sunday.
"That is a new reality
for them to face," she said.
She said some other smaller
armed groups had already indicated to MONUSCO that they were now ready to make
peace.
"The hope is that if
you eliminate the larger groups, the others will see the writing on the
wall," U.S. special envoy to the Great Lakes, Russ Feingold, said in South
Africa last week.
He said an
"appropriate amnesty" for fighters would make it more difficult to
reconstitute the M23, although he said there should be no impunity for rebels
accused of "serious crimes".