12 11 13 AFP: Congo peace deal signing fails

The "DRC delegation has aborted the signing of agreement with M23,"
Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said, adding that the meeting was
adjourned without a new date scheduled.

The M23 rebels, one of many armed groups operating in the mineral-rich but
impoverished east of the DR Congo, have been routed by the national army, who
are backed by a 3,000-strong special UN intervention brigade.

But DR Congo Foreign Affairs Minister Raymond Tshibanda said Kinshasa was committed to peace.

"We have been engaged in this process for several months now… We have
encountered some difficulties over issues important to us, and we think that
these difficulties can be removed before finalising the process," he said.

Allegedly supported by neighbouring Rwanda
and Uganda
but seemingly abandoned by their sponsors due to international pressure, the
M23 announced last week that their 18-month insurgency was over.

Delegations from both Kinshasa's government and
the rebels arrived Monday evening at Uganda's
State House in Entebbe, a town close to Kampala on the shores of Lake
Victoria, where the rebels had been expected to formalise the end
of their rebellion in writing.

International observers, including from the United Nations and African Union,
as well as from Belgium, Britain, France and Norway, also turned up to witness
the deal, Opondo said.

With Kinshasa
stalling, it is not immediately certain what will happen next. But Ugandan
Defence Minister and chief mediator Crispus Kiyonga said he remained
optimistic.

"We have a problem on our hands in eastern DRC which everybody has agreed
needs a political solution… so, I think, an agreement will be reached,"
Kiyonga said.

"We need time to consult with each party, we can't arbitrarily calculate
the time now… there are issues of fine-tuning language and some words,"
he added.

The M23, a mainly ethnic Tutsi force of mutineers from the Congolese army, have
no military leverage left and little room for manoeuvre. There was no immediate
reaction from the rebels.

Lack of deal a
disappointment

A key outstanding issue is the fate of about 1,500 M23 fighters who have
crossed into Uganda
and are languishing in camps along the border. Uganda has refused to hand them
over to the DR Congo.

Around 100 more injured rebels have crossed to Rwanda.

Kinshasa had
said earlier the rebels would be dealt with "case by case". Many
rank-and-file fighters were expected to be given the option to return to the
Congolese army.

More complicated is the fate of some 100 M23 commanders. These include M23
leader Sultani Makenga, accused of participating in several massacres,
mutilations, abductions and sexual violence, sometimes against children.

The failure — for now, at least — to sign a deal will disappoint many. The UN
special envoy to the Great Lakes, Mary
Robinson, told AFP that signing the accord would be "a very important step
for peace".

After defeating M23, she said operations would follow to neutralise other rebel
groups in a concerted effort to end one of Africa's
most brutal and longest-running wars.

But even if a deal is signed, stabilising eastern DR Congo will not be easy.
Previous peace deals for the region have foundered because they were not
implemented or did not address underlying problems.

Oxfam on Monday warned the "conflict is far from over", noting over
30 other armed groups operate in the region and civilians risk violence on a
daily basis.

Robinson said she believed Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President
Yoweri Museveni — who deny backing the M23 — were committed to an 11-nation
regional peace agreement signed in February.

She said the priority would now shift to defeating the DR Congo-based
Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a descendant of Hutu
extremist groups that carried out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Rwanda's
minority Tutsi-led government views the FDLR as a major security threat.
Dealing with the group is seen as crucial to addressing the neighbouring
country's concerns and preventing the emergence of yet another Rwandan-backed
proxy.