CENTRAL AFRICA: ANGOLA AND ZIMBABWE TO TAKE TROOPS OUT OF DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO AS REBELS APPEAL TO UNO

The Belgian Foreign Minister, Louis Michel, declared in Uganda yesterday that "neither Angola nor Zimbabwe, for different reasons, intend to stay in the DR Congo. They wish to abandon the country and the conflict." These countries have between them a total force of around 22,000 men, mostly in Kinshasa, the capital, due to the recent instability created by the assassination of President Laurent-Desire Kabila. The son of the deceased president, General Joseph Kabila, was sworn into office yesterday and it is planned to complete the legal formalisation of his Presidency today.Meanwhile the rebel movements, supported by Uganda and Rwanda, control the eastern half of the country. Kin-Kiey Mulumba, spokesman of the largest group, RCD (Congolese Union for Democracy), called for the United Nations Organization not to recognise the regime of General Joseph Kabila: "Our movement demands that the Organization of African Unity, in accordance with a resolution agreed in Algiers in 1999, does not recognise a power which results from a coup d'etat. We ask the same from the UNO".Mr. Mulumba pointed out that Belgium, the former colonial power in the Congo, is the only country to have formally recognised Joseph Kabila's new regime. Some observers fear that the whole region could explode into multi-ethnic conflict and Angola and Zimbabwe are getting out while they can before the fighting degenerates into full-scale war. Other observers take a more cautious approach, which is that the sides directly involved in the conflict (Uganda, DR Congo and Rwanda) are near to agreement and that the terms of the Lusaca Peace Agreement of July 1999 should be implemented soon. With half the DR Congo controlled by the rebels, whose main party refuses to accept the leadership of Joseph Kabila, a general, it would appear that the stage is set for an all-out conflict between the Congolese armed forces and the rebels. These will continue to be supported directly by Rwanda and Uganda and the peripheral states indirectly involved, Burundi, Angola, Zimbabwe would be strongly destabilised in this event, our correspondent Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey reports from Lisbon.