PRESS CONFERENCE BY FOREIGN MINISTERS OF ZIMBABWE AND NAMIBIA

The agreement by the warring sides in the Democratic Republic of Congo to pull back their troops 15 kilometres from the point of contact on 15 March was an important first stage in the peace process, the Foreign Minister of Zimbabwe, Stanislaus Mudenge, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

      He said that the pull-out, which would start on 28 February with a

200-kilometre unilateral withdrawal by Rwanda, would be the first time that opposing forces had moved away from each other.  Both the unilateral withdrawal and the 15 March withdrawal would be monitored by United Nations observers.  The next stage would be complete withdrawal of all foreign troops.  He called for a realistic presence of the United Nations in the Democratic Republic and said the number of peacekeepers agreed upon by the Security Council -– 5,500 -- was inappropriate.

“The United Nations has 12,000 forces in Sierra Leone, the international community has 45,000 in Kosovo, yet the United Nations can only commit 5,500 to the DRC,” he added.  "There should be more generosity and more willingness to help us in the Congo”.

In a follow-up statement, the Namibian Foreign Minister, Theo-Ben Gurirab said that the signatories of the Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement had come to New York ready for peace and speaking with one voice.  Although there was still much to be done, everyone was ready to take the steps needed in order to achieve a lasting and complete peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Responding to a question on the possibility of Rwanda failing to withdraw on 28 February, Mr. Mugende said that he did not think that would happen.  If it did, it would mean there was no agreement, since the initial withdrawal by Rwanda was part of the agreement signed by all the parties involved in the conflict.

The warring parties, he said, had approached the United Nations as a team committed to peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.  That commitment had been thoroughly explored by the Security Council.  The Council had concluded that the parties were indeed committed to peace and had, therefore, unanimously passed the resolution today.

Mr. Gurirab recalled that in June 2000 the warring parties had spoken as separate groups.  This time, they had agreed on a Chairman who spoke for all of them.  That was significant and a step in the right direction.  They were currently involved in consolidating the trust that now existed between them, in order to implement the other stages towards peace, as stated in the Lusaka Agreement.  They were confident and believed that the time had come to see each other as partners, rather than as enemies.

Concerning a date for complete withdrawal, Mr. Mugende said that the warring parties would be coming back to the Security Council once they had agreed among themselves how it should be done.

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