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Misanet.com / afrol News, 7 May - Congolese President Joseph Kabila, on a three-day visit in Tanzania, this weekend made statements on the need for peace in the Great Lakes region. Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa assured his country's further cooperation. Dar es Salaam residents and Congolese people living in the country yesterday braved heavy rains and turned up in their hundreds to give an enthusiastic welcome to Joseph Kabila, the President of Congo Kinshasa (DRC) on his arrival, the Tanzanian Sunday Observer reports. Kabila, the President of Africa's third largest country, jetted in at 11.10 a.m. to start a three-day visit to Tanzania. He was received by his host President Benjamin Mkapa and other government leaders. President Mkapa assured Joseph Kabila that Tanzania will give all necessary support in the implementation of the Lusaka Peace Agreement. Mkapa said this yesterday during a state banquet he hosted for his guest at the Sheraton Hotel. Mkapa said Tanzanians helped in making sure that the agreement was signed, affirming it was again ready to spearhead its implementation towards building the new DRC. He said he still believed the implementation of the Lusaka peace initiative was the only peaceful and right path which would bring peace in Congo Kinshasa. The President also commended foreign armies for pulling back their troops, and the United Nations for deploying troops to the DRC. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia are backing the government in the war which started in 1998, whereas Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi are behind the rebel groups which control almost 60 per cent of the country. Uganda and Rwanda have pulled back their troops while, Zimbabwe and Angola are beginning to follow suit. The United Nations has already deployed 823 observers and troops. President Kabila said his country and the whole of Africa needed peace for the well-being of their people. He said despite the fact that civil war was tearing apart his country, he still believed that as a nation, it needed to build good relations with neighbours. "War and brutality can end within a short time, but we need peace, not only in the DRC, but in Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, and that is my message to Tanzanians," he said. Kabila further at a press conference in Zanzibar said an African federation will not soon materialise as long as some African countries use their forces to invade other African countries. He said it was unrealistic to think of a federation now when his half of his country is occupied by foreign troops. "We cannot talk of democracy now when there invading invasion in the DRC," he insisted, saying he had suspended all political parties in DRC until the fighting stopped. Talking about rebels in Congo, he said that they were his comrades but they only differed in how the country should be governed. Their common enemy were the invading forces of invasion, he said, according to The Guardian, reporting from Zanzibar. Since he assumed the presidency after the assassination of his father, Laurent Desire Kabila in January this year, Joseph Kabila has toured the USA, France, Germany and the former colonial power; Belgium. He has asked the superpowers to help to rebuild the DRC badly affected by the 33 month old civil war which has caused the death of at least two million people. In April, Joseph fired the entire cabinet he inherited from his late father, in what observers said was a move to create a new and clean government capable of leading the Congolese out of the mire of civil conflict. Kabila is seen by many as the right man to bring to an end the war that has been tearing apart this resource rich country in the heart of the continent, the Sunday Observer observed.
Sources: Based on aticles in The Guardian and the Sunday Observer (via Misanet)
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