African Leaders Convene in Libya for Congo Peace Talks

Six African leaders have arrived in Libya for talks with its leader, Moammar Kadafi, hoping to bring peace to Congo, the official Libyan news agency Jana reported Friday.

It said Republic of Congo President Laurent Kabila; Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, who is the current chairman of the Organization of African Unity; Chad’s Idriss Deby; and Ange Felix Patasse from Central African Republic arrived Friday in the Libyan coastal city of Surt.

They joined Eritrean President Isayas Afewerki and Rwandan Vice President and Defense Minister Maj. Gen. Paul Kagame, who arrived Thursday night.

The agency, monitored in Tunis, said Kagame met Thursday night with Kadafi. Tanzania’s former President Julius Nyerere and former Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella also attended.

Libyan sources said a mini-African summit on Congo was expected to be held overnight.

Mustapha Niasse, the U.N. secretary-general’s special envoy for Congo, was also to take part at the meetings.

Nyerere, a frequent visitor to Libya, met Kadafi last week before talks with Kagame on Tuesday in the Tanzanian capital of Arusha.

The Libyan meeting takes place as Rwanda faces increasing pressure to end its military campaign in the Republic of Congo.

Rwanda and Uganda have deployed troops in Congo to back rebels who took up arms against Kabila in August and now control much of the east of the country.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and Kabila last month signed a peace accord brokered by Kadafi that calls for a cessation of hostilities, the withdrawal of all foreign troops and the deployment of an African peacekeeping force.

Kadafi later said he hoped Libyan troops would be deployed in eastern Congo by May 25 as part of an African peacekeeping force that would replace Rwandan and Ugandan troops.

Rwanda has so far shown no sign of being prepared to pull out its troops, but its regional neighbors hope that it will follow Museveni’s lead if he makes peace with Kabila.