African Leaders Discuss Wars
By HRVOJE HRANJSKI Associated Press Writer; Jul 11, 1999
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) -
Greeted by warriors on camels and a band of flute and drums, African heads of state poured into the Algerian capital Sunday to prepare for their final summit of the century. A tent was pitched for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, and former rebel leader Foday Sankoh made his international debut as a member of the new Sierra Leone government.
The unresolved border war between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the uncertain Congolese peace agreement were to top the agenda when the three-day summit of the 52-member Organization of African Unity gets under way Monday.
The fanfare greeted regional leaders as they arrived at Algiers' newly opened Sheraton Hotel, 15 miles outside the capital. The summit will be held in an adjacent conference center.
The foreign ministers adopted an agenda early Sunday leaving discussion of the 13-month war between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the civil war in Congo the heads of state.
Tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of civilians have been killed in the Ethiopian-Eritrean border dispute, and more than half-million residents on both sides of the frontier have been chased from their homes.
Both countries have accepted an 11-point OAU framework agreement on ending hostilities, but they differ over how to implement it.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on his arrival in Algiers that ``not much'' had happened during his discussions in the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Friday. It was not clear whether Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, who reportedly participated in the talks by telephone, would attend the summit.
The talks were organized by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who has made his first appearance at the OAU summit in decades, and who has already been mediating between warring sides in Congo.
Since the United Nations suspended sanctions against Libya earlier this year in exchange for Gadhafi's surrender for trial of two suspects in bombing of a U.S. airliner in 1988, the charismatic Libyan leader has been trying to assume a leading role on the continent.
Former U.S. National Security Adviser Anthony Lake has been in Algiers since Saturday, also hoping to help resolve the Horn of Africa conflict.
Lake traveled with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Susan Rice, who met with Rwandan and South African delegates to discuss possible American support for an international force in Congo.
Rwanda and Uganda signed a peace agreement Saturday in the Zambian capital of Lusaka with Congolese President Laurent Kabila and his allies Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia.
But the divided rebels, who are fighting to topple Kabila, failed to sign the accord because they could not agree who should be representing them.
The agreement calls for a cease-fire within 24 hours and asks the United Nations or the OAU to deploy an international force to monitor the cease-fire and the disarmament of Rwandan Hutu militiamen responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was expected to discuss with Kabila and Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu what mandate and role the United Nations can play in Congo.
The Hutu militia are fighting alongside the Congolese Armed Forces.
Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, who wanted the agreement brokered before the OAU summit, said he would return to talks with the rebels after he comes back from Algiers.