- Title: MOZAMBIQUE: SUMMIT OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY (SADC) WRAPS UP
- Date: 19th August 1999
- Summary: MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE (AUGUST 18, 1999) (REUTERS) 1. WIDE OF MAPUTO TOWN HALL 0.04 2. WIDE OF SIGNING CLOSING CEREMONY SADC WITH PRESIDENT THABO MBEKI (SOUTH AFRICA) ON THE PODIUM 0.09 3. CUTAWAY AHMED SALIM SECRETARY GENERAL OF ORGANISATION OF AFRICAN UNITY (OAU) 0.13 4. CUTAWAY PRESIDENT JOSE DOS SANTOS OF ANGOLA 0.17 5. SOUNDBITE
- Embargoed: 3rd September 1999 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MAPUTO, MOZAMBIQUE
- Country: Mozambique
- Reuters ID: LVA5LPZD6N2F0E62VDV18Z2CBFN0
- Story Text: Leaders from the 14-member Southern African
Development Community (SADC) wrapped up a summit in Mozambique
on Wednesday, renewing their call for peace in the
war-battered Democratic Republic of the Congo.
They also took an important step towards concluding an
elusive free trade pact, which it said would be a crucial
boost to growth in this impoverished region.
All 14 members of the South African Development Committee
ratified a protocol on Wednesday (August 18) in which they called on
rich nations to write off foreign debt and expressed concern over
recent central bank and IMF gold sales.
South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse, was one
of three member countries which had not yet ratified the pact,
but was expected to do so this year.
In any case, South Africa has said it will unilaterally
cut a great number of trade tariffs from January in
partnership with the other members of the South African
Customs Union: Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia.
The protocol included a number of major decisions.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said "The first of
these is a protocol on wildlife conservation and law
enforcement and second one is a protocol on health.And the
declaration is a declaration of productivity in SADC."
SADC includes some of the most impoverished countries in
the world, and the summit made a widely expected call for
greater forgiveness from the burden of foreign debt payments,
which it said diverts scarce cash from spending on schools and
hospitals.
Summit host Mozambique last month won relief for 90
percent of its external debt, saving around 100 million US
dollars a year, under an International Monetary Fund
initiative for heavily indebted poor countries (HIPC).
They also agreed to implement a shaky ceasefire agreement
in the Congo and said that key rebel factions which had not
yet committed themselves to the peace pact aimed at ending the
year-long war would soon sign up.
In a statement issued after the talks, SADC leaders said
they had undertaken measures to ensure that the rebels sign
the ceasefire agreement which would pave the way for the
withdrawal of foreign forces from the Congo.
"The summit should really expand commitment to persist in
its effort to assist the people of Congo, bring an end to all
hostilities and call upon the international community to
increase support to these efforts," Kaire Mbuende, SADC's
executive secretary said.
The peace process in the former Zaire has limped along
since early July, when Rwanda and Uganda together with the
Congo and its allies Namibia, Angola and Zimbabwe endorsed a
peace treaty that the rebels failed to sign because of
internal divisions.
Mozambique President and new SADC chairman Joachim Chissano said
the summit had been briefed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni and
Rwandan President Pasteur Bizimungu who agreed to end their military
hostilities in the Congo city of Kisangani.
"After the briefing which we had this afternoon, both from
President Cheluba and from the president of Uganda and the
president of Rwanda, we hope to conclude the Lusaka process in
a short period to come.So this will open the way for
implementation of the Lusaka agreement and that this will lead
to the internal process in the Congo," Chissano said.
Three days of pitched battles in the city ended on Tuesday
when Uganda and Rwanda agreed to a ceasefire, paving the way
for the leaders of the two countries to go to the SADC summit
at the invitation of regional heavyweight South Africa to seek
a final peace solution in the Congo.
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