Kabila approves UN peacekeepers

Signs of peace once more

The Democratic Republic of Congo has authorised the deployment of UN military observers to monitor a ceasefire - shortly after announcing that the peace process was suspended.

Ambassador Kamel Morjane, the head of the UN military observer mission in DR Congo, announced on Thursday morning that he had received authorisation from the government to deploy UN military observers and support troops in government-held territory.

President Laurent Kabila has been rejecting the deployment of peacekeepers for the past several months and the BBC correspondent in Kinshasa says the change in stance represents a breakthrough.

Kabila: Surprise turnaround

On Tuesday, the Congolese Government said that the peace accord aimed at ending the two-year civil war was to be suspended because of ceasefire violations.

According to Mr Morjane, preparations for the depoloyment can start immediately, but no date has yet been set for the arrival of the troops.

UN envoy

He attributed the breakthrough to meetings held on Tuesday and Wednesday between Abdusalam Abubakar, the former Nigerian president and UN special envoy to the Congo, and Mr Kabila.

Mr Morjane said he was confident about the agreement, despite the government's decision to distance itself from the Lusaka peace process.

Abubakar: Talks apparently bore fruit

Although the final decision on whether to deploy rests with the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Mr Morjane said that the deployment of UN observers and troops could proceed even if there were problems with the Lusaka peace accords.

Our correspondent says however that the fabric of the peace has been clearly undermined by the Kabila government's rejection of the Lusaka process and much will now depend on how the various rebel factions and their Rwandan and Ugandan backers react.

Accord suspended

On Wednesday, Human Rights Minister Leonard She Okitundu said the government's decision to suspend the peace accord was motivated by fighting between Ugandan and Rwandan troops in Kisangani, as well as the ongoing looting of Congolese resources by Rwanda and Uganda.

Lusaka peace talks: Accord never became a reality

He said that in their current form the peace accords no longer reflected the reality of the situation in the country.

Making a sharp distinction between the international and domestic aspects of the conflict, Mr Okitundu instead proposed the holding of a quadrapartite summit between Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Congo to discuss the various countries security concerns and the withdrawal of all non-invited foreign troops.

In order to resolve the domestic aspect of the war, Mr Okitundu said that the government must hold a dialogue with the armed and unarmed opposition - a proposal also included in the Lusaka peace accords.

Mr Kabila's opponents have accused his own forces of breaching the ceasefire.

And the United Nations Security Council has criticised the president for unilaterally inaugurating a new transitional parliament.

The UN said the decision showed a lack of commitment to the Lusaka peace accord, which demands full participation by all factions in the country's political structures.