MEDIA REACTION DRC PEACE PACT; HARARE

UNCLAS HARARE 001785 SIPDIS DEPT FOR INR/R/MR, AF/PD, AF/S, AF/RA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OIIP KPAO ZI SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION DRC PEACE PACT; HARARE ¶1. Under headline "DRC peace pact: not another mirage, please" the independent "Daily News" dedicated its August 2 editorial to persuading the leaders of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to implement their peace deal, saying "this pact cannot be allowed to evaporate like another mirage." Excerpts: ¶2. "Last Tuesday, Paul Kagame, the president of Rwanda, and Joseph Kabila, the President of the DRC, signed a memorandum of understanding on the way to end the four-year conflict in that vast country. . .What is crucial for the pact to succeed is for both South Africa and U. N. to convince the two leaders that if the fighting continues. . .their respective countries will sink deeper and deeper into the morass of poverty, driving into the distant future the prospect of their people ever enjoying the fruits of the independence their countries won in the 1960s. Kagame and Kabila must be convinced that this pact cannot be allowed to evaporate like another mirage. . . Kagame and Kabila will need to display tremendous courage, tolerance and even statesmanship if they are to save their people from the further punishment of senseless killings. . . ." SULLIVAN