Peace Negotiations Watch
Monday, May 16, 2005
(Volume IV, Number 18)
Contents:
Top Suspects In Afghanistan Are Included In Amnesty
American military leader suggests two top suspects could not be in amnesty program.
More than 1,000 register for Afghan parliamentary election, but few women
Women have not registered to run for office in various provinces.
Leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey hold separate talks on disputed region
Talks occur ahead of two-day Council of Europe summit.
U.N. official presses Burundi to move refugees from border with Rwanda
5,000 Rwandan refugees fearful of gacaca reprisals.
U.N. report accuses Burundi's new army, holdout rebels of rights abuses
Troops accused of rape and looting civilian homes.
Prospects of lasting peace strengthen as Burundi, rebels sign truce
Analyst says truce is the last step in a Burundian peace process.
Putin Should Defuse the Chechnya Time-Bomb
Op-ed states Bush and other western leaders failed to address issue of Chechnya with Putin.
Former Chechen separatist vice president reported killed by Russian forces
Former vice president reportedly an advocate of Shariah law.
Congo chooses Belgian company Zetes Pass to register voters for historic elections
Company to register and document nearly 55 million prospective voters.
Congo's legislature holds ceremony for country's new constitution
Elections must be held by June 2006.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation.
Bush wins enthusiastic welcome in former Soviet republic of Georgia
Bush visit to Tbilisi a high-point in U.S./Georgia relations.
Bush treads sensitive ground with offer to help Georgia's separatist conflicts
Analyst at think-tank in Moscow believes U.S. position will not really change.
U.N. representative meeting Georgian, Abkhazian officials in Abkhazia on security issues
Meeting scheduled to take place in Gali district, area controlled by UN observers.
Indonesia to end Aceh state of emergency, but anti-rebel operations to stay
Indonesian general says rebellion has increased since tsunami.
Tsunami rebuilding stalls survivors confront government delays, political squabbling
Only now are reconstruction agreements finally being signed.
Aceh Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Aceh Negotiation Simulation.
Warring sides in Ivory Coast reach disarmament deal
June 27 set as date for disarmament process to begin.
Work on power project continues in Kashmir despite World Bank intervention
Power project opposed by Pakistan, saying it violates pact.
Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Kashmir Negotiation Simulation
U.N. court in Kosovo sentences three former ethnic Albanian rebels for war crimes
The three were low-ranking members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
NATO's Secretary General calls for political talks between Kosovo and Serbia
De Hoop Scheffer calls for political maturity.
Kosovo's draft constitution widens Serbia gulf
Rugova announces Kosovo is working on creating a constitution.
Kosovo Negotiation Simulation
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Ex-child soldiers rampage through northern Liberia town to protest unpaid school fees
Authorities had promised to pay school fees under disarmament campaign.
Foreign ministers in southeast Europe discuss regional cooperation
Romanian foreign minister reminds other southeast European states that EU membership is available.
Moldovan prosecutors investigate arms smuggling in Russian-backed separatist region
Undercover reporter able to purchase rockets in Trans-Dniester region.
Nepal's political parties demand release of all political detainees
American diplomat expresses concern over repression of civil liberties in Nepal.
Nepal Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Nepal Negotiation Simulation.
US wants to single out Philippine rebels tied to terror groups: ambassador
Washington does not want to disrupt peace talks.
Is Serbia ready to host war crimes trials, experts ask
Discussion held at Belgrade Faculty of Law and organized by OSCE.
Serbian prime minister steps up campaign against independent Kosovo
Kostunica believes independence for Kosovo would destabilize region.
Somalia's parliament approves government request for peacekeepers and relocation plan
IGAD to deploy unspecified number of peacekeepers from Uganda and Sudan.
Foreign aid is no problem in Sri Lanka for post-tsunami reconstruction but domestic politics could be
Funding for reconstruction apparently plentiful.
Sri Lanka says coordinating tsunami aid with rebels could bridge country's ethnic divide
Tamil rebels have complained that aid has been slow to reach them.
Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the Sri Lanka Negotiation Simulation
U.N. resolutions authorizing sanctions and prosecutions in Darfur have increased tension
Protests have occurred in Darfur and in Khartoum.
Peace Negotiations Watch is prepared by the Public International Law and Policy Group in cooperation with American University and is made possible by grants from the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Ploughshares Fund.
Top Suspects In Afghanistan Are Included In Amnesty
Carlotta Gall, The New York Times, 5/9/05
The head of Afghanistan's peace and reconciliation commission offered an amnesty on Monday for all rebels fighting American and government forces, and even extended the offer to two of the most wanted Afghan terrorism suspects: the Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar and the renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. However, an American military spokesman seemed to suggest that the two suspects could not be included in the program.
The Afghan official, Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, said that even though government policy had formerly excluded people like Mullah Omar and Mr. Hekmatyar, he had been granted complete independence to act as he saw fit on the matter. ''This peace that we want is for all, there is no exception,'' Mr. Mojadeddi said. ''Those who are armed, they should lay down their weapons when they come, accept the Constitution, and obey the government. We will accept them with an open heart.''
Mr. Mojadeddi said that while he did not know how or where to contact Mullah Omar or Mr. Hekmatyar, the offer stood for them as well. ''We are announcing it today. Let us give them time to discuss and think about it, and let's see what is God's favor.'' He said the program was also open to inmates of the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and for detainees at military bases at Bagram and Kandahar, and had the agreement of American officials.
However, a United States military spokesman in Kabul, Col. James Yonts, seemed to cast doubt on Mr. Mojadeddi's offer to Mullah Omar and Mr. Hekmatyar, though he did not mention the two specifically. He said that while the military supported the reconciliation program and would offer assistance, all those guilty of terrorism or other serious crimes would not be allowed to join. All candidates would be screened by the National Security Council and intelligence officers, he said.
The announcement came as the American military reported further high casualties in fighting with suspected Taliban members in eastern Afghanistan. Two marines were killed when they searched a cave where militants had hidden Sunday evening after a fierce battle. Other marines called in air support, and the military said 23 insurgents were killed in the subsequent fighting.
American forces have fought heavy battles in two areas in southern Afghanistan in the past few days. Afghan officials and American commanders have said that they see the reconciliation process as an important step in getting Taliban supporters and other militants to give up fighting, especially in remote parts of southern and eastern Afghanistan.
Mr. Mojadeddi said 50 to 60 people had already approached the government and joined the reconciliation program, including the former Taliban foreign minister, Mullah Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, who has been under house arrest in Kabul for more than a year after American forces released him from custody. Another Taliban commander, Abdul Waheed Baghrani, gave himself up and joined the program recently, he said. He said 40 to 50 commanders and council members of Mr. Hekmatyar's party, the Islamic Party, had also pledged allegiance to the government of President Hamid Karzai and had come home in the past year and a half.
Mr. Karzai's government has always insisted that 100 to 150 members of the Taliban government and other antigovernment rebels who have committed crimes would be excluded from the reconciliation program. American military officials have also talked of a ''blacklist'' of the most wanted members of the former government that harbored Osama bin Laden and operatives of Al Qaeda for five years until October 2001. Mr. Hekmatyar is also wanted in connection with terrorist attacks against United States forces, American commanders have said.
But Mr. Mojadeddi, an influential religious and jihadi leader who led the first post-communist government in 1992, expressed a readiness to overlook accusations of war crimes against returning Taliban. When a journalist raised the issue, he answered: ''Brother, don't discuss war criminals, because there are lots of other war criminals. Which one of them should we put on trial first?''
More than 1,000 register for Afghan parliamentary election, but few women
Associated Press, 5/15/05
More than 1,000 people have stepped forward so far to contest Afghan parliamentary elections in September, although organizers said Sunday there was a shortage of female candidates. By Saturday, 1,035 Afghans had registered to run for the 249-seat lower house, said Sultan Baheen, a spokesman for the joint Afghan-U.N. electoral board. Another 596 registered as candidates in provincial council elections the same day.
However, they include only 125 women for the parliamentary vote and 16 for the provincial contest, and in some provinces no women have come forward at all - offsetting optimistic statements by Afghan and U.S. officials on improvements in women's rights. Baheen declined to comment on how authorities would fill seats reserved for women if not enough register to compete. He said organizers expected a surge in registrations before the deadline Thursday.
Election officials planned for up to 10,000 candidates for the elections, which are supposed to complete the country's transition to democracy after the ouster of the Taliban in 2001. Last year, the country adopted a new constitution and held a presidential election, which was easily won by U.S.-backed former interim leader Hamid Karzai.
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Armenia/Azerbaijan
Leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey hold separate talks on disputed region
David McHugh, Associated Press, 5/16/05
Azeri President Ilham Aliev has met with Armenian and Turkish leaders at separate talks on the disputed enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, an official said Monday. Aliev met first with Armenian President Robert Kocharian, followed by a meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said Council of Europe official Seyfi Tashan.
The meetings, which took place late Sunday and early Monday ahead of the two-day Council of Europe summit, focused on the presence of Armenian troops in Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous region inside Azerbaijan that has been under the control of ethnic Armenians since the early 1990s, following fighting that killed an estimated 30,000 people.
"I hope that negotiations will bring results," Aliyev was quoted as saying by the Interfax-Azerbaijan news agency. "The positions are well known. The issue has been discussed for years, and each side has its own position. These positions have been discussed again." A cease-fire was signed in 1994, but the enclave's final political status has not been determined and shooting breaks out frequently between the two sides, which face off across a demilitarized buffer zone.
Azerbaijan's Foreign Minister Elmar Mamdyarov said on private ATV television Monday that one focus of the talks was possible Armenian withdrawal from seven occupied regions adjacent to Nagorno-Karabakh. "They agree to return all the regions but they're thinking about when," he said.
Speaking at the summit, Armenian President Kocharian said his country was looking "to find ways of including the de-facto established Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh into the European process of integration." Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said in his speech that "Armenia is not only occupying parts of Azerbaijan, it also refuses to recognize its border with Turkey and has historic claims on some parts of eastern Turkey."
French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also took part in the talks, officials said. France, Russia and the United States lead the Minsk Group under the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is seeking to assist a diplomatic solution.
U.N. official presses Burundi to move refugees from border with Rwanda
Aloys Niyoyita, Associated Press, 5/10/05
Burundi should move hundreds of Rwandan asylum seekers from the border after they fled into the country because of fears of traditional community courts that are trying people accused of participating in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, a U.N. official said Tuesday. Some 5,000 Rwandan asylum seekers are living along the border with Rwanda, said Catherine Lune Grayson, a spokeswoman for the United Nations' refugee agency in Burundi.
Most of the asylum seekers are from Rwanda's Hutu ethnic majority, officials said. More than 500,000 minority Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed in the 100-day genocide in 1994 in Rwanda. At least 760,000 Rwandans accused of crimes during the genocide are to be tried by the newly established community courts, known as Gacaca. United Nations officials transferred some 1,800 of the asylum seekers to two transit centers further inland in Burundi in mid-April, Grayson said.
The operation, however, was halted on April 23 by Burundian authorities to enable them and their Rwandan counterparts to meet the asylum seekers in an effort to ease their fears and encourage them to voluntarily return home, she said. Several hundred have returned to Rwanda as a result of the campaign, which is set to end on May 12. "We wish to continue helping these people. But we want to assist them far from the boarder for security reasons, in line with international conventions," Grayson said.
U.N. report accuses Burundi's new army, holdout rebels of rights abuses
Aloys Niyoyita, Associated Press, 5/12/05
Members of Burundi's new army troops execute suspected supporters of the country's last active rebel group, and their adversaries continue to rape and loot civilian homes even as they prepare for peace talks, a United Nations official said Thursday. Security has not improved since the government and main rebel groups signed a series of cease-fires, formed a transitional government and agreed to integrate their troops into the new National Defense Force, Gillian Kitley said.
The arrangements were part of a power-sharing deal intended to end a 12-year civil war between rebels from the Hutu ethnic majority and the former government that was dominated by the Tutsi minority. Abuses, however, continue, said Kitley, head of the human rights section of the U.N. Mission in Burundi.
"An international non-governmental organization receives 120-140 cases of rape each month," but many more incidents are never reported, according to the report. "We are hopping that training on human rights that we are carrying out with army and police will help improve the human rights situation," Kitley said. Burundi's Army Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Germain Niyoyankana rejected charges that the army has failed to punish troops accused of taking part in the abuses.
"There were no reports of looting or killing of civilians that have not been punished according to army rules and regulations," Niyoyankana said. "Our big problem, however, is that the victims prefer to keep silent or refuse to report abuses to commanders of nearby army check points."
The most recent fighting in Burundi began in 1993 when the country's first democratically elected president, a Hutu, was assassinated by paratroopers from the Tutsi-dominated former army. More than 250,000 people have died, most of them civilians, in the violence that followed.
A new transitional government was formed in 2003 after a power-sharing deal was struck with the largest Hutu rebel group. On April 13, the last holdout rebel group, the National Liberation Force, agreed to stop fighting once peace talks begin with the government. The talks are expected to open Sunday in neighboring Tanzania.
Prospects of lasting peace strengthen as Burundi, rebels sign truce
Agence France Presse, 5/16/05
Hopes of a lasting peace in Burundi have risen following the weekend signing of a truce between the government and the country's recalcitrant National Liberation Forces (FNL), the sole rebel group yet to disarm. Analysts have lauded the weekend signature between President Domitien Ndayizeye and the FNL leader Agathon Rwasa in the Tanzanian capital of Dar es Salaam in what they consider as the home stretch in the hunt for a lasting peace in Burundi.
"The event that we have witnessed is historic ... It is the last step in the Burundi peace process," Jan Van Eck, a Burundi analyst told AFP. "The FNL have proved their will to find peace, they did not impose conditions and the chances of a lasting real peace are high," said another diplomat who preferred not to be named.
On Sunday, the two leaders signed an agreement to immediately end all hostilities and to engage in modalities of a permanent ceasefire within the "shortest time possible," without compromising the election timetable, effectively paving way to an end to a 12-year civil war in Burundi. The tiny central African nation is still struggling from the devastation of a 12-year civil war that pitted the country's Tutsi dominated army and Hutu rebels and claimed the lives of some 300,000 people.
Six of its seven rebel groups have signed ceasfire agreements with the government, including the main rebel movement, Forces for the defence of Democracy (FDD), leaving out the FNL, which has continued engaging the army in deadly combats in the outskirts of the capital Bujumbura. The ceasefire deal announcement comes just months ahead of Burundi's marathon elections to culminate with the election of the country's new president. Between June 3 and August 19, a series of municipal and legislative elections are set to take place and will mark the first of such since the country plunged into chaos slightly more than a decade ago.
"The FNL should take the train before it gets to the (next) station, they shall not have missed the occasion," said Carolyn McAskie, chief of the UN Operation in Burundi (ONUB). "The FNL did not have any other choice," said another diplomat on conditions of anonymity. "They were either to join the process now or be totally out after the elections." Analysts say that Ndayizeye's Front for Democracy in Burundi (FRODEBU) stands to benefit if the FNL gave up arms.
For on the one hand, the FNL cannot field candidates in the coming general elections owing to time constrains and hence could call on its supporters to vote for FRODEBU. Such a move, they say, would be beneficial to FRODEBU because of FNL's popularity in the country's northwestern region, especially in rural Bujumbura. While on the other hand, because the FRODEBU feels threatened by the FDD in the wake of recent acrimony between them over the appointment of a new interior minister, the FNL would come handy in boosting FRODEBU's political clout.
But the FNL might, however, have their own political interests to guard and it would be difficult to integrate them in the government ahead of the elections. And under the 2000 Arusha peace process signed in Tanzania, any rebel group joining the government must have their troops in the country's army. However, no date has been fixed for the next round of talks between the government and the FNL rebels.
Putin Should Defuse the Chechnya Time-Bomb
Rajan Menon and Peter Reddaway, Financial Times (London), 5/12/05
In their talks in Moscow with Vladimir Putin during Monday's 60th anniversary celebration of the Nazi defeat, George W. Bush, the US president, and his western colleagues avoided an issue Mr Putin is disturbingly loath to address - Russia's war in Chechnya. Chechnya is a small place far from Moscow, and the visitors presumably had other matters on their minds, particularly Russia's creeping authoritarianism and its harassment of its neighbours.
Yet the Chechnya war has contributed much to the erosion of Russia's democracy and Mr Putin is nowhere near either a military victory or a political solution. The Kremlin would have us believe otherwise. On March 8 Russian troops killed Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov, and Mr Putin hailed the event as a milestone on the road to victory. In fact, Maskhadov's death will make ending the war much harder. Many Russians believe that Kremlin hardliners disposed of Maskhadov to torpedo a chance for negotiations. His killing came soon after his London representative met with the committee of soldiers' mothers, a Russian civic group dedicated to peace in Chechnya. Shortly before his death, Maskhadov reiterated his call for a ceasefire and talks with Mr Putin aimed at achieving autonomy for Chechnya within the Russian Federation. This challenged Moscow's refrain that the Chechen resistance lacks voices of reason and contains only terrorists intent on complete independence.
With Maskhadov gone, this claim could prove a self-fulfilling prophecy. Maskhadov was the leading voice for compromise. With his killing, the balance of power may shift to Chechen Islamists committed to continued war, foremost among them Shamil Basayev.
Moscow needs to change course. Western experts have claimed that the Kremlin's plan for parliamentary elections in Chechnya is the best hope for progress. But these commentators usually ignore the increasingly chaotic north Caucasian context, of which the war is only a part, and the radical makeover of Kremlin policy that is required if a political settlement is to be attained. Mr Putin portrays the war as a fight against Islamic fundamentalism and international terrorism. In reality it stems from Chechen nationalism, a force with deep historical roots.
Ever since Chechnya's growing chaos prompted the Kremlin in 1999 to relaunch the war that it began in 1994, Chechnya has again been a scene of destruction, "disappearances", hostage takings and "cleansing operations". These frequently target Chechens who are not involved in the fighting and are often conducted by Moscow's vicious Chechen puppets. Unsurprisingly, vows of vengeance abound in Chechnya. Terrorists do not lack recruits.
In such circumstances, Maskhadov's killing has made it harder than ever to draw moderate oppositionists into the peace process. Moreover, Chechnya remains an economic wasteland from which over 100,000 Chechen refugees have fled to live in squalor elsewhere. Meaningful elections are impossible unless their demolished or damaged homes are rebuilt, and until they can eke out a living - preconditions impossible amid a war which, as a leading Moscow newspaper noted recently, has turned Grozny, Chechnya's capital, into "the Stalingrad of our times". Nor will Chechen resistance groups participate in a vote without guarantees of their leaders' safety.
Russia is not winning the war; nor can it transfer power to a local, pro-Moscow government capable of surviving without Russian bayonets. Only a peace process including Chechen resistance groups can end the fighting.
The violence of Chechnya is spreading across the north Caucasus, where extremists of other ethnic groups are using terrorist tactics to pursue their own agendas. The problems of new terrorist networks and threats to Caspian oil pipelines are set to intensify. Globalisation will ensure that Russia's turmoil travels.
Thus, the Kremlin must launch bold, difficult, long-term initiatives before it can hold fair elections in Chechnya and stabilise its increasingly shaky south. Mr Putin needs to rebuild Chechnya's society and economy; restore effective government in the north Caucasus; counter the xenophobic trends in Russia's society and state; and seek the assistance of other governments and international organisations for rebuilding Chechnya. Moscow must rethink its entire strategy. World leaders should impress this fact on Mr Putin without delay. It is in the west's interest as well as Russia's.
Rajan Menon is a professor of international relations at Lehigh University and a fellow at the New America Foundation. Peter Reddaway is professor emeritus of political science at George Washington University and former director of the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies.
Former Chechen separatist vice president reported killed by Russian forces
Jim Heintz, Associated Press, 5/15/05
Russian forces in Chechnya killed four rebels, including a man believed to be the republic's former separatist vice president Vakha Arsanov, reports said Sunday. The four were killed in a village outside the Chechen capital Grozny after Interior Ministry forces surrounded a house and demanded that fighters holed up inside surrender, the ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing Chechen deputy Interior Minister Sultan Satuyev.
The report quoted him as saying that Arsanov's body was identified by local residents who knew him well. However, other news reports suggested the bodies were badly disfigured by fire that broke out in the house. A spokesman for the Interior Ministry, Ruslan Atzayev, told The Associated Press that the identity of those killed could be confirmed only after examination by experts. Arsanov was a leading rebel commander in the 1994-96 war with Russian forces that ended with the Russian army's withdrawal and Chechnya becoming de-facto independent. In 1997 elections, he became vice president under Aslan Maskhadov.
Arsanov also was a strong advocate of the implementation of Islamic Sharia law in Chechnya, a move that Maskhadov made with apparent reluctance as a concession to the growing influence of Muslim fundamentalists in the republic. He also was regarded as a key figure behind the kidnappings of foreigners and journalists that plagued the republic during its years outside Russian control.
ITAR-Tass said Arsanov was fired by Maskhadov in early 1999, about six months before Russian forces renewed fighting in Chechnya, and that he commanded resistance fighters in Grozny. However, a rebel-linked web site said he was fired in 2001, apparently for refusing to fight Russian forces.
His recent activities were unclear. Some reports said had moved to Tsenteroi, the home village of the clan of Akhmad Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed Chechen president who was assassinated in a bomb blast in May 2004, and that he developed close relations with Kadyrov. Other reports said he was believed to have been seized this year by security forces led by Kadyrov's son Ramzan. Maskhadov was killed in a Russian operation in early March.
Congo chooses Belgian company Zetes Pass to register voters for historic elections
Eddy Isango, Associated Press, 5/12/05
A Belgian company will handle the identification and registration of about 55 million prospective voters as Congo lays the groundwork for landmark postwar elections, officials said Thursday. The Brussels-based company Zetes Pass will arrive soon in Congo with 10,000 mobile phones, 10,000 digital cameras, 10,000 digital fingerprinting machines and 10,000 generators to begin registering voters in the vast country, Election Commission Chairman Apollinaire Malumalu said.
Malumalu said the materials and the logistics to distribute them would cost about US$44 million (€35 million). A transitional government arranged under peace deals to end Congo's 1998-2002 war is charged with arranging elections before June 30, although a delay was expected. Congo, a former Belgian colony the size of western Europe, was thrown into turmoil in 1996 after Rwandan-backed rebels invaded the country to overthrow longtime dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.
In 1998, Uganda and Rwanda invaded again, sparking a devastating five-year, six-country war that aid groups estimate killed nearly 4 million people, mostly through hunger and disease. Myriad obstacles now stand in the way of holding elections in the Central African country, where roads often turn wild and melt into the thick jungle. About 1 million people are displaced from their homes at any given time by continued strife. Elections haven't been held in Congo during the past four decades of strife and corrupt, autocratic rule.
Congo's legislature holds ceremony for country's new constitution
Bryan Mealer, Associated Press, 5/16/05
The legislature officially ratified Congo's new constitution Monday, moving the nation a step closer to elections and reconciliation after nearly four decades of dictatorship and war. The central African giant made the charter adopted Friday official Monday in a ceremony attended by Congolese leaders and international figures, including South African President Thabo Mbeki - who helped broker peace deals that ended Congo's 1998-2003 war.
Under the new constitution, presidential and parliamentary elections must now be held by June 2006 - Congo's first balloting in nearly 40 years. President Laurent Kabila promised in an address that the vote would go ahead, but didn't make the anxiously awaited announcement of a firm date. "The irreversible step toward elections has been taken," said Kabila. "This train is moving. Elections will really take place." During Kabila's speech, the house frequently erupted with applause and raucous rumbling from attendees pounding on their wooden tables.
Monday's ceremony came on the eve of the anniversary of former rebel leader Laurent Kabila's 1997 march into Congo's capital, Kinshasa - a thrust that officially ended Cold War-era dictator Mobutu Sese Seko's deeply corrupt and ruinous three-decade rule. Laurent Kabila, who became president, was assassinated by his own bodyguard in 2001, thrusting his son Joseph Kabila into power. The new constitution replaces a transitional constitution adopted in South Africa in 2002 under Mbeki's tutelage that ended a years-long war against the younger Kabila's government that began in 1998. Kabila now leads a power-sharing administration that includes former warring parties.
Congo's transitional government is attempting to piece the country back together after the latest war - a conflict that aid groups say killed nearly 4 million people, mostly through hunger and sickness. After Monday's parliamentary approval of the new charter, it must be put to a national referendum within six months for popular certification. The constitution mandates presidential elections by June 2006, and lowers the minimum age for candidates from 35 to 30 - allowing Kabila, 33, to seek re-election.
The new, 226-article constitution also gives a president up to two five-year terms in office, and promises free primary education to all children. It sets up a system of checks and balances between the president, prime minister and parliament, and recognizes all ethnic groups living in Congo at the time of independence in June 1960.
The article on ethnicity is intended primarily for residents of ethnic Tutsi origin, who were brought mainly from neighboring Rwanda when Congo was a colony of Belgium. Tutsis are a minority in both Congo and Rwanda, and have been the target of attacks for years.
Democratic Republic of Congo Negotiation Simulation
Click here to access the DR Congo Negotiation Simulation prepared by the Public International Law & Policy Group.