That requirement is now waived. He did not give a date for starting the deployment. Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia are backing Kabila. A cease-fire was agreed in the Zambian capital, Lusaka, in July 1999, but it has not been respected by any of the parties. Congo's human rights minister told diplomats at an open meeting on Wednesday that Congo had decided to suspend implementation of the Lusaka accord because circumstances had changed since it was signed in 1999.
Congo now wants to have fresh, direct talks with Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
Rwanda rejected that on Thursday, Foreign Minister Andre Bumaya saying the Lusaka accord offered the only way out of the conflict. Morjane said the government decision on the Lusaka agreement would not affect the U.N. deployment. In Washington, the State Department said it was seeking a clarification of the Kinshasa government's position, in light of the apparent contradiction between the minister's remarks and the letter to the United Nations. The United States has repeatedly accused Kabila's government of failing to live up to the commitments it made in the Lusaka agreement. Washington expelled two Congolese diplomats this week in retaliation for Kinshasa's expulsion of two U.S. diplomats accused of making provocative comments at a dinner.