HARARE,
August 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - President Robert Mugabe
said Tuesday, August 13, Zimbabwe is planing to withdraw its forces
from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), following recent peace
deals for the central African nation, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.
"The
developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, including the
signing of the peace agreement with Rwanda, provide the impetus for
the withdrawal of our forces from that country in terms of the (1999)
Lusaka peace accord," he said.
"I
would want to extend that notion by assuring the nation that we are
now going to work on a program of withdrawing all our forces from the
Democratic Republic of Congo," he added.
At
the height of its involvement, Zimbabwe deployed up to 12,000 troops
in the DRC to shore up the Kinshasa government against a rebellion
that broke out in 1998.
Last
week, the DRC defense chief Liwanga Mata Nyamunyobo said the number
was down to about 3,000, or less than one brigade.
Harare's
decision to back Kinshasa militarily came at a time when the
government was struggling financially to meet its obligations, and
economists have blamed the DRC war in part for Zimbabwe's steep
economic decline, AFP reported.
Inflation
in Zimbabwe runs at more than 110 percent, more than 60 percent of the
workforce in unemployed, and social services that once were the envy
of Africa have crumbled.
Despite
Zimbabwe's heavy involvement in the war, the government rarely refers
to it, leaving most people here unaware of exactly what their military
is doing in the DRC, a nation few Zimbabweans feel much connection to.
Mugabe
has exploited the conflict to secure favorable business deals for
Zimbabwean companies, especially in mining and timber. Zimbabwe also
relies heavily on electricity generated by dams in the DRC to keep the
lights on at home, AFP said.
In
his speech, Mugabe defended himself against critics who say the war
was a scramble for the DRC's vast natural riches, saying there was
"nothing sinister or extraordinary about Zimbabwe's deployment of
troops."
But
he again called on "the business community to make use of the
business opportunities that arise from the peace that the Zimbabwe
defense forces have helped create in the Democratic Republic of
Congo."
At
the height of the war, the DRC conflict drew in seven other nations,
Angola, Chad, Namibia and Zimbabwe on the government side, and
Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda supporting DRC rebels.
After
four years of fighting, the war is estimated to have claimed 2.5
million lives, either directly or indirectly through disease and
starvation
