UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed news today that the Congolese government has disarmed thousands of Rwandan Hutu rebels, in what he called a positive step towards peace in the country.
Annan said Congolese President Joseph Kabila had promised, to show the UN military observer mission to the Congo (MONUC) a site in the south of the country where 3,000 Rwandan rebels had been disarmed.
Rwanda invaded the Congo in 1998 because it said the country was being used as a base for Rwandan rebels to attack their homeland.
It accused Congo's government of integrating some of the Rwandan rebels - including people who led Rwanda's 1994 genocide - into its own armed forces, and of sending military aid to others operating in the forests of eastern Congo.
The disarmament of those and other militia groups is one the biggest obstacles to finding a lasting peace in the Congo, but Annan said he was working hard to help the region's governments find a solution.
Annan said positive signs have been multiplying recently in the search for peace in the Congo, although much more remained to be done.
In particular, he welcomed the withdrawal of all Namibian troops from the Congo as the first country which signed a 1999 ceasefire accord to pull its soldiers out. He appealed for all foreign forces to follow suit as soon as possible.
Annan also said he was encouraged by an agreement among government, rebels, opposition groups and leaders of Congo society to start a national dialogue in Ethiopia in October aimed at charting a political future for Africa's third largest country.
A peace deal signed two years ago initially did little to stop the fighting in a war that has sucked in six foreign armies and is thought to have claimed more than a million lives, but more progress has been made since Kabila took over from his murdered father as Democratic Republic of Congo president in January.
The front lines have been quiet this year, allowing the U.N. to deploy hundreds of unarmed military observers, who say the warring parties have largely completed a planned disengagement from forward positions.
Annan, who arrived in Congo on Saturday to bolster the peace process, also met opposition politicians and civil society representatives on Sunday as well as diplomats.
The secretary-general is due to fly to the rebel-held town of Kisangani tomorrow and on to the Rwandan capital Kigali for talks with President Paul Kagame, who has more than 10,000 soldiers in Congo backing the rebels.
Uganda also has troops in the country backing another rebel movement, although it has been steadily withdrawing its forces. Zimbabwe and Angola still have thousands of soldiers in the Congo supporting Kabila.