DR Congo, M23 Rebels Fail to Sign Peace Deal

The Democratic Republic of Congo and defeated M23 rebels failed to sign a peace deal Monday hoped to be a key step in ending decades of war, after Kinshasa demanded the agreement be revised.

The "DRC delegation has aborted the signing of agreement with M23," Ugandan government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said, adding that the meeting was adjourned without a new date scheduled.

The rebels, one of many armed groups operating in the mineral-rich but impoverished east of the DR Congo, have been routed by the national army, who are backed by a 3,000-strong special U.N. intervention brigade.

"For some strange reason the delegation of the DRC government did not enter the conference room, where the signing ceremony was expected to be," Opondo told reporters.

"They belatedly called for revision of the terms of the agreement and we have adjourned consequently."

However, DR Congo government spokesman Lambert Mende said the problem was the title of the deal to be signed, and the legal weight it therefore carried.

"We want to sign a 'declaration', but the mediator, for a reason we do not understand, wants to impose an 'accord' upon us," Mende said.

"If he changed his mind, even tonight, we could sign."

Allegedly supported by neighboring Rwanda and Uganda but seemingly abandoned by their sponsors due to international pressure, the M23 announced last week that its 18-month insurgency was over.

Delegations from both Kinshasa's government and the rebels arrived Monday evening at Uganda's State House in Entebbe, a town close to Kampala on the shores of Lake Victoria, where the rebels had been expected to formalize the end of their rebellion in writing.

International observers, including from the United Nations and African Union, as well as from Belgium, Britain, France and Norway, also turned up to witness the deal, Opondo said.

With Kinshasa backing out, it is not immediately certain what will happen next.

However, the M23, a mainly ethnic-Tutsi force of mutineers from the Congolese army, have no military leverage left and little room for manoeuvre.

Lack of deal a disappointment

A key outstanding issue is the fate of about 1,500 M23 fighters who have crossed into Uganda and are languishing in camps along the border. Uganda has refused to hand them over to the DR Congo.

Around 100 more injured rebels have crossed to Rwanda.

Mende had said earlier the rebels would be dealt with "case by case". Many rank-and-file fighters were expected to be given the option to return to the Congolese army.

More complicated is the fate of some 100 M23 commanders. These include M23 leader Sultani Makenga, accused of participating in several massacres, mutilations, abductions and sexual violence, sometimes against children.

The failure -- for now, at least -- to sign a deal will disappoint many. The U.N. special envoy to the Great Lakes, Mary Robinson, told Agence France Presse that signing the accord would be "a very important step for peace".

She said after defeating M23, operations would follow to neutralize other rebel groups in a concerted effort to end one of Africa's most brutal and longest-running wars.

But even if a deal is signed, stabilizing eastern DR Congo will not be easy. Previous peace deals for the region have foundered because they were not implemented or did not address underlying problems.

Oxfam on Monday warned the "conflict is far from over", noting over 30 other armed groups operate in the region and civilians risk violence on a daily basis.

Human Rights Watch last week warned "numerous challenges remain", noting eastern DRC "has been beleaguered by abuses by other armed groups, as well as by the Congolese army."

Robinson said she believed Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni -- who deny backing the M23 -- were committed to an 11-nation regional peace agreement signed in February.

She said the priority would now shift to defeating the DR Congo-based Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), a descendant of Hutu extremist groups that carried out the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

Rwanda's minority Tutsi-led government views the FDLR as a major security threat. Dealing with the group is seen as crucial to addressing the neighboring country's concerns and preventing the emergence of yet another Rwandan-backed proxy.