Home | China | World | Business Key Events in Troubled DRC Since 1997 MON, FEB 25, 2002     The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a vast central African country with immense natural resources, is currently in the midst of a civil war. The current troubles in the DRC were derived from a rift between the late president Laurent Kabila and his former allies. Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe took Kabila's side against the rebels supported by Rwanda and Uganda, turning the country into a vast battleground. Laurent Kabila was assassinated in January 2001. The following is a chronology of the war-torn central African country. 1997 May: Tutsi and other anti-Mobutu rebels, supported principally by Rwanda, capture the capital Kinshasa; Zaire is renamed the Democratic Republic of the Congo; Laurent Kabila is installed as president. 1998 August: Rebel forces, backed by Rwanda and Uganda, advance towards Kinshasa; the intervention of troops from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Angola turns the tide and the rebels are pushed back. October: Rebels capture the government stronghold of Kindu in the east as more peace talks break down, this time in the Zambian capital Lusaka. 1999 February: Rebels launch a major new offensive on three fronts in the north and the southeast as refugees flee the fighting. April: Kabila holds peace talks with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in Libya. August: All rebel groups sign a peace agreement in the Zambian capital Lusaka. October: Amid allegations of ceasefire violations, rebel groupsturn down an invitation from President Laurent Kabila to take partin a national dialogue on reconciliation. December: The Organization of African Unity appoints former Botswana president Ketumile Masire as facilitator of Inter-Congolese Dialogue to push forward peace process. 2000 February: Ethnic fighting erupts between communities in the rebel-held eastern DRC. Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council authorizes a 5,500-strong UN force to monitor the ceasefire. August: Leaders of the countries involved in the Congolese civil war - Rwanda, Uganda, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe - as wellas President Kabila meet in Lusaka to assess implementation of theprevious year's peace agreement. Kabila rejects Ketumile Masire aspeace talk facilitator and peace summit breaks down. December: The UN urges Rwanda and Uganda to stop their offensives and withdraw troops from the DRC. 2001 January 9: The Zambian government confirms that some 300 Congolese soldiers held in camps in Zambia have been sent back to the DRC. The troops fled into Zambia following an upsurge of fighting with Rwandan-backed rebels in the border area in December. January 16: President Laurent Kabila is assassinated by his bodyguard in Kinshasa. January 26: Joseph Kabila, son of Laurent Kabila, is sworn in as new president and promises to revive the Lusaka peace agreement. January 31: Joseph Kabila visits France en route to the United States, telling President Jacques Chirac that he is ready for talks with the rebels without preconditions. February 1: Kabila meets Rwandan President Paul Kagame, a key backer of the rebels in the DRC, in Washington. February 3: Kabila urges all warring sides in the DRC to hold round-table peace talks with him. Addressing a meeting of the UN Security Council, he calls for a precise timetable for the deployment of UN troops in the DRC and the withdrawal of foreign troops from there. February 28: Uganda and Rwanda begin pulling troops back from the DRC frontline as a goodwill gesture towards the peace process. March: The UN observer mission deploys its first troops in Goma,capital city of the rebel-controlled Nord-Kivu province. April 3: Zimbabwean troops begin withdrawing from the DRC afteralmost three years of fighting alongside government troops. April 20: UN troops are deployed in Kisangani, capital city of the rebel-held Orientale province. May: President Joseph Kabila lifts ban on all parties that werein operation under former President Mobuto Sese Seko. September: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan visits the DRC. October: A new round of peace talks, the Inter-Congolese Dialogue, in Addis Ababa breaks down. November: UN panel of experts restates its assertion earlier in the year that the warring parties are deliberately prolonging the conflict to plunder gold, diamonds, timber and cobalt. December: Kabila announces that 2002 will see "peace and reunification". 2002 January: Decades of people are killed in a violent volcanic eruption near the town of Goma. February 12: A UN plane is hit by machine gun as it lands in the rebel-held town of Kindu. February 16: Tribal violence near Bunia kills 100. February 20: UN says Zimbabwe has withdrawn 140 troops from the DRC. Editor:Zhong Source:Xinhua Recommend to your friend email:    China Central Television,All Rights Reserved