KINSHASA (AlertNet) - The peace deal reached this week between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could pave the way for a resumption of relief operations to remote regions of eastern Congo, thwarted since war broke out 1998.

Five days of talks in Pretoria, South Africa, designed to bring an end to one of Africa's bloodiest conflicts, focused on security issues in the border zone between the two countries.

These included the withdrawal of Rwandan troops from the DRC and the disarming of Congolese-backed Hutu militias, responsible for the deaths of 800,000 Rwandan Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.

The details of the accord announced on Monday, however, will not be known until after DRC President Joseph Kabila and Rwandan President Paul Kagame have been briefed.

South African Deputy President Jacob Zuma, who hosted the talks, was optimistic the deal would hold. "There is no reason to doubt that the presidents will accept the agreement," he told reporters in Pretoria on Monday.

Yet the stalemate may not be over. The Congolese have pledged to disarm the Hutu rebels before, and reports from the occupied provinces suggest that Rwanda is far from relinquishing control.

The Rwandan-backed rebel movement Congolese Rally for Democracy (RCD) has introduced the Rwandan national anthem in eastern Congo, along with a Rwandan mobile telephone system and Rwandan currency.

Relief agencies have faced insurmountable difficulties in reaching rebel-controlled parts of the country, where civilians have endured terror, indiscriminate killings and mass rape.

FIVE MILLION DEATHS

According to AlertNet member Oxfam, about five million people have died in the Great Lakes region in the past decade from the indirect and direct effects of war, malnutrition, disease and violence.

The communications infrastructure has also suffered. The Congo River, the world’s fifth longest waterway, has been closed to commercial traffic for nearly four years, isolating communities along its banks and adding to the DRC’s economic crisis.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the average income has fallen by nearly $300 since 1985, to just 23 cents a day, making the DRC one of the poorest countries in the world.

Since March only four humanitarian boats, with U.N. escorts, have been able to enter rebel-controlled territory, carrying clothing, salt, sugar, fuel, soap, medicine and other emergency items.

Commercial activity on the river did not resume until two commercial barges, also accompanied by U.N. escorts, set out for the Lisala and Bumba last weekend.

The barges carried much-needed supplies, including logging equipment, spare parts for cars, motor oil, fuel and tyres.

They will return with timber for export and agricultural products, such as corn, palm oil and coffee, for Kinshasa’s vulnerable population.

The United Nations, which estimates there are 40,000 displaced people in Kinshasa and 15,000 children living on the city’s street, last week warned of food insecurity among the poorest residents of the capital.

"I am content," Amos Namanga Ngongi, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan’s special envoy to the DRC, told AlertNet, referring to the launch of the barges.

The RCD has yet to allow civilian and commercial river traffic into territory it controls, but Ngongi was hopeful that a convoy of commercial barges due to leave Kinshasa at the end of the month would get as far as Kisangani, where Rwandan-backed rebels of the RCD killed more than 100 people and dumped their mutilated bodies in the river.

SMALL PROBLEMS

"There are small problems to be solved," Ngongi said. "But we hope the next convoy will get there."

Last week U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson presented a report to the Security Council condemning the Kisangani massacre and placing the blame squarely on the shoulders of the RCD.

The RCD rejected the findings and has launched its own investigation.

The U.N. mission to the DRC, known by its French acronym MONUC, has been actively involved in humanitarian relief efforts since it arrived in 1999. Last year MONUC contributed about $1 million to "quick-impact projects" such as repairing bridges and schools.

This week it announced it would participate in the rehabilitation of Kinshasa’s main hospital, the former Mama Yemo Hospital, named after the mother of former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko.

MONUC has pressed for the relevant parties to reopen the Congo River, which it believes is the key to jump-starting the Congolese economy.

The reintroduction of commercial barges bound for Lisala and Bumba required the cooperation of the central government and one of the main rebel groups, the Ugandan-backed Congolese Liberation Movement (MLC), which signed a power-sharing agreement with Kabila in April.

"The reopening of the river symbolises reunification," said Vincent de Paul Lunda Bululu, a former MLC rebel leader who served as prime minister under Mobutu. Speaking at a gathering to celebrate the occasion, Lunda Bululu also expressed the MLCs commitment "to open a new era for the total reunification of the Congolese territory".

Local officials hailed the reopening as tangible progress toward the revival of the devastated Congolese economy.

"This is more than symbolic," MONUCs spokesman in Kinshasa told AlertNet. "It represents solidarity instead of separation."

In addition to reviving the economy, MONUCs spokesman said, "the reopening will reunite families who haven’t seen each other in four years".