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GOMA, DR Congo-Armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo's eastern Nord-Kivu province were ready Monday to sign a ceasefire and troop withdrawal deal, their representatives and government officials said.An "act of engagement" was submitted to representatives of the armed groups by the chairman of a peace conference in Goma, Roman Catholic priest Apollinaire Malu Malu, and National Assembly speaker Vital Kamerhe.They met the belligerent parties on Monday morning. The announcement came after more than two weeks of talks in the capital of Nord-Kivu aimed at ending fighting in eastern DR Congo between the army and several armed movements, which has forced 800,000 people from their homes.The belligerents were reading over a ceasefire and withdrawal document after Malu Malu said the conference, due to close on Monday, would need a further day to iron out remaining problems.Before heading into separate sessions, delegates from renegade general Laurent Nkunda's movement and from some of the tribes who form the region's Mai-Mai warrior forces told AFP they would be prepared to sign the text.It provides for an immediate ceasefire among all belligerents, the phased withdrawal of their armed forces on the ground in Nord-Kivu, and the creation of buffer zones monitored by UN peacekeeping troops.The text, along with conference recommendations, might even be approved later Monday and signed Tuesday during the official closing ceremony, a member of the conference bureau said.Recent fighting has pitted the army against renegade troops serving Nkunda, a Congolese Tutsi, but armed Rwandan Hutus and Mai-Mai warriors from east Congolese tribes are also involved in the conflict.In all, more than a million people have been displaced in both Nord- and Sud-Kivu provinces, but the ceasefire text, made available to AFP, covers conflict zones in Nord-Kivu province, the most troubled.Its content sums up the aims of the Goma talks that started on January 6 and brought more than 1,000 military, political and civilian delegates from the two provinces: "peace, security and lasting development".President Joseph Kabila is in Goma to follow proceedings and the new chief of MONUC, the largest UN peacekeeping mission in the world, Alan Doss, last week stressed the importance of the talks in the town on the Rwandan border.The ceasefire text said all parties must abstain from "troop movements" and "occupying new positions" and "resupplying in arms and ammunition". It also calls for a technical commission to be set up with international help to map out the "disengagement zones".Monday's developments followed clashes in which authorities in two districts northwest of Goma said men from Nkunda's politico-military National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) massacred more than 40 villagers. The CNDP blamed the Mai-Mai.MONUC, which has deployed 4,500 of its 17,000 troops in Nord-Kivu, sent a patrol to "determine what has happened", UN spokesman Major Prem Tiwari said Saturday.Nkunda is based in Nord-Kivu highlands and is wanted by Kinshasa for war crimes. He says he is protecting Congolese Tutsis in the east. The Mai-Mai have so far refused to disarm until the CNDP does.Nkunda is also opposed to the Rwandan Hutus in the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR). It set up in eastern DR Congo in 1994 after a mainly Tutsi rebel force took power in Rwanda and ended the genocide there.Congolese participants at the Goma meeting want these people repatriated to Rwanda, though many have settled in fertile parts of Kivu and played no part in the mass slaughter of almost 14 years ago.The draft text provided for the repatriation of foreign fighters and an amnesty for "acts of war and insurrection", excluding war crimes and crimes against humanity.The belligerents would also have to meet a key demand of relief agencies, which is "strict observance of humanitarian rights."Meanwhile the UN-sponsored Okapi radio reported Monday that unknown assailants had hacked to death four people in the village of Luizo in Nord-Kivu. Sunday's attack happened in Masisi territory 70 kilometres (45 miles) northwest of Goma.As in the days of Noah....
