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Africa's Great Lakes Leaders to Sign Pact to Stabilize Region
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http://enews.voanews.com/t?r=279&c=742972&l=1009&ctl=154E6FE:A6F02AD83191E16043F74D60815D13199574F7DCC14957C0 Pact consists of
number of protocols, funds, and programs to address security,
governance, economic development, and social issues among 11 countries
Heads of state and other representatives from 11 African countries are
gathering in Kenya's capital this week for their Great Lakes
conference. The leaders are expected to sign a pact that sets out
plans to increase security, stability, and development in the area.
Cathy Majtenyi reports for VOA from Nairobi.







Ibrahima Fall, special representative of UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan for Africa's Great Lakes region, talks to media 13 Dec 2006 The
pact consists of a number of protocols, funds, and programs to address
security, governance, economic development, and social issues among
the 11 countries.

It is based in part on a declaration that the leaders of Angola,
Burundi, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania,
Uganda and Zambia signed at their first summit in November 2004.

Among other things, the declaration states that conflicts and
persistent insecurity in the Great Lakes region have many causes:
poverty, suspicion between governments, massive human rights
violations, gender inequality, war crimes, small arms trafficking.

To that end, the leaders agreed to work together to tackle these
problems. Conference spokesman George Ola-Davies explains.

"Every country has got its own particularity. Every country has got
its own needs, and they have all come here with what is paramount for
them," he said. "But when you look at the whole map itself, you will
tell yourself that what they're looking for is stability. So, how can
we get that stability?"

The end result, says Ola-Davies, is a number of regional projects and
initiatives to increase security, stability, and development in the
area. 

These include: a Regional Center for the Promotion of Democracy, Good
Governance, Human Rights, and Civic Education; a 900-kilometer-long
railway system that would link countries in the region; and a regional
protocol that would punish acts of sexual violence against women and
children during war and peace time.

Planning for the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region
began in earnest in 2000, when the United Nations Security Council
passed two resolutions calling for a conference on peace, security,
democracy, and development in the region.

African countries were urged to take the lead themselves in tackling
the region's problems. Twenty-seven donor countries and the European
Union are supporting their efforts.

The Great Lakes region has been plagued by violence, most notably the
Rwandan genocide of 1994 in which some 800,000 people were killed.
Long-standing civil wars in Democratic Republic of Congo and northern
Uganda have also caused much suffering.

Countries of the Great Lakes region are among the poorest in the
world. According to conference statistics, the average gross national
income per capita in 2005 for the 11 countries was $485.

 


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