On Saturday, 15 African leaders signed the so-called Dar-es-Salaam declaration committing them to contribute to create and maintain peace in the Great Lakes region, one of the most wartorn parts of the world. (22-NOV-04)
Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan was among those present when the 15 African leaders signed the decdlaration at the end of a two-day meeting in the Tanzaniancapital Dar-es-Salaam. “We, the African leaders, have agreed to commit ourselves to peace and development in our own continent. Never ever again will we permit another despot or another tyranny in Africa, the leader of the African Union, Nigeria´s President Olesegun Obasanjo declared.
Mixed feelings
While sceptics suspect that this new declaration will prove to contain nothing more than big, but empty words, the optimists and enthusiasts hope that this will prove to be a watershed for the security situation and thus for development and prosperity in the entire Great Lakes region.
Conflicts continue
In the last decade, millions of people have lost their lives to conflicts, war and outright genocide in countries like Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda. The unrest began with the genocide of tutsis in Rwanda a little more than ten years ago and has since spread to a number of neighbouring countries. Even last week, reports from DR Congo said that civilians in the Eastern parts of the country had been given weapons and that the atmosphere between different ethnic groups was incredibly tense. Only three months ago, 160 tutsies were massacred in a UN managed refugee camp in Burundi.
Source: NTB/ Vårt Land, Norway.
