UN hails startup of security pact in Africa

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-06-25 20:04

NAIROBI -- The United Nations has welcomed the entry into force of the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes Region after its ratification by eight African countries.

The pact entered into force last Saturday after achieving the necessary number of ratifications from among the 11 core countries of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region(ICGLR).

Under the treaty, the countries commit themselves to tackling the underlying causes of the many conflicts that have raged in the Great Lakes region in recent decades and to deal with key security, governance, development, humanitarian and social issues from a regional perspective.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in a statement received here Wednesday that the ICGLR will, by prioritizing results on the ground, send a strong signal to the international community of its determination to turn the ideas of the Pact into concrete achievements.

He added that the UN, which has supported the Bujumbura-based ICGLR for many years, remained committed to helping implementing the Pact.

The eight countries which have ratified the accord are Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), Kenya, the Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. The other core members of the ICGLR are Angola, Sudan and Zambia.

The first ICGLR summit to be held after the Pact's entry into force will be staged in Kinshasa in mid-December.

The 2006 landmark polls in DR Congo, the election of a post- civil war government in Burundi and economic growth and reconstruction in Rwanda have raised hopes in Africa's Great Lakes nations.

Despite the democratic gains, the African leaders have cautioned there is much to be done to safeguard peace and stability in the region, which has been mired in conflict, poverty and ethnic tensions since Rwanda's 1994 genocide.

The pact included a 225 million US dollars security action plan to disarm a host of rebel groups, mostly in the lawless jungles of eastern DR Congo, and rampaging nomadic warriors on the arid borders of Sudan, Kenya and Uganda.

The Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the Great Lakes region includes 33 concrete and achievable projects in the fields of peace and security, democracy and good governance, economic development and regional integration, and humanitarian and social issues.

It also has ten protocols that will establish a new legal framework among the member states. The projects will be financed by an African Development Bank-managed fund, made up of mandatory contributions from member states and voluntary payments from donors.