African leaders sign Great Lakes peace pact
By Andrew Quinn
DAR ES SALAAM, Nov 20 (Reuters) – African leaders have signed a U.N.-backed peace framework for the Great Lakes region, but quickly admitted it might be difficult to implement amid ethnic violence, poverty and political mistrust.
Leaders from 11 Great Lakes countries, including Rwanda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo, signed the agreement on Saturday and pledged to end genocide, war, hunger and disease that have killed 3 million over more than a decade.
“No one has got everything they wanted from this process, but everyone has got what they need — a real chance for peace, stability, democracy and development in a vast region,” U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at a signing ceremony.
The Dar es Salaam Declaration pledges countries to confidence-building measures, including efforts to disarm rebel groups, stop arms flows and cooperate on resolving the plight of millions of refugees.
While the deal is seen as an important political step, the hard work of developing implementation and verification programmes has been left to a committee of ministers who are due to report back to a second summit next year.
Many officials in Dar es Salaam agreed that this could be difficult.
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” host President Benjamin Mkapa said at the closing ceremony. “We have placed our credibility and integrity on the line. We will only be believed and respected for our actions.”
TENSIONS EVIDENT
Signs of tension were already evident among some participants in the process. Diplomats said Rwanda, which accuses Congo of failing to control rebel groups along their border, had raised concerns over verification.
“(Rwandan) President (Paul) Kagame had some doubts. He said the discussion may be again a piece of paper,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, the EU representative at the talks.
International watchdog Human Rights Watch issued a report accusing local government officials in eastern Congo of supplying guns to civilians despite a United Nations embargo, raising the risk of new ethnic violence.
“Guns and ethnic hatred make for a catastrophic mix,” Alison Des Forges, senior adviser to Human Rights Watch’s Africa Division, said in a statement.
The Great Lakes has been in turmoil for more than a decade. An estimated 800,000 people were killed in Rwanda’s genocide and countless more in a series of wars and counter-wars that followed it.
Congo, seen by many analysts as the linchpin of any lasting Great Lakes peace, is now ruled by a fragile government feeling its way toward democratic elections scheduled for next year, as is neighbouring Burundi, coming out of its own long civil war.
Annan was put on the defensive on Friday when he was forced to acknowledge evidence of sexual abuse by U.N. peacekeepers in Congo, calling it a “shameful thing” for the world body.
Officials said the Great Lakes plan marked yet another step toward stability for Africa, following close on an agreement reached on Friday between Sudan’s government and southern rebels aiming for a peace deal in that country by the end of year.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, the current head of the 53-member African Union, said all moves toward peace — no matter how preliminary — were signs the continent was pulling itself together.
“In Africa, every little bit helps,” Obasanjo said.