AFRICA/TANZANIA - Great Lakes Summit participants sign declaration of commitment to work for “A region of lasting peace and security”. Catholic Bishops of Tanzania urge them to take the “path of dialogue”

Saturday, 20 November 2004

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Dar es Salaam (Agenzia Fides)- - Transform the Great Lakes region in an “area of lasting peace and security” was the goal established today 20 November by African heads of state taking part in the first International Conference on the Great Lakes Region held in Dar es-Salaam who signed a common statement of commitment to promote peace in the region. In the declaration the statesmen promise to promote peace, social and political stability, shared growth and development. The declaration was also signed by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and by Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo, as President of the African Union.
The UN Secretary General called on the heads of state to work to make their declaration lead to “agreement for global peace” in this region, one of the most unstable in Africa .
The Conference of Catholic Bishops of Tanzania sent the Conference participants a message “The path to peace and security, good governance and development in the Great Lakes region”. On the basis of 10 years of apostolate among refugees in the region ( Tanzania hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees from Burundi, Rwanda and Democratic Congo), the Bishops called for “respect for the rights and dignity of all men and women, citizens and refugees, without distinction of ethnic or regional origin, or social/economic situation”. The Bishops launch an appeal for “dialogue, negotiations and peaceful compromise instead of armed conflict to solve disputes”.
The next Conference on the Great Lakes region, planned for June 2005 in Nairobi, will discuss the application of the Dar El-Salaam declaration and prepare a Pact between the countries of the region.
The summit which closed today brought together Presidents Thabo Mbeki (South Africa), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), Domitien Ndayizeye (Burundi), Joseph Kabila (Democratic Congo, RDC), Denis Sassou Nguesso (Republic of Congo), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Francois Bozize' (Central African Republic), Mwai Kibaki (Kenya), Omar el-Bechir (Sudan), Bingu Wa Mathurika
(Malawi), Joaquim Chissano (Mozambique), Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe) and Levy Mwanawasa (Zambia) and as their guest President of Tanzania Benjamin Mkapa. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 20/11/2004 righe 36 parole 401)